How to Draw a Nose – Step by Step
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Portrait Drawing Fundamentals

The Features

How to Draw a Nose – Step by Step

2.8M
Mark as Completed

How to Draw a Nose – Step by Step

2.8M
Mark as Completed

Draw the Nose

Take a picture of your own nose or find some good photos online (get some with clear light and shadows). Follow my step-by-step lesson to complete the drawing. Rewatch the lesson to review all the anatomical details. Those take a few times to understand.

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Vin
My first attempt. Shading a nose is so hard, and I need to practice more how to draw the shape of nose.
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@grugrugru
Studying the anatomy and videos on page one then breaking down the major planes into minor planes with reference on page two with drawing process. Had a hard time solving #3 on second page. Critique or advice is much appreciated.
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@ern1s
I taught eyes are difficult.. until I've tried nose.. any suggestions on where to focus in order to improve?
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Liandro
I think you did a nice job, @ern1s! The complexity of the nose has a lot to do with perspective, so the best way to approach it is with a "constructional mindset": start by thinking of the "major planes" (a simple boxy object) so you can solve the overall perspective first; then, develop the big, simpler forms into smaller, more complex forms ("minor planes"), but still keeping the same logic of perspective, depth and overlaps; and, lastly, "polish" those minor planes into a rendered drawing, adding more details, softening the edges and making even smaller adjustments, but still keeping the same overall structure as before. I'm attaching some visual notes along with a paint-over - notice that the shading should follow the perspective since the earlier stages and remain consistent throughout the whole process: the top planes, which face the light source more directly, are lighter, while the bottom planes are significantly darker. When doing this with traditional pencil on paper, try to keep the outlines as light as possible during the sketch / construction phase so that they don't get in the way of rendering the tones later on. If you have any trouble visualizing the major or minor planes on a real nose or on a photo reference, maybe get a careful review on Stan's main lesson, take some notes for yourself and, perhaps, do some sketches without shading in order to get a stronger grip on those basic forms. Other than that, it seems that these are your first steps drawing the nose, so take it easy and just keep going! As you practice and study more, things should become progressively clearer and more manageable. Hope this helps. If you have any questions or extra commens, feel free to let me know!
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Crimson The Vixen
29/10/2023 And another one.
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Crimson The Vixen
29/10/2023 Hey guys. Sorry for the LOOOOONG disappearance, school’s been eating away at me for awhile, and Noses hasn’t been easy to grasp for me, the hardest thing I’ve done yet. As from now on, I shall be uploading everything at once for or at least more than just 3 images for faster uploads. Hope you enjoy.
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Martin
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Martha Muniz
Cool work! I especially like your shading, it's cool to look at and also gives all the information about the nose planes and form :D
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S R
2mo
The shading is super chunky, but I feel like I'm getting to understand the underlying forms
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@somepleb48
Trying to get a feel specifically for when the nose bridge wedges into the cartilage + the side planes of the bridge. I would also appreciate any help with visualizing where the wings of the nose enters the skull.
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Alex S
Shading is something that I'm still working on, otherwise I think I've got the structure/shape of the nose figured out (mostly).......
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@mogumogu
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@mogumogu
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hArtMann
Struggled a bit with the darker skin tones but getting better at painting them.
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@aeyt
Man, drawing noses is hard! Will have to revisit this exercise at some point but for now I’m gonna move on to the mouth. Feedback appreciated!
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Martha Muniz
Good work! Just one thing I'd like to note is to make sure the perspective aligns from the top of the bridge to the placement of the nostrils. Something I noticed as a tendency (e.g. #6, 7, 11, 12) is that the bottom of the nose seems to be facing one way while the top of the bridge is shifted at a different angle. It would help to create a quick guideline across for these two points and compare that they are parallel in the same direction.
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Samuel Sanjaya
my nose assignment. I think this is the first time I got exposed to a form that have minor form and angling planes instead of a simple primitives like this. Somewhat mind boogling at first. But it opened a lot of new door for me. I hope i can get some feedbacks on this
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Noe Luis
Day 3 in studying facial features nose At the 3 picture I attempted to combine the eyes and nose but I did not like it especially trying to simplify the shapes and getting the proportions right
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Vue Thao
Here's mine.
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@elkad
Some draw alongs with the videos and a couple extras. Any feedback is appreciate! :)
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Lisa L
A page of noses. Comments are welcome. :)
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Avşin
I feel like it is too early to start shading. I dont think you understand the 3d form and planes of the nose very well yet especially the connection of the wing to the bridge. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRrXpZNoHmc this video is great for your studies. But other than that i can tell all the noses are different from each other. It ıs nice to see variety <3
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Sita Rabeling
Stan’s drawing is way better….
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Sita Rabeling
Some corrections with the help of Procreate. Next time I’ll check the shading this way, along with the drawing process. Maybe it helps to learn to see the different tones. 😅
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Stan Prokopenko
The simplest thing you can fix to make this look better is to make sure all the shadows are darker than the halftones. In your drawing the bottom of the nose in shadow looks lighter than the halftones on the side plane. Clarity of shadow vs light is very important.
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Sita Rabeling
I try to build the drawings up like Stan teaches, but they still don't look the way I want to - without unnecessary lines, smudging etc. Of course they don't look like Stan's - duh. I wish I knew how to make them look like I'm confident... Probably just practice practice - but I feel that there's something else (or specific) I should work on. -?-
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Artūras ČIvas
Nose practice after the lessons
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Founder of Proko, artist and teacher of drawing, painting, and anatomy. I try to make my lessons fun and ultra packed with information.
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