How To Draw An American Football Mouthguard | A Playful And Easy Guide

American football is a high-velocity collision sport that mandates protection for player health and safety. An American football mouthguard is a crucial piece of protective equipment designed to safeguard a player’s teeth, gums, and jaws during the intense physical contact inherent in the sport. These mouthguards are typically made of a pliable, thermoplastic material that molds to the shape of the player’s teeth and mouth, providing a custom fit.

The primary purpose of an American football mouthguard is to absorb and disperse impact energy, reducing the risk of dental injuries, such as chipped or broken teeth, and minimizing the chances of concussions resulting from impacts to the jaw. Additionally, mouth guards serve as a protective barrier against lip and soft tissue injuries. They are mandatory in organized football leagues at various levels to ensure player safety, and athletes often choose between ready-made, boil-and-bite, or custom-fitted mouthguards based on their preferences and needs.

What you will need

• Paper
• Pencil
• Eraser
• Colors
• 15 minutes 

How to Draw an American Football Mouthguard

The essentials for illustrating an American football mouthguard need only include paper, a simple pencil, and an eraser. This essential artistic equipment allows for gently building up the fundamental mouthguard form. As your skills progress, adding colored pencils or markers can bring vibrancy, too. But to start, focus on grabbing a sheet of paper, a sharpened pencil, and an eraser for corrections. We will dive into lightly penciling an introductory mouthguard with these drawing tools!

Step 1: Draw the outline

To set the foundation for our mouthguard drawing, we will lightly sketch out the simplified outer silhouette using only faint lines in the beginning. I recommend starting with an off-center broad “U” shape arc on your paper, avoiding pressing hard so we can revise the contours at any point. We want to be agile with our hands and tools at this early conceptual stage.

Angling the arc’s sides subtly outward into an overall trapezoidal silhouette will define the mouthguard’s edges along the gumline. Inside that “U” shape, judiciously add two smaller upper and lower barrier arcs, segmenting this protected sports equipment device and providing interior railing lines we can use as anchoring guides for more embroidered details to build upon.

Finally, draw one concluding straight line along the absolute bottom edge to contain the whole form we are shaping up. Think about actual mouthguard curvature and how it would feel sealed onto teeth with this aesthetic hand-drawn mimicry.

• Lightly sketch the outer “U” shape with outward-angled sides
• Add two shorter curved lines inside for upper and lower jaw areas
• Complete with a straight baseline at the bottom
• Keep lines simple and faint for easy editing

Step 2: Draw the upper and lower baselines

Focusing on those first loose anatomical barrier lines, we suggest the padded gum and teeth line contours in more pronounced detail. Beginning from the upper inward arc, sketch gently sloping adjacent lines descending downward from it in a radiating stippling effect.

Keep building downward until you reach the lower central arc drawn before, having generated more tangible railing boundaries to signify the teeth-guarding cushion barriers inherent in the mouthguard’s protective function. Do the same thing, working your way upward from that bottom central curve to complete this essential anchoring tooth outline detail from both sides.

• Add curved stripes ascending inside of the upper “U” curve
• Sketch descending curved lines from the base edge
• Keep curves smooth, evenly spaced, and parallel

Step 3: Draw the inner baseline

Most athletic mouthguards feature double-walled buffers, so in keeping with true sports equipment design, go in now and deepen the existing upper barrier further with an added echoing arc between that first one and the middle central partition. This begins building out a secondary shock-absorbing defense ring. Connect this new railing boundary intermittently to the outer wall with slightly thicker composite lines as you curve it. Repeat the same radiating line technique, emulating gum ridges and teeth anchors. Consistent, smooth curves and even spaces maintain anatomical accuracy.

• Faintly sketch the second set of ascending curved stripes inside
• Keep curves smooth, evenly spaced, parallel
• Connect to the outer upper barrier with a broader curve

Step 4: Draw the teeth placement area

Our final step, for now, is to integrate actual fundamental teeth placeholders as the armor wearer of this drawn mouthguard structure. Inside the walls we built enclosing protected real estate, faintly map out simplified shapes like rectangles, triangles, and ovals suspended in the negative white space – evenly spaced as actual dentition would be anchored into the device. Outline these analogous teeth, which stand discretely to differentiate individual tooth barriers locked into the sporting wear padding defending danger zones. This brings convincing accuracy and realism to our conceptual mouthguard so an imagined wearer could easily fit their grin securely into our imaginative layout design solution!

• Lightly sketch simple straight/curved line pairs for tooth spaces
• Keep placeholders evenly sized and spaced
• Outline each shape for individual tooth coverage
• Defines the realistic proportional anchoring point

Step 5: The American football mouthguard is ready

The American football mouthguard is ready to be worn by a player. You did an excellent job. You created your mouthguard, and we’re sure you followed every instruction. You can use a marker to outline the drawing to make it stand out. To improve the appearance, we will remove the pencil marks after tracing. 

The actual fun is about to start. We are going to improve and add authenticity to our drawing. Can you produce a more refined picture with your creativity and imagination?

Taking your American football mouthguard to the next level

Like any other skill, sketching requires practice. Set aside time each day to sketch, even if it’s only for a little while. Be mindful of your surroundings. This enhances comprehension of details, dimensions, and forms. You can start with the basics and work up to more complex topics. Experiment with different drawing tools like charcoal, colored pencils, watercolors, markers, and pencils. Every medium has unique characteristics that could help you identify your preferences.

You can also play with basic hatching, blending, shading, and cross-hatching techniques. Understanding these techniques will greatly enhance the complexity and realism of your drawings. When you’re drawing, use your imagination and try out new concepts. 

Adding a Background

Consider creatively selecting a background that provides relevant visual context, enriching the narrative and enhancing meaning for your illustrated American football mouthguard composition. For example, embed it environmentally into a sketch of the lower half of a football helmet visor, facemask wires, and chin strap. Effortlessly imply a wearer through suggestion. Or make your mouthguard the centering display between two floating miniature football player configurations posing dynamically as if in action. This means forthcoming use on the field. For a more minimalist focus solely spotlighting your mouthguard, carefully erase all background guidelines for empty, pristine white space. This isolates your accomplished subject as in classic product advertisements, focusing all attention compulsively on its intrinsic visual merits and overall execution finesse.

Adding Color

Thoughtful color choices can amplify mood, contrast, and infuse vibrancy in artwork compositions. Consider mouthguard material properties when selecting shades for application, like standard resilient thermoplastic tones ranging from clear pellucid shades, matte prior blunt white, or even bolder dynamic neon hues like vivid red, green, or yellow. Graphically integrate stripes or smaller shapes using multiple colors. Against white, anchor with black and gray for classical shadow depth and edge distinction. For floating isolated focus options, bright white spotlights center prominence. Link supporting colors to unify elements within narrative contexts, like using the corresponding helmet and jersey shade references on a player to cement implicit connections while allowing your principal mouthguard to pop visually.

Bonus Tips

When creatively illustrating football mouthguards, also remember to Establish proper size proportions using comparative measurements; Utilize photographs of actual equipment for reference; Experiment with atypical color palettes and patterns; Incorporate textural qualities and touches; Play various mixing drawing media like charcoal or pastels, Organize essential focal emphasis through contrast; Maintain delicate detail intricacy without overcrowding; Challenge perspectives from unusual vantage points; Invent conceptual representations merging equipment with unlikely subjects; Above all, enjoy yourself and follow intuition freely while steadily working towards envisioned outcomes through mindful refined progressions!

Conclusion

Here’s a quick revision of what we did in this comprehensive guide. First, we focused only on light construction lines mapping key barriers and structural zones, then elaborated decoratively on integrating convincing realism through heightened textures, patterns, and tiny intricacies. Strategically creative backgrounds visually contextualize your standalone mouthguard with enriched meaning, and personalized color approaches exponentially amplify aesthetic appeal. Combining sports equipment inspiration alongside drawing practice proves mutually rewarding. Our completed imaginative mouthguard pays tribute to football’s valued protective uniforms through inventive artistic awards blending accuracy with entertainment.