Lesson 4: Meet My Friend Bill or... "Who Nose What's Next?"

If you ask the average crowd of strangers what caricature is, there will likely be more than a few answers that come back as "That's when you draw someone with a big nose." While a large nose is a great thing to exaggerate if you are lucky enough to have a subject that owns one, it's not really all that this artform boils down to.


In caricature, we are looking to capture two main things... a recognizable likeness and personality. You can add "statement" to that as well which is adding peripheral items like style of dress and props to further describe and identify your subject. Drawing Harrison Ford with a white shirt, vest and ray gun tells you it's Han Solo while drawing him with a fedora, dusty leather jacket and bullwhip tells you he's Indiana Jones.

a schnoz collage

Back to noses... Nothing sticks out (literally) in a caricature like a nose. It's right in the center of the head shape between the two most expressive features of the face, the eyes and the mouth. That's not to say that the nose is the most important feature to capture or exaggerate. Some people like Owen Wilson and Tony Bennett warrant first class treatment of their overpowering and/or unusual beaks but many folks have very average nondescript noses and focusing on them does not lend itself to capturing likeness. If you don't notice the nose at first glance, it probably should not be the focal point of your caricature.

Owen Wilson has a
noteworthy nose.

Size is only one part of the equation. Apart from the different shapes and sizes, noses also have depth. They protrude from the face more than any other feature. Noses are not particularly hard to draw (they don't have a lot of intricate parts like the eye) but since they stick out so far from the face, proper shading is very important.


Few facial features come in wider variety than noses. They can be flat, pointy, wide, long, button, broken, bent, upturned, hooked and any combination in between (and that's just Michael Jackson's).