Nose: Basics

Basics
The nose is one of the most prominent features in the face but in anime's and manga, they become simplified to the point that is just becomes a line or even a dot in most cases. Above is an example of the transition from realistic nose to over-simplified.

Although you may be drawing small noses for young characters most of the time, one quick way to add age to a character is to draw a more realistic nose. While we're talking about character, you can add "character" to a person by the type of nose they have. Thin, thick, long, short, snub, perky, drooping, aquiline - the choices are endless! This is especially true as to the profile the nose creates in a side view.

Drawing the nose in ther quarter view has the same concept as drawing the face or any part of the body, basically. A nice breakdown is shown on the left where the nose is divided into quarters. Since the nose is in a quarter view, one quarter is on the other side and is not viewable hence only 3/4 is left. Below the graphed nose are examples of a normal to a simplified nose.

Drawing the side view of the nose is quite similar to the 3/4 view. The only difference is the slight change in position of the nostril and the nostril wing (semi-circle). Note that the point of the nose is still basically half of a diamond.

When coloring or toning your nose, though, you have to remember that it's three dimensional and the basic shading of the realistic nose pretty much transfer onto the simplified drawn nose.