How to draw a nose in three-quarter view: where it meets the cheek

Turn a head away from you and the nose moves toward the far side of the face. At some point it reaches the outline of the far cheek, and how you draw that meeting tells the viewer how far the head has turned. Leave a wide strip of cheek beyond the nose and the head looks barely turned; push the nose past the outline and it reads as near profile. This guide measures that strip on ten drawn heads at three angles.

The heads come from the free head rotation reference. On the pencil plates at 22.5 degrees, 45 degrees and 67.5 degrees, a script found the strokes on each row; we read the 45 degree rows by hand from its tables. We took the row where the far edge of the nose reaches furthest toward the far side, and measured from the outer stroke of that edge to the outline of the cheek on the same row. We drew every point back on its plate and looked at it. The plates share one frame and scale at every angle. The small gaps are hard to read precisely. To make the numbers usable at any size, we give the gap as a share of the same head's eye width from the front, from the inner corner to where the lids meet. In your own drawing, take that width from a front view of the same head, not from the narrowed eyes of the turned one. At 45 degrees with no front view, a seventh of the eye line, back of the skull to the far edge, comes close, as in the three-quarter guide. The numbers describe these drawings, not people's faces; use them as a starting point to check against your own reference.

At 22.5 degrees, about nine tenths of an eye of cheek

At 22.5 degrees the far edge of the nose is the far wing, the rounded side above the nostril. On all ten heads a clear strip of cheek runs between it and the outline: about two thirds to nearly a whole eye width, nearly nine tenths on a typical head. The gaunt-planes and minimal heads have the narrowest strips, about seven tenths; the other eight keep a little over four fifths or more.

So at a slight turn the whole nose stays well inside the face, with nearly a whole eye's width of cheek beyond the far wing.

At 45 degrees, on the line or just inside it

At 45 degrees the strip has nearly gone, and the ten heads split three ways:

• On the line: the gaunt-planes, heavy-jaw, minimal and square-jaw heads. No stroke lies beyond the nose on that row, even a faint one: the far edge of the nose is the outline of the face there, with the cheek line coming down above it and carrying on below.
• A hair inside: the hard-plane, soft-planes and heavy-brow heads. The cheek line runs just outside the nose, about a tenth of an eye or less and close to the measuring error: a thin white sliver.
• Clearly inside: the deep-folds, full-lips and high-cheekbones heads. The gap is a quarter of an eye or a little more.

So the most the plates leave at 45 degrees is a little over a quarter of an eye of cheek, against about nine tenths at 22.5. On seven of the ten the nose is on the line or about a tenth of an eye width inside it at most. We didn't measure what sets the three wider heads apart, or separate the wing from the tip at this angle.

At 67.5 degrees, the nose is the outline

At 67.5 degrees the tip of the nose is the furthest stroke out on its row on all ten heads, with nothing beyond it: the cheek line has gone behind the nose. The bridge, the tip and the underside now make that part of the outline.

The far eye goes the same way. On eight heads a thin wedge of its lids still shows past the bridge of the nose, and on the deep-folds head the iris shows as well; on the gaunt-planes and minimal heads we couldn't tell lid strokes from brow strokes at that size. The near-profile guide follows the rest of the face through this angle.

Use the strip to set the turn

Read together, the three angles give a simple check for a drawing you're making. Look at the gap between the far side of the nose and the cheek outline:

• Two thirds to nearly a whole eye: a slight turn, around 22.5 degrees.
• None to a little over a quarter of an eye: a three-quarter view, around 45 degrees.
• No strip at all, the nose forming the outline, a wedge of the far eye at the bridge: near profile, around 67.5 degrees.

We didn't measure the angles in between, so a strip between about a quarter and two thirds of an eye falls between these readings. And these are ten drawn heads in one style: check the strip against your own reference too.

Order of work

1. Draw the outline of the head and the curved center line for the turn.
2. Place the nose on the center line and find its far edge, the side of the wing.
3. Set the strip: two thirds to nine tenths of the eye width of cheek beyond the far wing at 22.5 degrees, about a quarter or less at 45.
4. At 45 degrees, let the cheek line run to the nose where it touches, and carry it on below.
5. At 67.5 degrees, draw the bridge, tip and underside as the outline, and add the far eye as a wedge past the bridge.

Common mistakes

• A wide strip of cheek at 45 degrees. None of the ten leaves much more than a quarter of an eye.
• A nose already touching the outline at 22.5 degrees. All ten keep about two thirds of an eye of cheek or more there.
• A cheek line drawn across the nose at 45 degrees. Where the two meet, the nose stroke is the outline.
• A cheek line beyond the nose at 67.5 degrees. On all ten the tip is the furthest point out on its row.
• A whole far eye in near profile. At 67.5 degrees it's a wedge past the bridge, or gone.

Related guides

How to draw the nose from different angles builds the nose as a wedge with its planes, how to draw nostrils sizes the openings, and how to draw the head in three-quarter view places the rest of the face at 45 degrees.

A short exercise

Draw the square-jaw head and the high-cheekbones head at 22.5 degrees and 45 degrees, the same size. At 22.5 degrees leave a little over four fifths of an eye of cheek beyond the square-jaw nose and about nine tenths beyond the other. At 45 degrees bring the square-jaw nose onto the outline and leave a little over a quarter of an eye beyond the high-cheekbones nose. Then compare all four drawings with the plates.

The square-jaw head is Study Pack 07 and the high-cheekbones head Study Pack 09, both in Volume 2.

This guide is one step in how to draw the head at any angle, which puts all the head guides in order.