Want to Know How To Draw A Nose? Keep It Simple is the Key!

Learning how to draw a nose can seem a little daunting at first. The key tip when drawing ANY of the features of the face is Keep it Simple!

Less is always more when drawing the nose as well as when drawing teeth but that's another lesson. What you want to do is to draw the nose with lines that suggest the shape but don't create hard outlines. There are many different ways of how to draw a nose sure,but if you are looking to draw a realistic looking one then you want to keep your lines light and deliberate. If you want to draw cartoon noses then hard outlines work very well,but you should still keep them simple.

1:The Top

The part just by the eye sockets is where the brow begins to slope down into the nose.This area looks like two parenthesis or commas facing away from each other. Of any of the lines of the nose these will mostly likely be the darkest as they will suggest the depth of the eye sockets.

2:The Middle

This part of the nose is made up mostly of cartilage and doesn't really have any sharp slopes toward the face. This is why the lines aren't very dark.

Tip:

Just remember the sharper the slope or angle the darker and more defined the line should be. 3:The Tip

The tip of the nose is all cartilage and this part of the nose can vary in shape probably more than any other part of the nose.

Again when drawing this part of the nose the key is to Keep it Simple and use the least amount of lines as possible.

You'll quickly notice that the nostrils aren't just two circles; instead they are more shaped like a sunflower seed or almond. The nostrils really are dependent on the shape of the end of the nose. A fat nose may have wider nostrils while a thin nose may have long skinny nostrils. It may take some practice and observation before you become proficient at this part of nose.

Really once you start looking at all the features of the face and studying them they all start to look a little weird. It's very easy to start drawing every line you see,that's why it's important to KEEP IT SIMPLE!

Tip:

A very simple techniques to use when trying to simplify what you see is to squint as you look at your subject. This takes out or blurs the detail and subtleties so you can see more general shapes and colors.

Learning how to draw a nose does take some time to get just right. There are plenty of books and magazines out there with plenty of faces to practice with. Once you get the proportions of the face down and learn how the different features fit together; then you can really start to have fun and experiment. Your confidence level will grow exponentially which will allow you to experiment more and push your skills even further.

Since it does help to have a quality visual reference to look at when learning to draw, especially when learning how to draw a nose, I have created a downloadable reference file for you to use. It has all the different angles of the nose as well as some examples drawn using a few of the reference photos. Get it here and start digging in!

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