How to Draw a Nose
1 / 13
Draw the wedge: a long triangle from the brow down to the tip.
You should be able to point to the front plane and the side plane separately.
¿En cambio, dibujando en papel?
Enderezamos y limpiamos la foto para ti.
Sobre este dibujo
A nose has almost no outline anywhere on a real face. It is a wedge of planes catching light, and the only genuinely dark marks on it are the nostrils and the shadow underneath - which is precisely why outlining a nose produces something that looks glued to the face.
So this lesson builds the nose as a solid: a wedge, a ball at the end, two wings, and then value. Almost no line work survives to the finished drawing.
Paso a paso
-
Paso 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.
Cuidado. Drawing the nose flat against the face rather than projecting out from it.
Comprobar You should be able to point to the front plane and the side plane separately.
-
Paso 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.
Cuidado. Making it too small, which gives a pinched, artificial nose.
Comprobar The ball should be about a third of the nose's total width.
-
Paso 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.
Cuidado. Drawing both wings the same size in a three-quarter view.
Comprobar The far wing should be noticeably smaller than the near one.
-
Paso 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.
Cuidado. Treating the bottom of the nose as an edge rather than a surface.
Comprobar You should have a distinct area that reads as the underside.
-
Paso 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.
Cuidado. Drawing round nostrils facing forward, which looks like a pig.
Comprobar Both nostrils should be inside the underside plane.
-
Paso 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.
Cuidado. Keeping the outline 'just as a guide' and then never removing it.
Comprobar One long side of the nose should have no line at all.
-
Paso 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.
Cuidado. Blending immediately, which loses the plane change you are trying to show.
Comprobar The side should read as one distinct tone against the front.
-
Paso 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.
Cuidado. Shading across the bridge to 'tie it together', which flattens the whole nose in one stroke.
Comprobar There should be a clean light strip running down the bridge.
-
Paso 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.
Cuidado. Nostrils far darker than everything around them.
Comprobar Nostrils and the shadow under the tip should be similar in darkness.
-
Paso 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.
Cuidado. Omitting it, or drawing it symmetrical when the light is from one side.
Comprobar The shadow should be offset to the side away from the light.
-
Paso 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.
Cuidado. Blending until the plane change disappears entirely.
Comprobar You should still be able to see where the plane changes, just not sharply.
-
Paso 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.
Cuidado. One large glossy highlight, which makes the nose look wet.
Comprobar Both highlights should be small and on the same side.
-
Paso 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.
Cuidado. Going over everything at the same weight, which flattens the drawing back out.
Comprobar The outline should be clearly darker than the smallest details.
Lo que parece terminado
El mismo dibujo con cada guía borrado y sólo las líneas que pretendías mantener, al peso que querías que fueran. Si el tuyo todavía tiene líneas centrales y formas de bloqueo en él, este es el paso que no has hecho todavía - y toma unos treinta segundos.
El tuyo no se verá así, y no se supone que lo haga. Esta es la construcción con el andamio quitado, no un dibujo que alguien hizo para ser admirado - el punto es mostrarte cuáles de tus líneas eran guías.
Lo que este te enseña realmente
This is the planes lesson. Everything up to here has treated form as smoothly rounded; a nose is the first subject where thinking in flat faces - front, two sides, underside - works better than thinking in curves.
It is also the best possible argument against outlines, and the fastest way to prove it to yourself. Draw one nose with an outline and one with only value, side by side, and the difference will end the debate permanently.
Practicar: Line confidence Proportion Value range
Lo que necesitas
A pencil that can go genuinely dark for the nostrils, and something to blend with - a paper stump, a cotton bud, or a fingertip - because the sides of a nose are the softest transition on the whole face.
Work from a photograph in fairly directional light. Flat lighting hides exactly the information this lesson is about.
Si va mal
If the nose looks stuck on, you have outlined it. Erase the sides entirely and rebuild them with shading.
If the nostrils dominate, they are too dark or too round. Nostrils are comma shapes, angled, and the shadow under the tip should be as dark as they are.
The underside of a nose is a plane you can see - it faces down, so it is always in shadow, and drawing that plane is most of what makes a nose look three-dimensional.
Imprimir los pasos
Llévenselo de la pantalla, la hoja de paso se imprime en una página.
Preguntas que la gente hace
- Why does my nose look stuck on?
- You outlined it. The sides of a nose have no line on a real face - they are a soft change in value.
- How do I draw nostrils?
- As comma shapes angled outward, never as circles or dots, and never as the darkest mark on the drawing.
- What is the hardest part of a nose?
- The sides, because there is nothing there to draw. You have to shade them into existence.
- How big should a nose be?
- On a front-facing face, the width of the nose is roughly the width of one eye. Most people draw it too narrow.
- Should I draw the bridge?
- Only as a change in value. A hard line down the bridge is the second most common way to make a nose look drawn on.
- Front view or three-quarter?
- This lesson does three-quarter, which is easier - the planes are visible. A front view hides most of the information.
- Why is the shadow under the nose so important?
- It is the only thing that separates the nose from the lip. Without it the nose sits flat against the face.
- What should I draw after this?
- Lips, then the eye. Those three together are most of a portrait.