{"id":511956,"date":"2026-05-31T17:20:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T17:20:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/511956\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T17:20:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T17:20:17","slug":"drawing-mouths-not-saying-the-right-words-the-daily-cartoonist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/511956\/","title":{"rendered":"Drawing Mouths, Not Saying the Right Words \u2013 The Daily Cartoonist"},"content":{"rendered":"

Skip to comments<\/a><\/p>\n

Each week my ADHD brain finds some comic-related things on social media that must be chased down. There were several this week. Due to scheduling conflicts with some top-tier subject matter experts, I had to push two topics to next week. This week we chase two rabbits: how do artists draw character\u2019s mouths based on the dialogue in the script, and I try to be very nice when discussing Pedro \u201cnice as he seems\u201d Pascal\u2019s habit of omitting credit to the cartoonist who was very nice to him.<\/p>\n

Watch Your Mouth<\/p>\n

I came across a post on Bluesky from Evan Dorkin<\/a><\/strong> opining on drawing a character\u2019s mouth when speaking dialogue<\/a>. He wrote\u2026<\/p>\n

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When I say characters\u2019 mouths should be drawn open more often when speaking dialogue I want to make two things clear. One, it\u2019s my opinion. Two, I\u2019m not saying it means drawing exaggerated expressions like I tend to do. Every style has a \u201cmouth range\u201d. IMO closed mouth in almost every panel is DOA.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That prompted Jamie McKelvie<\/a><\/strong> to post\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n

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I try to draw specific syllables from the dialogue \u2013 not sure if anyone but me notices though.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"\"(My brain\u2019s response)<\/p>\n

to which Chris Schweizer<\/a><\/strong> chimed in\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n

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Depending on balloon placement (i.e. whether it\u2019s gonna be read before you see the face or after) I\u2019ll specifically correlate it with first or last syllable, IF that syllable creates a specific mouth shape (many don\u2019t, any open mouth is fine, but EE, OO, AH, etc require specific shapes).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"\"(My brain\u2019s response)<\/p>\n

From my own experience, I\u2019ve always drawn a speaker\u2019s mouth open, but drawing the mouth\u2019s shape to conform to specific syllables? That was definitely not in the comic strip or editorial cartooning manual when I cut my teeth. I tried to do a quantitative loosy-goosy scientific analysis to find what cartoonists do with their mouths\u2014on paper. I selected five random comics from the following platforms: Comics Kingdom, GoComics, Webtoons, Marvel (free issues), and Hoopla and tried to sort out the different approaches to giving characters a voice.<\/p>\n

Findings<\/p>\n

Generally speaking most artists\u2019 approach fell into four categories with a fifth outlier\u2014a pandemic era Marvel comic saluting first responders and the medical community. All of the characters in that comic were wearing face masks or personal protective equipment. The only character with a visible mouth was an unfortunate covid victim gasping for air. It was a very well drawn pantomime of a person suffocating for whatever that\u2019s worth. Here\u2019s the general categories rounded to nearest whole number:<\/p>\n