Graphite Pencil Drawing Tutorial: Female Nose
Posted by Faith Te on November 30th, 2007Here is a female nose to go along with the female eye tutorial I did. This tutorial demonstrates how I render noses as realistically as I can, using mostly direct application of graphite. I hope you will find the following images and descriptions informative and helpful as a guide in drawing noses. Many thanks to Toni-Marie Hudson for the use of her picture as reference for this tutorial.
Step 1: Here is the outline on 8.2 x 10.1 cm (3.25″ x 4″) Canson paper. The highlights have also been lightly indicated.
Step 2: I’ve used a Chinese brush to apply the initial 2 or 3 layers of graphite powder. This brush produces a smoother effect than the soft brush I used in the eye tutorial. I applied the graphite powder in very light layers, adding more as needed. This is the base tone and it helps make additional layers of graphite tone smoother.
Step 3: I began using a small soft brush for the edges and for the darker areas.
Step 4: Taking the kneaded eraser, I lightly and carefully, tap some of the tones off the highlights on the bridge of the nose, the ball of the nose, and below the nostrils. The Chinese brush was used to dull the highlights a little bit.
Step 5: Using a 0.5 mm 2B Dong-A mechanical pencil, I drew the nostrils. Less pressure was used as I came near the skin below the nostrils.
Step 6: Using a 0.5 mm HB Dong-A mechanical pencil, I began darkening the lower area of the nose. I also lessened the sharpness of the edges of the nostrils by gradually darkening the skin around them. To blend the tones, I used the small brush and a shop towel. It helps if the shop towel employed for blending and smoothening pencil marks is used. New, clean ones tend to pick up tone instead of spread them around.
Step 7: More skin tones using the HB mechanical pencil were added to the middle and upper parts of the nose. Most of the outlines have been smudged off and erased at this point.
Step 8: The skin on the sides of the nose and the nostril wings have been darkened. This created a more three-dimensional effect. For blending, I used the shop towel and the two brushes. A clean shop towel was used to lift excess graphite tone from the drawing. In this stage, I have also started making necessary corrections to capture the likeness of the subject.
Step 9: The tones were further blended. It’s almost finished.
Step 10: The final stage of the nose. For the finishing touches, the tools I used mainly were: a 0.5 mm 2B mechanical pencil with the tip sharpened using fine sandpaper — this was used for filling up light spots; a clean shop towel for lightening up graphite pencil tones; and a kneaded eraser for removing dark spots. Finalizing my “serious” works is usually the most difficult stage of the whole drawing process. It takes quite a long time to do as well.
I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial of a female nose.
Happy drawing!
Faith 
- Website: Artistic Realism Drawings
- Other tutorials: Pencil Drawing Tutorials Category
Tags: drawing tutorials, faith te, female nose, graphite, nose tutorial, pencil drawing
December 16th, 2007 at 9:58 pm
need some charcoal drawing
April 15th, 2008 at 6:26 am
Wow thanks I enjoyed the male and female noses!
April 15th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Pamyla:
Thanks! David and I are glad you enjoyed them
.
May 13th, 2008 at 2:12 am
that is a nice job on the nose, and I was curious if you would be able to help me out with a drawing that I am donig for a class. Please E-mail me @ Horsey_freak14@yahoo.com thank you very much.
you are a good artist.
=]
June 22nd, 2008 at 8:41 pm
this really helped me, and thank you soo much for showin us how to do this, I did struggle but did do well, I was just wondering if you showed any other pictures, well am actually doing a kinda course and I really need something to copy of, like It’s so easy to follow the way you actually showed how to do this, thank you sooooo much…
June 22nd, 2008 at 8:46 pm
Hi, I really like your drawings, it did help me out a lot I was so glad when I was finsished with my final drawing it looked so realistic, tah..
—)
(your a Really goooood artist-
lol
xxx
June 23rd, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Lil — Thank you for your kind words and for taking the time to leave a message. I am so glad to hear that this tutorial was of help to you. All the best and happy drawing!
July 17th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
sana may solong nose naman walang black background
0
July 18th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
Hi Kate! Thanks for leaving a message. Black background
?
August 9th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
Excellent work, i admire the quality and workmanship, well done.
August 11th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Tony M – Thank you very much for your comments. Much appreciated!
August 23rd, 2008 at 4:03 pm
yah dear contributer . this is realy helpfull 4 peole who want to learn drwing by the internet .thanks alot for elustrating such good instraction for drawing begainers.
August 28th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Khair — Thank you for your message. I’m glad you find this tutorial helpful!
September 6th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
Hi,
Really love ure drawings…its awesome! Can u pls send me a pic of ure other drawings. cheers and keep up what ure doing on here…its cool. hope to hear frm u real soon.
September 7th, 2008 at 8:13 am
hey tnx for this drawings man i dindt help but ty.
September 8th, 2008 at 3:08 am
Where do I buy loose graphite powder? I’m in southern CA. I would really appreciate if you let me know. Thank you for a great tutorial. I find it very helpful.
September 8th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
Javier — I’m sorry to know that you don’t find this tutorial helpful.
Anyhow, if you have any suggestions for improvement, I’d love to hear them so I can apply them when I do another drawing tutorial. Thank you for reading and for taking the time to leave a message.
September 11th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
it looks nice i really like it.great
September 14th, 2008 at 11:30 am
Lagdow — Thank you!
October 19th, 2008 at 1:44 am
Great!thank you so much!
October 20th, 2008 at 11:01 pm
Hi,
These have really helped me to understand how to draw a human face, I was wondering if you might be able to recomend and good drawing books you know of?
Thanks again
October 21st, 2008 at 1:29 pm
Hello Ryan,
Thank you for your comment! As for drawing books, I’m afraid I can’t recommend any. I taught myself to draw using tutorials I found on the internet and by asking for help from other artists.
Mike Sibley has written a book which I’ve heard is very good (though I can’t personally say as I haven’t read it yet
). It focuses more on dogs, but there is a demo of a human portrait in section one. You may wish to take a look at a few of the book’s pages here.
I’m sorry I can’t be of any help
.
October 23rd, 2008 at 4:06 am
This is amazing! i find it hard to draw noses, but your tutorial really helps, you picture of an eye is so realistic it looks exactly like a photograph! You are really talented,
thnks for putting up your tutorials they are really useful.
x
October 28th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
Tasha — Thanks very much for the compliments
. I’m so glad to hear that the tutorials are helpful to you 
November 12th, 2008 at 10:27 pm
Great and really helpful tutorial!
November 14th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Natasha — Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment!
November 17th, 2008 at 1:03 am
WOW! I absolutely just LOve how you have explained it step by step. I have always had difficulties with nose’s and especially lips. But i would like to think that i am quite skillful with the eyes point of view
Thank you again, for such a great way to improve our skill.
Take care
December 12th, 2008 at 8:31 am
thank you
December 13th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Miri A — Sorry for the late acknowledgment. Thanks for your feedback though
. It’s much appreciated. I’ll try to make a lips tutorial to post soon. Best wishes.
December 18th, 2008 at 8:25 am
Very usefull post.
Thanks.
P.S. I like your writing style.
December 19th, 2008 at 4:33 am
thank you so much! I tried it,and it really looks good!(but not as good as yours of course)But i didn’t have lots of those fancy things like the Chinese Brush, so i improvised….and it it worked pretty well.
This is now my favourite website so can you please try to make more drawings?
Thanks so much!
January 19th, 2009 at 7:15 pm
hi i love your drawings im an artist myself and cant blend this way wish i could though id be happy to show you my work its on my profile and myspace. ronald1216. one eye sees less light then the other therefore slightly off colored thats why i stay away from color and dont know how much shade to do. thanks for the wonderful art
January 31st, 2009 at 9:39 pm
Good to know there are people out there that still can draw !
Beautiful nose, thank you for sharing.
February 14th, 2009 at 9:52 pm
thanks this is amazing!
April 8th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
a good tutorial for beginners, but the nose does not look realistic. Don’t get me wrong the blends are great. But the problem is simply the nose is too perfect; there are no pores or suggested wrinkles or flaws in the nose–which is a major block of realism. I would suggest to beginners to take this tutorial to heart when it comes to lighting and blending, but look at how dedicated artists mark very minor flaws in their drawings which make a HUGE difference in the finished work.
May 21st, 2009 at 5:56 pm
I always was fascinated by realistic drawings and paintings of reflecting things.
I’ve tried to draw and paint such things in the past with no great succes.
I have enjoyed verry much what you are doing Faith and David.
Today you have init the flame again in me when I saw the beautiful drawings of yours.
Soon I’ll try to draw some things myself with your tutorial.
I ‘ll let you know if I made some progress thanks to you both.
I wich you too the best. And thanks again.
June 12th, 2009 at 5:19 am
Hello!
I liked too much your tutorials about the drawing of an eye and the tutorial of the female nose. Thanks a lot.
June 13th, 2009 at 11:54 am
Excellent job
June 17th, 2009 at 6:38 pm
Hi!!!.
This is the best nose i have ever drawn in my whole entire life and it’s all thanks to you.
You a GREAT artist.
Thanks a billion from your friend Laura
June 26th, 2009 at 1:55 am
i didnt no i could draw a nose so good
October 10th, 2009 at 5:58 am
thanks