How to Draw - Pencil Hair

7/27/2019 How to Draw - Pencil Hair

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By Maerianne V. Morrison ([email protected]), Gallery 304.

Drawing hair is hard work. It's complicated, time consuming, and often the results are terrible, and trustme, I speak from personal experience when I say that. So, why bother? I used to skip it all togetherwhen drawing portraits, thinking I'd never be able to do it well, so I didn't do it at all. Witness exhibitsand B from early 2000:

I'm posting them here (much to my ever-lasting shame) todemonstrate something. Although it's might be nice the say'to hell with hair' altogether, but graphically, it doesn't

usually work. The pictures look empty, unrefined, andlacking. Hair has often been considered a symbol of beauty.Why would you want to leave out such a powerful elementout of one's picture? Hair can change the look of a picturedramatically and tell you more of a story. Hair can addmotion, show the environment that the character is in, andtell you about the character by its style (or lack of).

Getting Started: tools

l Pencils: It sounds pretty simple, but I'm going to go over the basics once more. It's always goodto have a handy supply of pencils with different leads. I'm not suggesting that you go out and buya set from 9H to 9B, but have a good pencils for drawing (most artists usually use 2H up to 4Brange). I find for drawing hair, having a mechanical pencil around can be handy - especially ifyour lazy like me, and hate sharpening your pencil a hundred times (each). I actually do almost alof my work with my mechanical pencil and using B leads. You see, I'm a control freak and like tchange from darkness to light by using pressure, not which lead I'm using. That, and I'mconvinced it's lucky. I've included a picture of it- it's a little pricey at $6.00 a pop, but they're wellworth it. Feel free to try the technique if you'd like, but don't underestimate the traditional way.

P R I N T E R V E R S I O Nhttp://elfwood.lysator.liu.se//farp/theart/maeryhair/maeryhair.html

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It's the most frequently used method for a very good reason.

l Paper: For any drawing, using good paper is essential. In this case, we're going to be doing a lotof layers, adding pencil, and erasing, so you'll want a paper that can take a bit of a beating. Myfavorite is to use 90lb watercolor paper. It's thick enough that you could do just about anything toit, and it won't wrinkle or crease. Plus, watercolor paper adds a nice texture. The thicker the papethe better chance you won't erase through it. Plus the texture really holds lead well and you won'thave to work hard at getting dark tones.

l Erasers: I usually use a big white vinyl eraser for big mistakes, but whichever you prefer is fine.One thing that I will highly recommend is to get a "Tuff Stuff eraser stick". It's a wonderful penstyle eraser that works wonders, is under 5 mm thick, and is fantastic for picking out highlights. Ican't stress enough how much I love my Tuff Stuff! It's essential for any art kit.

l Blending Utensils: Sure, you can be old fashioned and use your fingers, but realize the oil fromyour hands can damage your drawing. I prefer to use my stump (aka stomp) which is essentiallyrolled up piece of paper that looks like a pen. They come in all sorts of sizes and are dirt-cheap.

It's always a worthwhile thing to have.

l Dusters: Optional, but nice to have if you have the habit of smearing your drawing with yourhands. If you don't have one, remember to blow or shake your drawing the get crud off... neverwipe it away with your hands! (I've had many smearing disasters. Not fun.)

Whew! Now that that's done let's move on to the fun stuff.... let's go drawing! *cue cheesy music*

Down and Dirty: drawing hair

Layout: putting down the basics

Here I've started with a face already drawn in for simplicity'ssake. I figured I might as well throw it down on the paper tostart off with, so you can see the light source I'm workingwith, and so it won't end up being hair floating in a void in thend.

As you might imagine, the first thing youhave to do is block in the hair. I've gone for

a semi-curly windswept look for this one, tobetter illustrate how hair can by dynamicand wild. But chose whatever you're in themood for, and go for it. While yourblocking in the hair- Go crazy! Hair iserratic, fluid, and never does what it'ssupposed to, so make your hair interesting.Just remember, as your establishing yourlayout, that you're not drawing hair strandby strand. That is the primary pitfall of artists when it comes




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to hair. Hair, like the rest of a drawing, is chunks of light and shadow, so treat them as such. Keepthinking about big blocky clumps, and the motion of hair, not individual strands.

Also, keep in mind the environment. I say environment instead of just lighting, because when yourdrawing hair, you also have to take into consideration where the character is, what movements he/she ismaking, and how those factors would make the hair react. Try to see the motion in the hair when yourpicture it in your mind. Keep these things, as well as light source in mind while working on your layout

Establishing Mid-Tones: the foundation of you

piece

At this stage, you're basically feeling out where the mid-tones will be. Don't be afraid to go heavy on the pencil-you can always erase it if you've added too much!

In this stage it's really important toconsider your light source. Where's thelight coming from? What would be lightand what would be dark? Startestablishing these differences in yourdrawing, concentrating mostly on themedium grays at this point.

At this stage, don't worry too muchabout what your pencil work looks like.This drawing will be going through quite a bit oflayering, so it doesn't matter if it looks unrefined orsketchy. In fact, if it is sketchy, you're on the right track!

Sketches have a natural spontaneity to them that do wonders for hair and motion.

Also, I'll have a quick word on hair color. Even bleach blond hair will have near-black shades, the sameway black hair will have white highlights. When your dealing with a grayscale picture, I find it's moreimportant to properly define and render the hair, the be true to the 'color' you want. That being said, ifyou want a 'blond' look, simply draw most of the hair in lighter tones of gray, and make them darker fobrunette. If your confused, just open up a random picture in PhotoShop or Paint Shop Pro and make theimage grayscale. Sometimes you can tell what the hair color originally was, but others you can't. Decidif the color will be a priority for you, and then do what you feel is needed to achieve the look. Intuitionis a big part of the art process, and shouldn't be ignored.

Finding Shadows: darkening it up

At this point we're hunting for shadows. Find the areas ofthe picture that would be darker then the already-donemid-tones, and darken them in even more. Now thatyou've done the mid-tones, you know what your mediumgray will look like for this particular piece, so use that todecide how dark you want your blacks to be.

Me? I like them dark. So dark in fact,sometimes I whip out a black pen to




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make sure they're as black as they can possibly be. Why? Because, contrast is important. It's what makea picture eye-catching, adds depth, and defines it. The only downside to keep in mind is that black, onit's own, tends to look flat, so keep the areas to a minimum. If you're unsure of where to use your darks,find pictures of hairstyles, and squint at them. I know it sounds kooky, but bear with me for a moment.When you squint at the picture you loose definition, but you gain shapes. And by doing this you'll beable to really pick out lights and darks, and the shapes the hair can make, without worrying about thedetails which people like me get bogged down in.

Remember, you're still not drawing individual strands; you're drawing shapes and tones of lights anddarks. And, as always, when you're putting down your darks, keep in mind your light source. A picturewith very dramatic light sources will have more contrast and heavier shadows, unlike this piece here,which has glamour lighting (glamour lighting is a photography term which basically means 'soft light'.Generally it's a main light, with a pretty strong fill light so there aren't many striking blacks, but mostimportantly, it makes the models 'look good'.)

Blending it All Together: softening the piece

At this point, now that we know where we're going with

the piece, and where our lights and darks are, it's time tostart refining. So, take out your stump and start smudging!(And I do really recommend using a stump and not yourfingers since it's easier to control, with less oil damage. Bfeel free to try other techniques that you're comfortablewith like using Kleenex, q-tips, etc.)

Don't really worry about loosing somedetail, that's part and parcel of this step.We need to smooth out all the sketchierpencil applications to create a more

polished look. But use your commonsense, if you feel your loosing too muchof the drawing, use a lighter touch, or tryanother blending tool. Keep in mind, thatas you blend it all together with thestump, the picture will get darker. Don'tworry, it's a good thing! The more layers

you have on the paper, the better step 6 will be.

Be careful and test the waters when you start blending, depending on how soft a lead you've used, andwhat tool you use to smudge, it will be easier or harder.

Refining Details: rendering the hair

If you're using regular pencils, it's time to switch tomechanical or to really sharpen them up. Since this step isto start adding the detail to hair, you'll need a pointy lead.So keep that sharpener on hand, since dull leads maybe nicfor shading, but not for clear and crisp lines.

Okay, now you can start drawing lines!




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But don't flatten out all those beautiful tones you've created! Vary the pressure, make darker lines indark sections, and lighter ones for the lighter. All you're really doing in this step it to make the imagecrisper and give it a more 'hair-like' texture by adding some detailed line-work. You're using the lines tenhance the hair, not to overpower it. Still keep the chunks of hair and motion in mind, but make themsharper and clearer on paper.

If your like me, and have made the darks as dark as can be, you may find yourself asking, "how do I addetail to this? My pencil won't do any darker". Well, as I mentioned earlier, I sometimes use aStaedtler .005 drawing pen to add really fine black details. But be careful, and use it sparingly. Youcan't erase it like pencil, and erasing is very important in the next step.

Finishing Touches: adding highlights

Your almost done, I swear! This step is myfavorite, adding the highlights. As your doingthis it's really important to keep your lightsource in mind, as always. (I swear, I soundworse then my high school Art teacher)

So, take out you Tuff Stufferaser. If you don't have one,find another eraser (not avinyl one, they're generallytoo soft for precisionerasing) and slice the endwith an Exacto blade so youcan eraser really sharp finelines.

Now, go crazy and pick outthe highlights! Remember,you can always vary your pressure to get softeor more striking highlights, so use a nice rangAnd if you make a mistake, you can alwaysadd more pencil.

Just remember, with dramatic lighting (not likthis picture) less is sometimes more. A few well-placed highlights on mostly dark hair can have a verystriking effect.

And for a final,finalfinishing touch you might want to add some fixative to it. Time can do somedevastating things to a work of art, especially if it's in a well-traveled sketchbook. I like to use Krylon'sWorkable fixative. It adds a nice protective coat without changing the image at all. Just be sure to sprayin a well-ventilated area, or you'll be woozy in no time! Also, going with a fixative that says 'workable'gives you the added bonus that if you want to change something later down the line you can- withoutruining the drawing.

Tips and Tricks




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l As always, view hair as fluid and erratic shapes, not linesl If you can't erase highlights, use white gouche, or a white gel penl Don't be afraid to find photo-references, even the pros need them from time to time.l Practice, Practice, Practicel Don't be afraid to not outline your images, not everything has to be linerl Use a lot of medium grays, don't think of your piece as black and white, but as a grayscale image

"Oops, I messed up!"

First of all, don't worry about it. I mess up my images more often then I'd like to admit. Try to think of ias a learning experience rather then a failure. Try to figure out where you when wrong so you won'tmake that mistake twice.

Don't be ashamed of some of your first attempts, everyone has to start from somewhere. You don't getbetter overnight. And don't forget to keep working! You'll never get better if you don't practice.

Comment board for this FARP article by Maerianne V. Morrison (Email: [email protected]):

Date Name Comment

Jan 72004

Piratenites*mmmmmwwwah!* thank you, i now have to go and draw hair, my worstdrawing point! Great article thing, very helpfull.

Jan 82004

Elfwood artist:Joni Warden

Thank you.... no, REALLY. THANK you. I draw hair but most times, notthat detailed.Now...how about teaching us, how to draw CLOUDS....yeah, lets drawCLOUDS!!!!

JONI

Jan 82004

Elfwood artist:Iman Khondker

Hey! THIS IS GREAT!!!! wow, i really screwed up on this other picturewith hair in it. i did line after line after line and it turned out looking reallyflat and artificial. THANK YOU!!! ^____^ another satisfied artist, lol

Jan 82004

Elfwood artist:Christiane E.Rosin

That's a very beautiful pic ^_^ And quite helpful, too! My old art teachernever gave me GOOD advice on how to draw hair...he was way to vague. Ihad a lot of trouble on making my hair look nice and natural. This gave me afew good ideas that I will use in the future! Yay! Thank you!

Jan 82004

Elfwood artist:Oliver Edward

Emeny

This tutorial is great. I hate drawing hair coz i find it so hard and this helpsloads. THANX!!!!!

Jan 82004

Elfwood artist:Tanya MarieMoore

Very helpful and I love the way you do hair! Are you a natural red head? Metoo, if you are! Thanx for posting the article!!=)

Jan 82004

TomasHennerfors

I really needed this tutorial on how to draw hair. I suck on it, thanx^^

Jan 82004

WheeligThis drawing is beautiful and I think the tutorial is very useful, but I wouldthink that someone should be assigned to proof-reading articles before theyare posted on Elfwood.




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Jan 82004

AnonymousThank you so very, very much for this article! I've always had a hard timedrawing hair (I'm too detailed, I admit it) and this tutorial really gave mesome ideas. Thanks!

Jan 92004

Rachel TipaldiThanks a million! Great piece, and I've always liked doing hair, so this wasfantastic to read. I must say that I am one of those 'every line' type of people.LOL. Wonderful article. Thanks again! Oh, and it's a beautiful piece. ;-)

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How to Draw - Pencil Hair