Vector 101 - Lips by Antoinette

Requirements for this tutorial:

Adobe Photoshop; A photo of high quality of your choice; tip: women are easier (more details)

Familiarize yourself with the terminology used in Eyes 101; I will not go over the basic vectoring steps again. Please see that tutorial to learn those.

Lets begin!

These lips are broken into seperate places of color and higlights. I have them broken down as I see them. If you woud like to get more detalied (more colors) or less detailed (less colors) at anytime, feel free.

1. The main part of the lip. This will be your solid, bold color. You will build all layers above this layer.

2. The dark part of the mouth. It is literally the inside of the mouth, you will add this after you have built the lips and teeth. This tutorial teaches you to make it black, thats personal preferance.

3. The Upper lip. It is almost always a different color then the bottom lip.

4. The Highlight/Shine of the lips. *Created by the glare from the camera's flash*

5. The Front teeth. (Notice how light they are; stick with white #FFFFFF when vectoring teeth. Its just more attractive.)

6. The Back teeth. (Notice how dark they are, choose white #FFFFFF, then find a few shades darker, with out going yellow)

+Create a solid outline of the lips. (rember to choose a color using the eye dropper.) Cover the teeth, and outlie both the upper and lower lips.

+Hide the previous layer. Outline another shape of the lips. Make them smaller then the previous layer. Once again, cover the teeth.

+Hide the layers. Create a new one and, outline the defined parts of the upper and lower lip, using an even lighter color then before.

+Repeat the same step as before, only use an even lighter color. You are creating the illusion of depth.

+Hide all the layers, and using white, outline the teeth, if you can see them. Use white for the front teeth, use a few shades darker for the back teeth.

+Create a layer *behind* the teeth layer. Make it black, or a dark color and have it go from the bottom of the top lip, to the top of the bottom lip. This is the inside of the mouth. If you are confused on where this came from, its #6 on the diagram at the begining of the tutorial.

+Making the teeth 3-d: Choose the color from the darker teeth to outline the front teeth. Do the same for the back teeth (choosing a darker color then the teeth are) The outline creates and illusion of a 3-d smile. (This step is optional if you are going for a 2-d look)

3-D	2-D

Adding speical effects:

Find a white brush online, or use one provided by photoshop. Paint a "glint" over the smile anywhere you want. I have two on here. One on the upper right corner, and one on the middle left side.