How I draw noses

shitty english | by Sono shougar@da iiid@tumblr

I must be crazy for sharing how I do the only thing I know how to draw -A-

I'm terrible with colors but I pick what I think is the base or the light color.

I draw "the head"~ usually is an enllipse and then a circle, circle's bottom is where I'll start drawing the nose.

[pic1]

Well my method is pathetic and I'm probably doing everything wrong, but I'm explaining because nose placement is important.

The cross shows where I'll draw the eyes~

[pic2]

Ok next image looks creepy. Those are imaginary lines I use as reference for general knowing of where to place eyes, eyebrows, cheecks, nose, mouth, hair and ears. I never draw these but I keep them in mind - let's notice nose "area" is between the point where lines of the cross intersect and the circle bottom.

[pic3]

So the nose.

It's a circle.

[pic4]

Then 2 circles.

[pic5]

Of course the placement, size and shape of those... circles are determined by the nose I'm drawing. The idea is to re-make these:

[pic6]

So of course you'll have to study the face in order to actually "find" those lines in the real person's face.

[pic7]

As you may have noticed I draw the "inner" part of the nose~ I always do this despite of the angle I'm drawing - of course I've to imagine how the circles rotate as I'm rotating "the camera" but this way I've no problem drawing from different angles. I may explain this properly~ one day. And maybe.

I don't know how to explain this~ so just see:

[pic8]

It's optional actually. Then:

[pic9]

Almost invisible and that's the idea because the person is facing you~ the line represents how the profile of the nose is curved, so basically I'm drawing the profile of the nose... when the draw it front-viewed. It's weird but help me to add shadows (I usually draw without references). Here you have the line darker so you can see it:

[pic10]

And here's a pic of the boy where you can see the nose profile.

[pic11]

I tend to exaggerate nose curvature when drawing it as a line reference for a front-view draw. When drawing a 3/4, 4/5 or side-view I do the curvature as accurate as I can ^^ Also, I don't put much attention to the bottom part of the nose curvature because the idea is that the 1st circle of the nose plus this reference line help me to do the lights and shadows of that part of the nose. - sorry for these terrible explanations -

Next thing I do are the "outline" shadows of the base part of the nose. I pick a brown-ish color for this.

[pic12]

Then with a orange-ish color I do the "ribbon" every nose has. I tend to use a smaller brush for this too.

[pic13]

By the way. Before drawing a nose these are the main points I study: size if the 1st circle, placement and shape of the next 2 circles, nose profile and shape of the "ribbon".

And by "study" I mean that I look at the person's face from different angles (yes, even if I'm only drawing one angle) until I memorize the size if the 1st circle, placement and shape of the next 2 circles, nose profile and shape of the "ribbon".

I call this part "ribbon" because for me it's like and infinite symbol:

[pic14]

Sometimes I actually draw and infinite symbol and then encima**** I re-draw the actual shape of the person's ribbon.

- Im not sure how to say encima in english. Encima is on. Like in the next layer > > -

Picking a bigger brush, and sometimes a pink-ish color, I put "shadows" to the first 3 circles I drew.

[pic15]

Then look:

[pic16]

I don't know how to call that.

Well I usually draw in paper or in the computer with a single layer, maybe two. This time I'm using multiple layers so I can show some thing, like this:

[pic17]

That's "what I'm seeing" (in my mind, with concentration and imagination!) despite of how many other things I've drawn. I'm telling you this because I put attention of how those lines would look without the rest of the lines. And see the profile reference line? Looks good and not weird as when I first drew it, that's the idea.

I add lights on the triangle/trapezium of the center of the nose, also on the side circles. See the original pic to notice what I'm talking about:

[pic18]

This reference pic has a lot of light so the trapezium is noticeable without the blue guide. If the nose I'm drawing has less light on it I will still make the lights in a triangle/trapezium-ish shape, just less noticeable. Also, as I've said, these are the "lights" on the first 3 circles I made for the nose, so the placement and shape of these lights are based on the first 3 circles I drew. The trapezium shape is, of course, "influenced" by the profile guide line I did.

For these lights I usually use a lighter base color, a yelow-ish color and white.

[pic19]

[pic20]

I overlap these colors to the shadow of the base of the nose I drew previously. It's about doing the more realistic and accurate shape I can.

The order of the next two steps doesn't matter, and I usually repeat them until I get the perfect shape.

1.- With a darker base color, brown-ish, orange-ish or purple-ish, I shadow the nose "M":

[pic21]

Here darker so you can easily see the "M" form (it's wide and short, more like a wave):

[pic22]

Then do the inner straples (I call them like that):

[pic23]

See? The intersection of the first 3 circles I did help me locate the inner straples - so I've to practice drawing a nose until I can draw the first 3 circles in the perfect conjunction/combination so the inner straples are in the correct place!

2.- I draw the "brackets" and "outside straples". Usually with a curved line following the shadow of the nose base...

[pic24]

...and then drawing the outside straples:

[pic25]

Outside straples are very important when drawing a side-view nose. The brakcets and outside straples are done with a dark color.

So those were the 2 steps in which I don't care about the order, and that I tend to repeat until I'm satisfied.

Ok. If I'm doing a single layer draw of course I add the nose when I already painted the skin. If I'm doing a 2 layers draw, this is the point where I began painting the skill.

[pic26]

Of course I'm not doing a great job here because I cannot draw a realistic face and because this is not about talking on how I draw faces.

[pic27]

I add shadows and lights so the nose fits the face.

[pic28]

I use the pic8 lines as a guide for the shape of the lights and shadows:

[pic29]

[pic30]

Nose looks really light. Encima*** or in the capa de ms encima*** if making a 2 layers draw I "fix" the colors by re-drawing some parts. This is my way of drawing/coloring and I don't see it as a waste of time, is just that everything I made before this point it's a sketch for me, and I do it without reference. For this step (the re-drawing for fixing the colors) it's where I first look at the picture and make sure everything is looking how it's supposed to look. Usually the nose doesn't look that bright - I got confused because I was drawing with a white background, but I did it that way because I didn't expected this "tutorial" to be so detailed!! Anyways, it's ok because now you can appreciate how I color (as I've said, prev. steps where sketches):

[pic31]

There's no comment I can make about my coloring.

Ok, for the last part I'll finish the sketch... let me explain. I almost never finish draws, I only sketch them. So somehow I got this terrible habit of painting before finish the sketch, and then I finish the sketch and continue painting.

Whatever. It's time to add the nasal cavities:

[pic32]

And the lights/shadows needed:

[pic33]

For both I use the ribbon as a guide. I know ribbon is almost invisible by now but I always keep it in mind.

Alongside with the nasal cavities I might do "the bridge" between them, is just a shadow:

[pic34]

And now the very last step!

I use the profile guide line as reference to draw the top of the nose, usually following a > < shape. If the person has a nose like this

[pic35]

I add shadows and lights ecima*** the guide line.

See the > < lines:

[pic36]

Of course those lines changes from person to person.

And here the finished nose:

[pic37]

It's ok if it looks creepy. Is part of the idea because the person need eyes~

By the way. If you "remove" the part where I fixed the colors (the part that in my words is not an sketch) you got this:

[pic38]

Or without the face:

[pic39]

Thats what I draw when I'm sketching. So if you compare the pic39 and pic37 you will see the difference between what I can a sketch and and actual nose drawing.

Of course this is just the way I draw. Seems long but I do it quickly, is just that I'm really methodic. The result is not realistic, for that I would need to add much more details...

The idea of my method of drawing noses is 1) satisfy my noses fetish 2) being able to easily draw different noses I've memorized and 3) "invent" new noses.

That's all.