Graphite Pencil Drawing Tutorial: Female Nose
Here 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!