How To Think: Drawing Noses
Out of all of the parts of the face, the nose is the most versatile in terms of design. Learn how to draw noses with plenty of character, and expand your toolset with the Etherington Brothers!
Learn how you can draw or learn how to THINK when you DRAW with the Etherington Brothers!
Noses are the most sculptural feature of the face, and as such offer a wealth of variation possibilities.
From the front, noses are drawn using an M and an h.
From the side, use an L and a U.
More than any other feature on the face, the nose can be distorted almost beyond recognition, and still be a nose.
This ability to diversify your designs frees you up to endless possibilities!
There are three main parts of the nose that can be exaggerated separately.
At each stage, we get a different nose!
The profile is by far the clearest and easiest angle from which to begin your nose design.
In order to draw the nose from other angles, think about the volume.
The dorsal line of the nose can curve in or out.
Remember: The dorsal is a hard bone which doesnt move, but the tip and nostrils do have movement.
In profile, your characters nose is the boldest form on the face!
About The Etherington Brothers
The Etherington Brothers are the creators of WORLDS MOST SUCCESSFUL ARTBOOK & UKS MOST SUCCESSFUL BOOK of ALL-TIME on Kickstarter. Book makers, idea sharers. Disney, Dreamworks, etc .
Drawing Anime And Manga Noses
If you would like more information on how to position the nose on the head you can check the How to Draw an Anime Girls Head and Face tutorial.
Some defining feature of anime and manga noses are that they tend to be small and pointy with details like the nostrils often not drawn at all. Of course there are also quite a few variation to the style some of which are shown above.
For this tutorial we will split the noses into tree main types:
- Basic nose drawn with just lines
- Nose defined with a shadow
- Semi-realistic nose
Examples Of Different Anime Styles
As you probably already know, anime-styled drawings can differ quite a bit depending on the artist. Once youve learnt the basic proportions and guidelines, you can change things up depending on your own preferences! Below are some anime-styled heads in different proportions. As you can tell, they have very different proportions ranging from more realistic to less realistic.
Also Check: How To Draw Anime Lips Step By Step
How To Draw Anime For Beginners: A Step
In this easy guide for beginners, youll learn how to draw anime. Learn the steps to making anime characters and take classes to increase your skills.
Theres no mistaking anime characters. With their exaggerated eyes and distinct facial features, anime characters are unique and fun to draw. If youre new to anime, there are a few things you need to know about how to draw anime for beginners.
Below, we walk through five steps to drawing anime, including tips for getting the proportions right, options for different styles of anime hair, and instructions for drawing iconic anime eyes.
Mapping A Cute Easy Anime Face In Real Time
A very in-depth video on how features a placed in the head. This art tutorial is a bit lengthy, but it does explain rather nicely how to draw manga face and head.
In the video, you will learn how to draw a nose, for example, from different angles and how the nose curve smooths out when the face is looking more forward than to the side.
When you are starting out, do use guidelines to help you place the facial features in the right places.
Don’t Miss: Anime Girl And Boy Hugging Drawing
How To Draw An Anime Boys Nose
To draw an anime boys nose, follow the same process you used to sketch the anime girls nose. However, we should note that male and female anime noses have slight differences.
You have to make sure that you sketch a wider nose for the male character. If you decide to shade the nose, make the shading more pronounced compared to the shading on the female nose.
Japanese Pro Vs Amateur
This is an interesting video as it shows how a pro draws anime and manga face and head, compared to an amateur.
While the video is in Japanese, dont let that bother you . Follow the lines, the hand movement, and see how the face and head structured. I also like the fact that the pro draws hair.
The video is especially nice because it shows you how the drawing from an amateur compares with the drawing from a pro.
Theres a clear mismatch in structure and in proportions. So it is useful to learn from a pro.
Donât Miss: Harley Davidson Posters Free
Recommended Reading: How Many Seasons Are In Danganronpa
Understanding The Nose: Round Shapes
Once you understand the basic
structure of the nose, translate those rectangular and flattened elements into curved and spherical shapes. This will gradually begin to resemble the structure of a real nose.
Notice how a nose can be realistically represented. Taking into account the shaded areas helps to understand the volumes. Once you have analyzed these shapes, try to blend them together. Use references, photographs, etc. for this. You can find tons of reference images on sites like ArtStation or .
To easily represent the tip of the nose, draw a bigger sphere in the center, with two small ones on the sides. Sizes can vary depending on how you want the nose to look and feel free to add a rectangular structure to better understand each side of the nose.
How To Draw Anime Basic Anatomy
So the video does not have any narration or even text to explain what is going on. However, the video is pretty self-explanatory, so in that sense, it doesnt need a narrator.
The reason why I like this video is that it shows you the very basic structure of anime head and facenothing fancy, no coloring, nothing, just drawing from the beginning to the end.
There will also be a quick upper-body drawing as well, just to showcase the proportions of the head and face. Also, what is good about this is that it shows how to start the sketching process.
Recommended Reading: How To Draw A Couple Hugging Step By Step
Drawing The Basic Angle Of The Nose
Think of the nose as a series of flat planes
To keep things simple, try and think of the nose as a series of flat planes which look different when viewed from different angles.
In fact, no matter what youre drawing, its always a good idea to break the object down into simple shapes, and then add more detail to these simplified forms as you progress. This is a particularly useful technique to learn if youre just starting out as an artist.
In this image, you can see the bridge of the nose and the septum. The bridge of the nose is the part which sticks out from your face. The septum is the piece of skin at the bottom of your nose which attaches it to the rest of your face.
At this stage, its probably a good idea to look into a mirror and take a good look at the bridge of your nose and your septum.
Do you see how these parts of your nose can be broken down into simple shapes? Good
As youre no doubt starting to find out, learning how to draw nose really isnt all that scary after all!
How To Draw A Cartoon Nose
In this tutorial, we’ll look at different ways of drawing cartoon noses. We’ll start with the nose’s construction, and then use this in the context of experimenting with stylistic renditions of this part of the face.
When in doubt, I recommend looking at references, even when drawing stylistically! They can be a valuable resource not only in observing how parts of the face “work”, but also in discovering how you might experiment with your interpretation. Remember to make sure your references are properly sourced!
Also Check: Easy To Draw Anime Couples Hugging
Draw Anime Characters Nose Manga Based On Shadow And Light
Another way to paint the nose for anime and manga characters is to use light and shadow to create a nose shape.
From the side , you draw the nose roughly like the example above, but the tip of the nose is slightly more pointed.
With a 3/4 view angle , you can draw the overhanging nose that doesnt see the bottom of the nose, except when the light comes from below, you draw over the top of the nose.
Most of the time, under normal lighting conditions, the nose will have a shadow on the bottom and opposite side of the light source. So, if you draw the nose from the perspective and the light source comes from the upper left corner, you will draw the ball at the bottom and right of the nose. If the light comes from below, then you paint the ball over the top of the nose.
This style will be appropriate if you want your work to keep the pros but still somewhat anime and manga style. This way of drawing is also used when displaying a close-up of a characters face.
Mark Guidelines And Start Drawing The Eyes
Across the middle horizontal line, draw five light rectangles. Inside the second and fourth rectangles, draw an oval that overlaps the middle line. Within each oval, draw a big circle and a small circle for the eyeballs, and a slightly curved line over each for the top of the eye. At the top of the guideline rectangles, draw in the eyebrows as curved rectangle shapes. Along the bottom of the guiding rectangles, sketch in curved lines to outline the nose with the tip of the nose resting on the bottom of the guideline.
Guidelines in the middle of the face help you to map out the eyes, nose, and mouth.
When youre learning how to draw a face, getting the eyes right is one of the most crucial elements in making your drawing more realistic. Start by going over the circle of the eyeballs in a darker pencil to frame them before adding lighter shading on the inside. Once youve shaded the whole eyeball, erase a couple of small spots around the pupil to give the eyes a slightly glassy look. Add in light shading to the corners of the eyes to start building out a more three-dimensional appearance.
Shading the eyes first will help you to see where you need darker and lighter elements.Shading around the eyes can be time-consuming, but enjoy the process of seeing your art come to life!Short pencil strokes will help you create realistic eyebrows.
Recommended Reading: Anime Guy Body Base
How To Draw An Anime Character
This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, Kyle Hall. Kyle Hall works on the content team at wikiHow. He helps manage our team of editors and creates content for a variety of wikiHow projects. Kyle continually looks for new ways to improve the content at wikiHow and make it more helpful and enjoyable for readers. He graduated from Eckerd College in 2015, where he majored in Political Science. This article has been viewed 1,296,234 times.Learn more…
Anime is a popular animation and drawing style that originated in Japan. Drawing anime characters can seem overwhelming, especially when youre looking at your favorite anime that was drawn by professionals. Fortunately, anyone can learn how to draw anime characters, and the process is fairly simple if you break it down into small steps.
Appling Noses To An Illustration
To finish up the tutorial, lets take a look at this step-by-step illustration so you can see how the nose is put together with the other elements that make up the face. I have drawn a small freckled nose to create some texture to the skin in the nose area. Note how important it is to know where highlights and shades must be placed in order to achieve depth and volume. I always add some shine to the sides of the nostrils and at the tip, while using a darker shadow under the nose. The color of your illustration depends greatly on lighting, in addition to the character themselves. In my image, I used a neutral light source.
About the artist
Raquel Arellano is a digital and traditional illustrator and concept artist from Barcelona. She has a background in teaching videogames and currently works at a university as an art teacher for the subject. She works for indie role-playing companies, creates commissions for individuals, and also writes tutorials for various companies. She shows her art processes on Twitch, and you can see more of her illustrations on Instagram, Twitter, or ArtStation.
Donât Miss: How To Draw Among Us Crewmate
Read Also: Anime Female Lips
Basic Nose Front View Drawing
For the front view of the most basic nose you can simply draw it as a dot or a dash. Depending on how simplistic you want the style to be you can even not draw the nose when showing the head from the front.
A good guideline for placing the nose is to first vertically and horizontally divide the head in half. For the vertical positioning draw this type of nose directly in the middle of the head. For the horizontal position draw it between the horizontal halfway point and the chin.
You can place the nose slightly higher or lower based on style and the type of character you want to create but generally try and keep it close to the area described above. This will be discussed in a little more detail later on in the tutorial.
Add The Eyes Nose And Mouth
Draw two half ovals on either side of the face with small, curved lines inside for the ears. Moving inside the face circle, in line with the ears, youll start working on the biggest featurethe eyes! Anime eyes drawing can seem complicated but remember to break it down into shapes to make it easier.
Start with two curved lines on each side with the gap between them being the width youd like the eyes to be. From here, draw in the curved lines of the eyeballs and a lighter curved line over the top for the eyebrows.
Add the eyes first, as these are the most important facial feature on anime characters.
Shade in a small circle at the top of the eyeballs to create the pupils, adding in a few short lines on the curved lines underneath for eyelashes.
Along the center guideline, add a small V shape or two short lines for the nose. Most anime mouth drawing is a simple line in the bottom third of the face, so add this in to complete the features.
As you make progress on your drawing, dont forget to keep using your guidelines to help you.
Also Check: How To Draw A Skull Side View
Also Check: Anime Animator Salary
How To Draw A Manga Girl
Nice and slow with easy instructions, you can comfortably watch this tutorial while you draw your own version.
With no voice-over its easy to concentrate on getting the features of the female anime characters face right. But it may be harder to follow if youre used to instruction.
If youd prefer to watch the video with a voiceover you can view a similar version by the same artist here.
The Eyes Are The Windows To The Character Soul
I have had quite a few people ask me – “Why don’t Japanese people draw Japanese people? Imean – Japanese people have smaller eyes – so why do they draw them so big in anime?” Well -the answer to that is actually REALLY SIMPLE. They realized a long while back, when anime andmanga were first beginning to develope, that the larger the eyes and faces, the more expressivethey could make the people.
Emotions are best shown using the face, and not just the actions. The eyes – their shape, the sizeof the pupils – the forehead – the nose, and shape of the mouth – They all play a huge role in theway you interpret the emotional state of the character!
Don’t Miss: How Not To Summon A Demon Lord Episode 1 Uncensored
How To Draw Anime Boy Using Only One Pen Anime Drawing Tutorial For Beginners In 2020 Anime Drawings Anime Drawings Tutorials Anime Drawing Styles
How to draw anime boy nose. For a female character draw an arched line underneath your guide that goes toward the side of your character s head. Draw a horizontal line across the middle of the face for the placement of the eyes and a line vertically down the middle for the nose.
Here you will sketch out the entire shape of the face and this should include the ear and the front bang lining for his hair. Anime nose can draw a little more complicated.
You can choose any expression for your anime boy but most anime boys have sharp defined features with eyes slanting more at an angle towards the middle of the face. To do this you can add a slightly curved nose bridge to the simple lines from the figure drawing above.
In this video i show many different ways to draw noses. Draw the face in a sweeping motion.
Draw the nose with it s bottom at the halfway mark between the horizontal halfway point of the head and the bottom of the chin. Place the bottom line for the eye anywhere above the tip of the nose.
Draw an oval for the head of the anime dog. Anime realistic nose drawing same as the previous two example for the front view of the realistic nose first divide the head in to halves both horizontally and vertically.
To place the mouth draw it exactly between the nose and the chin.