How to paint lips using oil colours
Facial features are difficult to recreate, especially when working with oil colours. In this step-by-step plan, artist Zarina Situmorang (@zarinasart on Instagram) shows us how she builds a mouth using Cobra oil colours.
“Today we’ll be painting lips together! They will have a soft pastel look. It means that we don’t need saturated colours and high contrasts.” Let’s begin!
What you need
- Cobra Artist Oil Colour Titanium White (#105)
- Cobra Artist Oil Colour Ivory Black (#701)
- Cobra Artist Oil Colour Burnt Umber (#409)
- Cobra Artist Oil Colour Yellow Ochre (#227)
- Cobra Artist Oil Colour Cadmium Red Medium (#314)
- Round (#1 and #2) and flat (#7) synthetic brushes
- Tear-off palette
Tips
I usually divide the process of the painting into three stages:
- The base. This part is pretty sloppy. I try out different colours, see how they work together and add some variety.
- The transition. Once I’m happy with the result of the previous step, I proceed to mix and add the transitional colours in between the existing colours.
- The blending. This is where I create smooth lines between the colours I have already applied. I use an old fluffy brush to do that.
Step 1
Create some mixes of different skin tones and shadow shades on your palette using the colours pictured.
Step 2
Paint the outline of the lips. I did this using a diluted brown colour.
Step 3
Start with the skin around the lips. This area will act as a background and will help us decide what colours to use on the lips themselves.
Step 4
Time to fill in the lips! I’ve added some red paint to our base mixes to create these pink colours.
Step 5
Add your transition colours and blend them together with the existing colours.
Step 6
To provide some texture, add a few bold brush strokes. I also changed the colour of the middle line of the lip so it is much redder than before.
And our lips are done! I hope you liked this lesson. Don’t forget to share your results using #cobraoilpaint!
This wonderful step-by-step plan was made for Cobra by Zarina Situmorang (@zarinasart on Instagram).
