Comics and closed lips

While writing the last post, I came circling around comics a bit more than usual. Then it hit me pretty square in the face, one of the things I bitch at people who are drawing comics for me or with me the most is their lips. Ok, a close second to proportions.

If a character says something, the lips should be open. Unless it’s “hmm” or “mmm” or something equally audible with closed lips, they should be open, just like when you talk. Since they are comics, you can also use this not only as expression “this one is talking” but depending on how it’s made, also of how the character is talking. Like thin opening says usually a light voice, or quiet. If its only a corner open, they say it to someone on the side, not meant to be heard to everyone else. Mouth wide open is yelling. Please don’t just open the mouths wide all the time, I have enough yelling going on already.

At the same time the talking also can be enhanced for mood. Sad or happy face saying, or yelling something look different.

Since my number one gripe is proportions, this also plays an effect. Our brains are wired for pattern recognition (proportion is a pattern). So we recognize patterns on faces. When someone is smiling, but their eyes don’t lift, they are either not genuine (the creepy sales rep face) or they have some botox in the wrong places. But if the whole face smiles, we suddenly feel the difference. So if the mouth is neutral but the rest is “happy” this just looks wrong.

The main concern though should be consistency. If your characters always talk with mouths open, keep it that way, don’t mix and match or your readers get that wrong feeling again.

An exception exists of course, which means you can use it as a style tool for example if someone has an extremely large or stupid grin on their face (the chibi smiles in anime for example). But use them sparingly and for exact effects.