The Nose Dilemma

[ahhvecadoes]

I guess it's not a dilemma so much as a question of preference, so to preface:

I recently had my producer for a different comic ask why several comic panels had our MC without a nose, which, if anyone has read my webcomic, would know that I do this for stylistic purposes (mostly for comedic effect) to exaggerate facial expressions and let the mouth and eyes be the focus. It's often used in manga, which is a very early influence on my own art.

So the question is, does it throw you off, as a reader, when a character is noseless? I'm really curious to see, especially people who read more western comics than manga, what effect that has on a reader.

EDIT: whoops, forgot "out" in without.

[Michelle]

I think you mean "several panels had our MC without a nose", right?

It wouldn't throw me off so long as there was an obvious stylistic change to reflect the exaggeration. If the character was more-or-less drawn in the same style and was suddenly missing their nose, that'd be pretty odd.

[ahhvecadoes]

WHOOPS, yeah, I meant without.

[punkarsenic]

It wouldn't throw me off so long as there was an obvious stylistic change to reflect the exaggeration. If the character was more-or-less drawn in the same style and was suddenly missing their nose, that'd be pretty odd.

absolutely seconding michelle, youd need to shorthand your entire style to pull that shorthand off, id say. especially in the case of form - bc with a regular, fairly 3d drawing style (as is the case w most non-shorthanded styles, and yours definitely shows form in the face) with shading and the rest, thered have to be something in that space, be it a nose or a bump in the face. so like. here:

absolutely would not phase me if he had no nose

but here it would:

however, the two on the right are shorthanded, so the flatness of their faces is fine.

[CoffeeandCats]

Not too much I don't draw them sometimes when drawing small pixels or chibis ;w; but on my bigger nose characters I never forget (like Adam and Lillian)
I'm getting better at always drawing them, my real drawings (anything non comic or not a doodle) always have noses tho... ;w;

small nose, he's noseless here, I thought that expression the nose made it look a lil weird
but most have noses tho lol

[indagold]

Oh you mean chibi in manga? I guess it depends how well it's done and it's not distracting. Although I know artists that make their characters look like this all the time and it is very distracting:

[J.Z.Castillo]

Dude! Your style is great! I was gonna say, it doesn't bother me when the entire style is like "cutesy" or "cartoony" but you have a really detailed style and when you omit noses it just looks weird. I don't think your expressions will suffer if you leave the noses on your characters, you can simplify the features if you want, but personally I would leave the noses on when I am drawing something in a overly stylized way.

[Ironscarf]

Yeah, you have some really nice noses going on there and you clearly care about the characterisation, so it jumps out at me a little when a nose is suddenly missing. I can accept it as a stylistic choice that happens once in a while, but only because I can see you know what you're doing!
I come more from a western comic background though, where noses are more likely to be exagerrated than exluded.

[mariusthered]

not at all, if fact i kind like it as a style. i did try to mess around with my own characters to get new styles but some characters need that big nose they stick in the wrong places to make them who they are.

[theladiesi]

I don't get bothered by these things. I like to see artists have fun with their art and express themselves. As long as I can follow the art it's all good.

[sheap]

I'm used to the... noselessing?
So, I don't mind if an author decide for no-breathing characters

[shaylafarley5]

To me its normal, just like how some anime males show nipples and most don't

[Kura]

It bugged the hell out of me when I was a kid that Krillin in DBZ did not have a nose when everyone else did. I don't know why, I just hated it for no real reason. I think it might have just been weird to me was that he he suddenly has one if he had to go side profile view.

Usually though I could really care less, it's not that big an issue stylistic wise. I don't know why it bugged me as much as it did for that specific character though xD