Drawing Realistic Hair

The most popular ways of drawing realistic hair look so incredible.

Are you struggling when it comes to drawing hair? Drawing hair can be an intimidating task for those who are just learning how to draw. With the overwhelming amount of detail and commitment required, many people lose their patience and resort to a series of sloppy scribbles. To some of us, drawing hair can be a nightmare. But a change in your approach can help you leave those fears behind.

Before we get started we need to figure out what hairstyle we want to draw on our character. The easiest way to start is by locating the hairline and determining how the hair is going to fall over and frame the face. There are as many hairline types as there are people, but here are a few general examples to get you started on drawing different frames. The way you render the strands of hair makes a significant difference on the overall texture you are trying to emulate. If you want to draw short hair, draw short choppy strokes. On the flip side, if you want to draw long hair make longer strokes. It might sound a little straightforward, but believe me it makes a big difference. You can also reduce the pen pressure in order to get thin tapering lines that capture the soft of individual hair strands.

Follow the three rules of light - This is how your mind interprets light-anything that is lighter will come forward, anything that is darker will recede farther back, and anything the same value will be flat. So, in essence, what we'll do to is create a 'negative' and allow the light areas to represent the strands of hair, and the darker recesses to represent the depth and shaded areas of the hair. Your mind will do marvelous things in translating what it sees if we create some of the necessary ingredients for it to justify its interpretation.

Shading Techniques in Art - Shading is the technique of showing tones or values on an object through gradual gradations for it to look 'solid' and have a three dimensional effect. Shading techniques allow you to weave layer upon layer of pencil marks to add a convincing form to your line drawing. Shading adds a sense of substance to your subject and produces a convincing tonal relationship. Drawings take on a three dimensional form when shaded properly.

To render shades correctly on drawn objects, the artist must carefully observe the source of light that is striking various values of tones or shades on the drawn objects. After realizing the source of light, the artist must study closely the reflections of the light on areas of the objects to know the lightest and darkest sections. After establishing the endpoints or extremes thus the lightest valued areas as well as the darkest valued areas, the remaining area with a mid-half tone between the two extremes is the middle value.

Remember that you cannot successfully go past something that doesn't have a clean line or edge. Then you choose, in principle, two lines running parallel and bridge that gap by adding value between those two lines. You will have created darker recessed spacing and what will be left will be the lighter areas representing the blond hair.

You're utilizing contrast, which along with the clean edges to your darker values will create dimension. When you use the rules of how light works as well, and determine to see some representation of curve and contour, you now have the necessary structure and ingredients for lighter hair. In essence, you have created a negative.