Paint the Nose with Your Tablet onto Your Digital Canvas!

You are going to use most of the digital brushes you have learned. Of course, these tools will be available to you regardless of what digital art program you have chosen. Primarily, locate the brush tool, the smudge tool, and the dodge and burn tools.

You noticed that I didn’t mention the eraser tool. The reason is that you won’t be using the eraser at all!

Instead, you will focus on painting light and repainting the shadows to paint the nose in your digital canvas. At the most, you will probably be using the undo functions or the history box if your digital art program has it.

1. Creating the shadows

To being to paint the nose, I will get you to create a new digital canvas and fill it in with one main color. Preferable, it should be a darker skin tone. As you begin to paint the nose, remember you’re going to paint how light hits this facial feature.

Use a low opacity brush and begin to paint the basic plane objects in the previous article about how to draw the nose.

The colors that you see are based between switching the primary dark skin tone and white.

The secret is to paint white where the light hits the nose the most. With the lower opacity settings, you will get a nice gradient of skin tones. As soon as you find a tone that you like, use the color selection tool to pick it up and begin painting the rest of the plane.

2. Paint the nostril planes

Remember, to paint the nose effectively, you need to finish the other part of the planes. That is, you need to paint the two cubed shaped objects on the side of the main unit to create the nostrils.

Continue to paint with the same brush settings and opacity as you did with the main nose bridge.

As the final touch, create dark spots where you think the nostril openings are. This time, use an even darker tone like black or so. The low opacity brush will prevent it from being truly black.

Just imagine drilling a hole on the underside of your cube. How would this shape look like? Use your imagination and transfer it on to your digital canvas.

Up to this point, you shouldn’t have to use the eraser at all. All of this is drawn and redrawn by switching colors.

3. Paint with the smudge tool

Of course, you need to use the smudge brush in a specific fashion instead of just smudging in random directions.

This means you will smudge in the direction of the nose. The round nostrils must be smudged in a round manner while the bridge can be smudged on a vertical manner.

Once you think that all the smudging is done, you need to refine is a bit more.

At this point, you will switch back to your digital paint brush and begin to paint the nose one more time.

This time, you should focus on getting the exact shape of the nose. Use your own nose for reference if necessary.

You will also notice that I have also painted the light around the nose to simulate the nose being on a face.

Moreover, also notice that the shadows outline the nostrils are the same skin tones that I asked you to start with before you even begin painting the nose.

Hence, the main point that you should take away from this is that I didn’t bother to paint the shadows. It is already there! All I did is just paint the light that will bring the nose out.

4. Paint the nose with other tools

So far, we have used the digital paintbrush and the smudge brush to paint the nose. Again, we have not used the eraser brushes at all.

To bring up the nose even better, you will use the dodge and burn brushes. The object is to use your digital tablet and paint additional lights and shadows.

What I like about the nose is that it allows you to get familiar with creating contrasting colors. With the burn tool, you will deepen the colors of the nostrils. Then, switch to the dodge tool to brighten where you think the light hits the nose the most.

For example, the tip of the nose protrudes out the most. I use the dodge tool to enhance and brighten the colors on the tip. Obviously, you need to set the settings on these brushes on low to get the best balance as you paint the nose.

As well, I added light and shadows where the lips are suppose to be. This is to get the nose to look more realistic.

Remember to keep motivated and have fun practicing!

Return from Paint the Nose to Paint Faces.
Return from Paint the Nose to the 2d Digital Art Guide.