Load a small #1 or #2 liner brush with pale purple thinned with a few drops of water. Lay the tip of the liner into the indent around the eyes, let the side of the brush touch the carved ridge. Pull the liner brush around the indent area to fill it with the purple paint. Any color that goes beyond the eye ridge can be washed away with a damp shader because that color is on a polished paint surface.
SECRET – When I am painting along a cut ridge area I do not use the brush tip, I use the belly or side of the brush.
If I try and paint a smooth line in a ridge or v-trough area using the tip, that tip will skip over the line. I end up with some color outside of the area I am painting.
Mix an equal amount of crimson red with titanium white to create an intense pink. Using your brush handle make two small dots of pink at the center of the upper lip (lost photo). Use the liner brush to pull the excess paint from these dots to the corner of the mouth. Paint the bottom lip with pink and your liner brush.
Use a small flat shader to fill the inside of the mouth with pink. Load the shader with paint, place it inside and on the wood of the mouth, then pull the shader straight out from the mouth.
Whenever I pick up the brush from the palette it is in a loose grip. When I go to the wood I put that small finger somewhere on the carving. I can now adjust how far my brush tip is from the wood by bending the small finger … it becomes the secure point to the moving pencil point of a compass, its just that this compass is created with my hand position and my brush tip.
Using your small finger also gets rid of the shakes that can distort or throw off a painted line. If your hand is free floating and shaking of your hand goes right to the brush tip. If your hand is anchored with the small finger those shakes are absorbed by the hand and do not transfer to your brush tip.
If I can’t get my finger onto the wood because of where I need to paint I can brace it on my holding hand.