Painting a nose

"Today we’ll paint a nose. I love noses! And I hope that I could share a piece of my love with you by this tutorial." Facial features are difficult to recreate, especially when working with oil colours. In this step-by-step plan, artist Zarina Situmorang shows us how she builds a nose using Rembrandt and Van Gogh oil colours. Let’s begin!

What you need View steps

What you need

Rembrandt oil colour in Titanium White (#118)
Rembrandt oil colour in Ivory Black (#701)
Rembrandt oil colour in Burnt Umber (#409)
Van Gogh oil colour in Yellow Ochre (#227)
Van Gogh oil colour in Cadmium Red Medium (#314)
Round (#1 and #2) and flat (#7) synthetic brushes
Tear-off palette
Talens white spirit
Talens bleached linseed oil

Tips

I usually divide the process of the painting into three stages:

The base. This part is pretty sloppy. I try out different colours, see how they work together and add some variety.
The transition. Once I’m happy with the result of the previous step, I proceed to mix and add the transitional colours in between the existing colours.
The blending. This is where I create smooth lines between the colours I have already applied. I use an old fluffy brush to do that.

Step 1

Create some mixes of different skin tones and shadow shades on your palette using the colours pictured and the white spirit and linseed oil.

Step 2

Paint the outline of the nose. I did this using a diluted brown colour.

Step 3

Fill in the shape using the three brown shades we mixed on our palette. These will be our base.

Step 4

Different parts of the nose have different tints. For example, the tip usually has more red, so let’s add some red!

Step 5

Add your transition colours and blend them together with the existing colours.

Step 6

Time for some blending. I use an old fluffy brush to smooth the lines between all the colours.

Step 7

For the final touches I have added a bit more detail to the nostrils and finally added a highlight.

And our nose is done! I hope you liked this lesson. Don’t forget to share your results using #RoyalTalens!

This wonderful step-by-step plan was made for Royal Talens by Zarina Situmorang (@zarinasart on Instagram).

Painting a nose

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Tips

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Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

Step 5

Step 6

Step 7

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