Find the midline and reference points
Mark the facial midline (philtrum, nose tip, chin), the peaks of the cupid's bow, the low point of the bow, the commissures, and the fullest point of the lower lip. A piece of thread or callipers checks left-against-right distances; the client's own asymmetry is respected, not 'fixed' wholesale.
Draw the shape
With a sharp cosmetic pencil, draw the proposed border — usually right on the natural line, occasionally a hair outside it where the border has flattened, never a dramatic enlargement. Step back, check in a hand mirror with the client sitting up, adjust, and only proceed when they say yes to what they see.
Outline pass
Modern outlining is minimal: a fine 1RL or 3RL used to place a soft, often dotted definition along the pencil line, or in some methods no continuous outline at all — the shape is established by where shading density starts and stops. The aim is that a healed lip has no findable 'edge'.
Why mapping is half the job
Pigment is hard to remove. Ten extra minutes on symmetry and sign-off prevents the situation where colour is already in and the client says 'the left looks bigger'.
