Nose tutorial

First off - this isn't exactly how I do the noses. These steps come quite natural to me and I don't really stop to think about them. Usually, I end up painting over, repainting, changing, and ditching several noses before I find one I like. Furthermore, I don't actually paint in the 'lines' when I paint a nose, I just think them. I'm just trying to explain, here, how it could be done, yes?

Step one - placement and angle
Anyway - start off with getting the basic features of the face down - mainly to decide such things as light source, and what kind of nose we're looking for [1]. No need to go overboard, let's keep this sloppy. Usually, while I refine the nose, I refine the rest of the features at the same time - but I'll leave them like this now.


Step two - finding the shape

Paint - on a separate layer - an elliptic dot right between the eyes [2]. Then follow a lightly curved line downwards, and paint a triangle - similar to the one in this picture. Adapt the triangle to the angle of the face. If it's not seen in profile, or straight on, it'll be a little smaller on the side of the face turned away from us. Like in the example here.



Paint two slightly curved lines leading down from the dot [3]. Let one of them impact with the triangle right above its peak, while the other touches the edge of the triangle. When you've done this, you've isolated the upper part of the nose. A mistake I've seen many make is to keep this part very flat as if the nose consisted of bits of plastic glued together. It's soft edged, and when we're done, there won't be any sharp black lines like this. Unless you're doing a linework drawing, don't ever, ever, ever keep black lines in.

Step three - refining the shapes
Next thing you do, is realise that the end of the nose tip is not sharp and flat like in the 'sketch'. It's rounded. Likewise, the shadow underneath the nose will not really be shaped like a triangle for the most part. So, do a softer curve - like a little wave [4]. When you've done this, you can do a quick horizontal switch of your canvas to see if you've got it down properly.


After you've done this, simply paint over the dot. It's likely that this area will be brighter than the rest of the nose, so we'll go with that here. Also, soften the dark lines with a light colour - and follow the end of what used to be the triangle, and curve it upwards (like half a circle) towards the line - like viewed in [5].

You now have the bridge of the nose, and the upper curve of the nostril (this curve is usually not this visible, but we'll take care of that as we progress).


The side of the nose needs to be defined, too. Imagine it an area (though not a flat area, but one nevertheless) that angles down a little, and then almost straight to the triangle as viewed in the example [6]. Do -not- paint the red lines in, just the dark one.


Step four - finding the nose under the lines
The area that you sketched out in example [6] is now to be painted in. Don't be afraid to paint over the shape of the nostril, nor the lines - but fill that area with a lightly shaded hue. In this picture, the shadow isn't too stark - and I suggest you make it a soft shadow, too. As you can see in the example [7], I haven't entirely painted over the shape of the nostril, but it is only hinted at now.



Next thing we do now is to zoom in, and to paint over the dark lines. Also, the triangle needs to be worked on - we've left it untouched so far. Let the visible nostril follow the line of the triangle and soften the transition from dark to light a little [8]. Don't touch anything on the nose 'cept for the triangle area, and the one that you've recently filled in.


Continue doing this, until you have completely hidden the lines [9] and you see the nose instead of the sketch of it. Instead of defining the nose by lines, we're now defining it by some rather subtle changes of colours and shadows. Also - chances are that you'd see the second nostril as a shadow on the far side of the nose - note that I've added a small hint at it now.


Step five - highlights and shadows

Now, the nose in the previous example looks rather flat. To work against this, carefully bring forward highlights and shadows all over the nose with subtle, delicate hues. Find the highlight on the tip of the nose - but do not exaggerate it, and continue to find the curve of the nostril, and the angle of the nose tip not through lines but through colours [10]. I picked the colour on the highlight from the brighter area at the bridge of the nose - since it's surrounded by a darker shade, it will appear to be brighter.

The tip of the nose is defined here - depending on where you put the highlights on the tip, the nose will change shapes - it's interesting to view. Try to move it around a little 'til you find a place that accentuates the shape that you want.

A zoomed out picture of the progress now [11] shows a nose that has both shape and softness through the way we've worked so far. The difference of hue and brightness between cheek and nose easily shows where the nose begins to 'rise' from the shape of the face.


All that is needed now is refinement of the highlights and colours. This is a process I can't really explain, as such, but I'll give you two examples [12], [13] to show how it might look. You've got the shape of the nose down now - don't be afraid to play around with highlights and shadows. In case you want a more contrasted nose, with starker shading, you can still use these basic shapes to figure out how to work with darker shadows.

Think of the areas we defined earlier and work from that point until you've learned the shapes in a way that will let you do all of this automatically :)

The picture - really just a quick sketch, ended up like this:

教程原站：
http://www.furiae.com/index.php?view=gallery