HOWTO Quickly Paint Mouths, Maws, & Teeth

Here is the quick technique I’ve developed for painting mouths and teeth at the tabletop miniature level of detail. First, mouths are very pink. I like this “baby pink” color, but you can pick any shade of pink that looks good to you. Paint the entire inside of the mouth, possibly even getting a small line around the outside depending upon the type of monster or mouth you are painting. I sometimes do this BEFORE laying down the base color of the rest of the face or body, as mouth interiors are usually one of the deepest parts of the model.

Then, water down some bright red paint (I like this “cherry cobbler” color)

Wash a smaller area inside the mouth with it, leaving pink around the edges.

Boom, now you have a mouth! Sometimes the pink outside even suggests lips.

This color scheme of a pink base coat followed by a cherry red wash also mostly works for tongues, but you might want to also add some purple to the underside for the shadows and to to hint at veins in the tongue.

If the model has small teeth as part of the sculpt, you can pick them out with white, and even if it doesn’t, you can dab a few white dots in a line to give the appearance of teeth.

If the model has larger sculpted teeth, you probably want to use two or even three different colors when painting them. I like working from the base of the tooth near the gum which is dark and grimy out to the tips, which is polished and bright.

I use a “vintage white” for the main body of the teeth. I’ll mix in a very small hint of yellow and brown for the base of the teeth to suggest plaque or decay. Then I’ll use either pure white, or even a metallic white pearl for the tips.

The easy method is to let each color dry before starting the next color about 1/3 farther out the tooth, but you could also do a little wet blending if the teeth are larger. I hope you find this technique useful for your models!