Learn Techniques for Drawing Noses!

For the most part, drawing noses is often overlooked simply because we focus on the other facial features. Just think about the characters you have seen.

Everything else is elaborated except for the nose. But that's not to blame them. Why should we focus on the nose? Besides smiling, it doesn't give any reason to elaborate on it.

And yet, it's part of the overall picture that defines your character. Since it doesn't do much in terms of giving emotional responses, the nose becomes one of the easiest features to draw.

That is, if you know how the nose is built!

1. Building your nose drawing

The nose can be thought of a simple bulge of the face. The biggest challenge is to create this bulge without having to look flat.

Normally, you start with creating a trapezoid bulge as that's the general shape of the nose. Basically, it'll look like a door wedge that's standing upright when you begin drawing noses.

Use a broad thick digital art brush for this part.

drawing noses

From the bulge, you need to really look at how the light hits the trapezoid. Because the nose is in front of the face, you will never see a light source behind the trapezoid. On top of that, anything that sticks out will guarantee that the light will hit it.

Use this to your advantage!

2. Building the nostrils

The hardest part about the nose is probably trying to figure out how to draw the nostrils. Most beginners simply draw two black dots to indicate where the nostrils are.

While this is on technique, it isn't very professional as it fails to render the nostrils in 2d space. In order to render the nostrils properly, you will need to create a shape that is 3d.

Remember drawing all those squares and rectangles early on? Remember the 3d cube that you have drawn? Well, you're going to use it in this example on drawing noses!

What you need to do is draw angular cubes beside the main base of the nose. Switch to a thinner digital brush.

drawing noses

As you draw the cube, keep in mind where the light will hit the planes of the cube. This will help you create the 3d portions of the nose.

While you're at it, darken the undercarriage of the cube. This will be your nostril openings.

3. Making it real

Drawing noses in a way to make it real in you digital art program, you need to take what you have so far and blend it into place. That means that you will use the smudge tool to round out those square shapes.

Hence, I need you to pick the smudge brush and choose a large size. You want it to be bigger than the nose. As well, set the pressure on less than 25% as that will give you the right smudge effects.

From there, just smudge the nose. However, smudge it in a way that reflects the direction of the nose. For example, I will smudge vertically instead of horizontally. When it comes to the nostrils, I will smudge in a horizontal and curved manner.

drawing noses

The end result would be a product that actually looks like a nose! If necessary, paint in the areas that smudging misses to further enhance the look of the nose.

Case in point, I would use a small brush to paint the undercarriage of the nostrils to make it stand out even further.

4. Paint the nose

The most important thing that I want you to take away from, in this lesson on drawing noses, is how to draw the general shape. Obviously, when you get more experience, you don't need to draw the cube and the planes.

When you get to that point, you will actually begin to paint the nose instead of drawing it. You want to get to a point where you can see the shape in your mind and how the light hits the shape.

In other words, you will just paint the light as it hits the nose with only your imagination as the guide lines!

As you can see, the example that you have seen only shows a black and white sample because it allows you to see the light and shadows easier. The next step is create a small digital painting of your nose.

Stay tuned and motivated for the next lesson!