tips for teeth

A common problem beginners have with teeth, is drawing each one individually. If you think of teeth as a mass, they become easier to draw and more believable to look at.

Often times we don't even see the outline of each tooth but the shape of the teeth as a whole. Our mind just convinces us that the outline is there or more prominent than it is because we know that each tooth is actually an individual.

At first glance this mouth below may look overwhelming. You may see lines between each tooth and try to draw them all in. Drawing in everything in front of you doesn't make it more convincing, in fact it often has the opposite affect. When we look at someone we are unable to take in all the details in one glance, therefore when we leave out some details it actually becomes a more convincing illusion to our minds. Seeing shapes is a more important part of drawing. Just drawing the suggestion of each tooth is enough for our minds to fill in the blanks. Sometimes less is more

Also although you may see the lines between the teeth, the value of those lines is, more often than not, very light. *Therefore in order to put them into your drawing you'd need to draw all of the other darker details that you see before them. Since this is a unnecessary and time consuming task, you would leave out the lightest details, and let peoples minds fill them in themselves

*For example, compare the darkness of the lines in the teeth to the darkness in the rest of the photo. It's not as dark as the inside of the mouth for sure. But look at everything else around them. The lines in the white teeth are quite light when compared to the darkness of the lips, skin, etc.

example;

If you proceed in drawing each tooth as an individual, the result you usually get is a bunch of mismatched unrealistic looking teeth.

When you draw the teeth as a whole you will get a much more pleasing effect.

If you work them all as one shape , and then break them down into smaller and smaller shapes you develop a more pleasing effect, which is also easier to draw.

Remember not to go overboard with the details.

Here are a few examples of teeth from my own drawings. Notice how I suggest the teeth rather than overwhelming people with them.

This mouth had more definition in the teeth. I still worked them as a whole and tried to hold back from putting in too much information. The side teeth which were more in shadow got a little more detail but it is mostly done with shading and not hard lines.

Also remember by putting in the darker values around the teeth, we are creating the teeth by using negative space.

This mouth required just the suggestion of teeth. Look for the shapes and values( lights and darks) in a case like this . It will give you the information you need.

If you look close at the teeth you may see they don't look much like teeth at all. But somehow it works. So just draw what you see. The viewer's mind's will fill in the rest.