Drawing the nose

The nose is a protruding structure of cartilage and fat built upon the bones of the face. Noses come in many shapes and sizes, and when they are prominent they get noticed very quickly. But people get less excited about the nose than the eyes, because it is much less important to communicating emotion and facial expressions. The nose tip is more mobile than the rest, contributing to expressions such as sneering, but even then it’s not really the nose we pay most attention to. This makes the nose less intimidating to draw. On the other hand, it is more complex than we might think, and we still need to understand its parts if we are to draw it convincingly.

Structure

To make the nose easier to understand and draw, we can conceive it at the most basic level as a block with four major planes – front, sides and bottom – forming a long wedge on the front of the face.

Simplifying the structure makes it easier to grasp its relationship with the rest of the head, and how light and perspective affect the form. Solve these big questions first, and you’ll find it much easier to get the details right.

The wedge is narrower at the top and wider at the bottom. It is joined to the forehead by another small wedge-shaped form, like a keystone, representing the glabella on the skull. (This is the focus of the cross we drew on the divided ball and plane.)

The upper part of the nose has simpler planes than the lower and feels harder to the touch, because it is supported by the nasal bone. The nasal bone influences the general shape of the nose – when it’s prominent for example it creates an aquiline or Roman nose. A fracture of these bones gives the broken, wonky nose familiar in boxers or rugby players.

The lower half of the nose is made of a stiff tissue called cartilage – the only bone support is the slight spur of the nasal spine at the bottom of the nasal cavity. The cartilage is flexible enough to respond to the facial muscles, making the lower nose a bit more mobile and expressive.

Bridge

You will sometimes hear the entire front plane of the nose referred to as the ‘bridge’, but really it’s the upper, bony part of the nose. It is defined by the nasal bone and the top corner of the maxilla, which sweeps down into the cheeks by the rim of the orbit.

You can sometimes spot the end of the bridge by a slight bump or change of direction on the nose (right), which marks the transition from bone to cartilage.

The lower nose

The lower half of the nose is more complex. Structurally, it is made of several extra forms built onto the basic block: the ball of the nose, the septum and the wings. To draw this, we need to develop the ‘wedge’ conception a bit further.

The block is not really a straight column but more of an oval, with a bulge in the middle. This is more obvious in males.

The ball is like a bowl added to the front of the block – it’s the part most extended from the face, and often catches a highlight.

The septum is a ridge of cartilage that forms a dividing wall between the nostrils, and connects the nose to the upper lip. (It is a popular place for nose piercings.)

The nostrils are openings that allow us to breathe and smell, which extend partly into the underside of the septum. Think of the wings as two spheres on either side of the ball of the nose, and shade the area accordingly, with the septum added underneath:

You can adjust the width and spacing of these parts to draw different shapes of nose:

Always remember that tools like these are only rules of thumb, and you can be flexible about them. Other artists use different techniques to help them grasp the form. Use whatever method works for you.

Try to observe the smaller planes, whose tonal shifts will help clarify the shape of the nose:

Just a word on schemas like I’m introducing here. It is normal and useful for artists to have a mental model of how things are structured. However this has dangers. Firstly you may end up reproducing the same nose blindly, always including for example a bump on the nose even though one isn’t visible on everybody. Secondly if you become comfortable with a particular cliché you can lose sight of what real noses look like. There is no substitute for observing real noses in all their diversity.

Cartilage

The lower nose is made of several pieces of cartilage and fat, but the artist need only think in terms of five. Two form the tip, two form the nostrils and a fifth separates the nostrils. Knowing a little about them helps you understand where all these forms and planes come from.

The lateral cartilage flows from the bridge and wedges between the two halves of the greater alar cartilage or ball of the nose. Take another look at the illustration of the bump on the nose: further down there is another change of direction where the lateral cartilage meets the cartilage of the tip. Though the greater alar cartridge is in two parts, the divide is only occasionally visible as in this photo of Johnny Cash:

The nostrils are made of alar fat, not cartilage, which is why they are more soft and fleshy.

Between the nose and the lips is a distinctive vertical groove called the philtrum. We’ll look at this more when we study the mouth.

Tips on drawing the nose

We think of people having long or short noses, but proportionally, i.e. from browline to noseline, most noses are much the same length. A decisive difference lies in the angle of the nose – a nose that turns up will look shorter than one that doesn’t.

To draw a nose well we need to observe the plane changes across its whole form. There is often a slightly darker tone at the ‘keystone’ where the glabella turns down at a slightly different angle to the forehead, then the tone lightens as the bridge of the nose turns up again.

We refer to the ‘ball’ of the nose for simplicity, but this form isn’t really a sphere. It has top, front and bottom planes, as well as a short side plane that is distinct from the wings. The real variety in human noses is found in the cartilaginous parts, not the bones. The nose can be more or less long or short, narrow or wide, pointed or bulbous, drooping or snub, etc.

Types of nose

These types don’t only affect the profile – from the front, you will see more of the nostrils on an up-turned nose than you will on a nose where the tip droops.

The wings too vary enormously. Remember to allow some thickness to the wing, and note that the nostrils face downwards, not sideways. The front of the face curves outward, so they attach further back than the septum. The nostrils curve in towards the septum without quite reaching it, creating a hole resembling not a proper oval, more a comma on its side. This hole has a sharper edge at the top, and a softer edge at the bottom where the recess fades out. Because the nostrils are on the bottom plane, and furthermore are recesses in that plane, they will be the darkest place on the nose.

Step by step: how to paint the nose

Here is a step-by-step tutorial on how to paint a realistic nose. We may repeat ourselves from the eye tutorial a little, but I’d like this to be able to stand alone. We’re going to do noses from three angles: front, side and three-quarter. 

1. Canvas

Start with a new canvas. For the eye tutorial, we picked a background colour that resembled the flesh colour of the subject. This time, since there are three noses and we want them to stand out individually, let’s begin with a neutral colour as a base and paint the flesh tones on extra layers on top.

2. Sketch the nose

Sketch the nose on a new layer. Analyse the most basic forms first. Define the height, then mark the front and side planes, the ball and wings, and note the wedge of the glabella. Indicate some of the smaller plane changes, such as the ball of the nose, and maybe some anatomical pointers such as cartilage forms if the nose you’re drawing suggests them. Indicate the forms of the wings and nostrils.

This example is a nose study only, but when you paint a portrait you should check the placement on the face and that the nose is in a correct relationship with all the other features.

In this example I’ve sketched in the eyes and brows for context, but we won’t be painting those in detail.

3. Colour blocking

On a new layer below the sketch, block in the main regions with basic colours. Decide upon your light source and mark out the major lights and darks.

In my example, the light is coming from the top left, so the left plane of the nose is lighter. There is a highlight on the left edge of the front plane, and shadow areas under the brow, on the right and particularly on the bottom plane. I’ve indicated a cast shadow.

You can drop your sketch layer around this stage: either deleting it or leaving it in and painting over it.

4. Work on the colours

The use of additional colours is really important to creating a lively, realistic painting. Use a more saturated colour for the shadows. Bear in mind the tip of the nose is usually redder. I have added touches of blue to the eyes, and purple to the nose tip, along with other touches of yellow and red.

Strictly this is not a distinct stage of the painting – it is best to look to include various colours from the outset as an organic part of the process.

5. Shading

Now build up the details and forms. Stay aware of the minor planes as you add subtle shifts in tone and reflected light.

Refine the forms by adding subtle, mid-range tones. On the nostrils, the top edge of the opening tends to be relatively sharper than the bottom edge, but this is a soft, shadowy area so maybe avoid defining it too precisely.

Work away at the highlight on the ball of the nose so it doesn’t look too crude and shiny. Create a nice soft transition between the slightly darker tone of the downturned glabella and the bridge of the nose. Use a bit of darker tone to emphasise the change of plane between the side plane of the nose and the wing. Add some proper highlights. These depend of course upon your light source. You will usually see a highlight on the nose tip, down the bridge of the nose, and on the wings.

6. Final details

Work over your painting another time, checking you are happy with the relationship of lights and darks. For example, you may feel the darks need to be a bit darker, the lights a bit lighter. Check too the relationship between hard and soft. Sharpening a few edges like the nostrils will help your nose stand out; in areas of soft, curving flesh the transitions too should be soft.

As in the eye tutorial, it’s good to finish off by putting some thought into texture. Dabble the image with a speckled brush, and then use several layers, perhaps set to Overlay, to build it up as you want.

My finished nose studies. Click to enlarge.

What to do

That’s pretty much everything I have to say about drawing and painting noses, except for variation by age, sex and ethnicity – topics which I will probably consider separately.

What to do next is obvious: draw lots of noses. It’s great to have schemas and methods like we’ve discussed here, but nothing beats finding pictures of noses, or looking at your own in the mirror, and drawing what you see.

If there are things you struggle with – the precise relationship between nostrils and septum is a likely candidate – then make a point of studying and drawing them until they are no longer problems.

Here are some studies that I did.