Page:Drawing for Beginners.djvu/96

 curve of the cheek will help to accentuate the smile, and the groove running downward from the nose to the mouth expands over the teeth.

When drawing the mouth in profile we must of necessity ask some kind person to pose.

Try first drawing the mouth closed, then open.

Closed, the mouth is a curious little triangle. We at once notice that the upper lip extends slightly beyond thee under lip; we notice, too, the depth of the upper lip and the more sharply decided line as compared with the rounded under lip. We must look for shadows, and mark the opening of the mouth, and anything that will help to explain the corners of the mouth, for these are exceedingly expressive, and change with baffling quickness.

Now look in your glass once more.

Throw up your head, and your mouth follows the curve of your face, forming a semicircle. You see under the under lip, do you not? And the upper lip rises in a very distinct and accurate curve.

Now ask your friend to bend the head downward.

Do we not get the position reversed? The curve of the lips is now thrown down, the centre points downward, the corners curl upward.

And this we offer as a really sound piece of advice. When you wish to study faces do not draw a stolidly staring, bored countenance, but ask the friend who is 'sitting' to scowl, or smile, to look pleased, or disgusted. It is infinitely easier to study features in motion than when set firm as if moulded in wax.

Our little friends Mr Sad and Mr Glad, whom we are so fond of tracing on the margin of our books, have a good deal to commend their honest countenances. They have the lines of laughing and crying faces crudely expressed. With chin upraised and eye twinkling, cheeks pushed up in dimpling curves, and nostrils and lips curled upward&mdash;behold Mr Glad!

And, when we cry, do not our lips curve down in unutterable woe, dragging our cheeks in straight lines from our