How to Draw a Nose

Stap met stap

1. Stap 1

   Draw the wedge: a long triangle from the brow down to the tip.

   A nose is a wedge coming off the face, and everything else attaches to it. Draw it as a solid you could pick up rather than as a shape on a surface - this is the mental switch that the whole lesson depends on.

   Pas op Drawing the nose flat against the face rather than projecting out from it.

   Gaan na You should be able to point to the front plane and the side plane separately.

2. Stap 2

   Add a ball at the tip.

   The tip of a nose is a small sphere, and the two wings are attached to it. Getting the ball placed and sized correctly does more for the likeness than any amount of care on the bridge, because the tip is what people actually look at.

   Pas op Making it too small, which gives a pinched, artificial nose.

   Gaan na The ball should be about a third of the nose's total width.

3. Stap 3

   Add a wing on each side of the ball.

   The wings are the flared sides of the nostrils, and they sit lower and further back than the tip - in three-quarter view the far one is mostly hidden. They curve down and around rather than sticking straight out.

   Pas op Drawing both wings the same size in a three-quarter view.

   Gaan na The far wing should be noticeably smaller than the near one.

4. Stap 4

   Draw the underside as its own plane.

   The bottom of a nose faces downward, which means it is always in shadow and it is a shape you can draw - roughly a flattened triangle between the two wings. Beginners leave this plane out entirely and then wonder why the nose looks flat.

   Pas op Treating the bottom of the nose as an edge rather than a surface.

   Gaan na You should have a distinct area that reads as the underside.

5. Stap 5

   Place the nostrils as comma shapes, angled outward.

   Not circles, not dots. A nostril is a comma with its thick end toward the front, tilting outward and backward, and it sits on the underside plane rather than on the front of the nose.

   Pas op Drawing round nostrils facing forward, which looks like a pig.

   Gaan na Both nostrils should be inside the underside plane.

6. Stap 6

   Erase the outline on the shadow side.

   Yes, really. The side of a nose has no line on a real face - it is a soft transition in value. Losing the line now, before you shade, forces you to rebuild that side with tone, which is the only thing that works.

   Pas op Keeping the outline 'just as a guide' and then never removing it.

   Gaan na One long side of the nose should have no line at all.

7. Stap 7

   Shade the whole side plane in one even mid tone.

   One value, laid in one direction, edge to edge. Do not try to model it yet. Establishing the flat plane first and softening later gives you a nose with structure; blending from the start gives you a smudge.

   Pas op Blending immediately, which loses the plane change you are trying to show.

   Gaan na The side should read as one distinct tone against the front.

8. Stap 8

   Leave the bridge as the lightest area.

   The top plane of the bridge faces up toward the light, so it stays near white. That untouched strip is what tells the viewer where the nose projects from the face, and it costs nothing except restraint.

   Pas op Shading across the bridge to 'tie it together', which flattens the whole nose in one stroke.

   Gaan na There should be a clean light strip running down the bridge.

9. Stap 9

   Put the darkest values under the tip and in the nostrils.

   These are the two darkest notes on the nose, and they should be about equal. If the nostrils are much darker than the shadow under the tip, they read as two holes punched in the face rather than as openings.

   Pas op Nostrils far darker than everything around them.

   Gaan na Nostrils and the shadow under the tip should be similar in darkness.

10. Stap 10

    Add the cast shadow on the lip below.

    A nose casts a shadow downward onto the area above the lip, and its shape follows the underside of the nose. This shadow is the only thing separating the nose from the mouth - without it, the two features fuse.

    Pas op Omitting it, or drawing it symmetrical when the light is from one side.

    Gaan na The shadow should be offset to the side away from the light.

11. Stap 11

    Soften the edge between the side plane and the front.

    Now, and only now, blend. That transition is soft on a real nose - but soft is not the same as absent, so blend it partly and stop. Beginners either leave it hard or erase it completely, and both look wrong.

    Pas op Blending until the plane change disappears entirely.

    Gaan na You should still be able to see where the plane changes, just not sharply.

12. Stap 12

    Add a small highlight on the tip and on the near wing.

    Two small highlights, not a shiny stripe. The tip catches the most light because it projects furthest; a smaller one on the near wing confirms the form. Keep them the size of a pencil-tip, not a coin.

    Pas op One large glossy highlight, which makes the nose look wet.

    Gaan na Both highlights should be small and on the same side.

13. Stap 13

    Go over the lines you want to keep, and lose the guides.

    This is the step that turns a construction drawing into a finished one, and it is the one most people skip. Press harder on the outline and the features; leave the small stuff light. That difference in weight is what makes a drawing look deliberate rather than traced, and it costs thirty seconds.

    Pas op Going over everything at the same weight, which flattens the drawing back out.

    Gaan na The outline should be clearly darker than the smallest details.