Mouths Are Scary

I have a confession to make about today's drawing: the mouth was the last thing I ended up drawing, and I was hoping I would run out of time before I got to it. Drawing mouths is a tricky thing - the teeth can end up too big, the lips too flat. I suppose noses are difficult for the same reasons. Deep down, I felt like I was doing a great job on the rest of the drawing and adding a mouth could ruin the entire thing. I had to remind myself: this is a sketchbook, this is an opportunity to learn, nothing in these pages is precious, everything is an idea and a learning experience.

China marker is great for a left-handed person like myself - it doesn't smudge or smear. Unfortunately, it also doesn't smooth out very well. This makes it difficult to create certain textures - or a lack thereof.