The Shape of a Mouth
How do similar teeth leave an expression unresolved?
Compare the shape of a mouth with its teeth, surrounding lines and colored ground. Individual teeth may remain distinct or join a larger band of marks. Follow changes in spacing, framing and jaw shape across different heads. A possible grin or grimace remains a reading to test against the rest of the drawing.
The Mouth as Structural Center
Four works where the open mouth is the feature that draws the eye first and organizes everything else around it — other marks read as secondary to that central gap.
NNOTB #200
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View & watch drawingA large red-rimmed tooth row dominates the lower face; white block teeth set against a dark gap compete with the spiral eye and crossing lines for first attention.
NNOTB #57
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View & watch drawingThree uneven eye-forms overhead, but the wide dark void between two tooth rows pulls the eye downward and holds it; the body mass and scribbled lines radiate outward from that opening.
NNOTB #202
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View & watch drawingA jaw-like form fills the entire canvas; the tooth row runs across the lower third while two circular eye zones above it read as secondary to the dominant open jaw.
nnxyz nnotb #200's mouth sits inside a circular head outline; here the mouth breaks past any single containing boundary, becoming the widest opening in the frame.
nnxyz nnotb #57 surrounds its mouth with a heavy body mass; nnxyz nnotb #202 strips that body away almost entirely, leaving the jaw and tooth row as the composition's primary event.
NNOTB #206
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View & watch drawingTwo stacked jaw forms — one crowned by a spiral eye, one packed with rounded tooth shapes — double the mouth motif; the composition is built from layered jaw shapes rather than a single face.
nnxyz nnotb #202 gives one jaw the whole canvas; nnxyz nnotb #206 stacks two jaw forms vertically, making the repetition of the jaw shape itself the subject.
Teeth Inside a Decorated Field
Five works where the mouth competes with dense borders, zigzag lines, and repeating ornamental marks — the tooth row present but carrying equal visual weight with its surroundings.
NNOTB #67
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View & watch drawingA marquee-like border of repeating ovals and rectangles frames the bared mouth and bulging eyes; the decoration and the teeth carry equal visual weight across the composition.
nnxyz nnotb #206's jaws push outward against a loose field; nnxyz nnotb #67 locks its mouth inside a tight geometric border that holds everything at the same pitch.
NNOTB #211
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View & watch drawingA hot coral field and spiked crown of orange-yellow ovals compete with the white tooth row; the mouth is one loud element among several rather than the sole focus.
NNOTB #269
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View & watch drawingZigzag tooth-like marks appear inside the rectangular eye zones as well as the mouth, spreading the tooth motif across the whole face structure simultaneously.
nnxyz nnotb #67's border is geometric and regular; nnxyz nnotb #211 replaces it with organic zigzags and radiating spikes that press against the mouth from all sides.
nnxyz nnotb #211's decoration stays outside the face features; nnxyz nnotb #269 folds the zigzag mark into the eye zones themselves, so teeth appear in multiple registers at once.
NNOTB #256
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View & watch drawingNested rectangular loops surround both the mouth and the eye zones; the tooth row sits inside layered red and orange rings that echo the concentric framing above it.
NNOTB #274
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View & watch drawingSpiky crown forms above each rectangular eye zone and a countable tooth row below distribute the decorative and the dental evenly across the whole face on an open blue field.
nnxyz nnotb #269 uses zigzag lines throughout; nnxyz nnotb #256 replaces the zigzag with concentric rectangular loops, giving the same density a more compressed, inward pull.
nnxyz nnotb #256's loops press inward on a black ground; nnxyz nnotb #274 opens onto a blue field where the same density of marks feels more exposed and frontal.
Grounds That Change the Reading
Six works where the background color — amber, yellow, blue, ochre-teal, or teal-green — alters how the mouth and teeth register against it, shifting the same tooth form each time.
NNOTB #267
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View & watch drawingA flat amber field holds the head steady while the red spiral eye and open bared teeth create competing focal points; the warm ground keeps neither from dominating.
nnxyz nnotb #274's blue field presses the face forward; nnxyz nnotb #267's amber ground holds the head at a slight distance, making the open mouth feel less frontal and more ambiguous.
NNOTB #287
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View & watch drawingAn open jaw and hollow eye sockets read as distress, but the acid-yellow ground and overlapping translucent circles push against that reading with something almost festive.
NNOTB #173
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View & watch drawingA flat bright blue field holds a face where heart and flower shapes stand in for eyes; the bared alternating teeth below sit in odd company with those softer eye forms.
nnxyz nnotb #267's amber is warm but neutral; nnxyz nnotb #287's yellow ground and bubble pattern create a direct visual argument with the skeletal jaw form above it.
nnxyz nnotb #287's ground fights its subject; nnxyz nnotb #173's blue field is calm enough that the contrast between the flower-eye and the tooth row reads as a quieter, stranger tension.
NNOTB #181
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View & watch drawingSaturated yellow pushes the central form forward; two red heart eye zones and a raw tooth row below create a compressed, contradictory surface on an advancing ground.
NNOTB #201
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View & watch drawingDense black loops over ochre and teal washes build a rounded head; the red-edged mouth bares a tight, narrow tooth row rather than a wide-open jaw, the mouth present but not gaping.
nnxyz nnotb #173's blue holds the face at a distance; nnxyz nnotb #181's yellow advances it, making the same heart-eye and tooth-row combination feel louder and more insistent.
nnxyz nnotb #181's yellow field is flat and advancing; nnxyz nnotb #201's layered ochre and teal washes give the ground depth, and the mouth closes slightly — teeth visible but contained.
NNOTB #207
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View & watch drawingA teal-green field surrounds a heavy circular form; warm reds and oranges inside contrast with the cool ground, and the spiked jaw with white zigzag verticals reads differently against that temperature shift.
nnxyz nnotb #201's ochre washes are warm throughout; nnxyz nnotb #207 splits warm interior from cool exterior, so the jaw and tooth marks read as heat pressing against a cooler surround.
Two Faces, One Field
Four works where a second face, eye, or mouth form shares the composition — the tooth row doubled or placed alongside another presence within the same picture boundary.
NNOTB #135
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View & watch drawingTwo face-like forms share a black field without merging: a ringed eye on the left, an open-mouthed form with visible teeth on the right — the gap between them as legible as either form.
nnxyz nnotb #207's single circular form sits alone in its field; nnxyz nnotb #135 places two distinct face-like structures side by side, making the space between them a third element.
NNOTB #270
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View & watch drawingTwo tooth-lined shapes appear within a single white-outlined oval, separated by a bold red-orange bar; the doubling is compressed inside one boundary rather than spread across the field.
NNOTB #300
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View & watch drawingA tilted head holds two yellow circular eye forms and several rows of teeth; the multiplication of tooth rows across warm color bands makes a single expression impossible to isolate.
nnxyz nnotb #135's two forms are spatially separate; nnxyz nnotb #270 folds two tooth rows inside one outline, so the doubling is harder to resolve into distinct voices.
nnxyz nnotb #270's doubled teeth sit inside a flat purple field; nnxyz nnotb #300 tilts the whole head and adds warm color bands, so the crowded tooth rows feel kinetic rather than static.
NNOTB #210
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View & watch drawingA circular form under pressure from lines pulling outward in every direction; the open lower section packed with white verticals reads as a shout caught mid-release.
nnxyz nnotb #300's tilted head is dense but contained; nnxyz nnotb #210 breaks the containing form open, with lines escaping outward and the tooth-like verticals exposed inside a dark cavity.
Layered Marks and the Unresolved Face
Four works where accumulated marks, scribbled lines, and color patches build up across the surface so densely that the mouth is the last feature to become readable, if it does at all.
NNOTB #262
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View & watch drawingA grinning yellow disc crossed by bars edged with teeth; the smile sits below crossed marks and above a heavy red field, making the grin and the threat coexist on the same surface.
nnxyz nnotb #210's form is circular and under outward pressure; nnxyz nnotb #262 is also a disc, but the pressure comes from crossed bars and a heavy red field pressing inward from below.
NNOTB #172
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View & watch drawingA swollen olive-green face fills the frame completely; crossed scribbles in acid yellow and cyan sit over the bulk without softening it, and the bared teeth read as confrontational rather than joyful.
NNOTB #236
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View & watch drawingTwo mismatched eyes — one gridded in yellow and black, one marked with a red X — give the face an off-balance stare; drips from above and the open-toothed mouth below pull the eye in opposite directions.
nnxyz nnotb #262's disc floats within its field; nnxyz nnotb #172's face fills the frame to every edge, removing any breathing room between the bared teeth and the viewer.
nnxyz nnotb #172's surface is dense but the face reads as symmetrical; nnxyz nnotb #236 introduces deliberate asymmetry between the two eye zones, so the face reads as unstable rather than merely loud.
NNOTB #160
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View & watch drawingDark layered color pools inside the form while bright scattered lines fly outward; the bared tooth row and goggle shapes read as raw alarm against a black field that offers no softening context.
nnxyz nnotb #236's gray ground gives the face some neutral space; nnxyz nnotb #160's black field removes it entirely, making the contrast between the dark core and the escaping bright lines feel abrupt.
One more look
Find two mouths with similar teeth. Which surrounding features change the way you read their expressions?