How To Draw Digital Hair

Hair is very important for our characters, lending a personality of its own, so cartoon hair exactly as nosotros imagine information technology tin exist a real challenge.

But there are many different approaches we can have! For me, the near of import dominion is to empathise what I am drawing, so that I don't get lost halfway through.

1. Construction and book

Get-go, we must define the areas of our character's pilus. Marking a reference point or a route which divides the hair can assistance the states. For instance, at the hair parting (1). From there, it becomes easier to see the direction that each department volition accept (two).

Every bit my drawing advances, I ponder some possibilities. This graphic symbol will have direct hair, cut just over the shoulders. I think no bangs would exist better, merely I want some hair to cover one centre, and the tips of the hair to ringlet inwards.

I showtime to draw these lines. I might modify my listen later on, but this phase allows me to run across more clearly.

The head is a sphere. If we don't take that into account, the drawing could start to flatten. This is a fairly mutual error. Let's accept a look using a mesh to demonstrate:

Each hair comes from a specific betoken and grows in a different direction. Fifty-fifty when the hair is very long, the gravitational strength eventually brings it down.

Hair locks must somehow wrap the caput following the curves of its surface. Cheque the difference between these two images. Both circles accept a layer around them, just A looks more like a apartment shape, whereas B looks to exist more spherical.

Pilus does not glue itself to the head. Let'due south continue in mind that at that place is ever space betwixt strands and over layers of hair, which builds up to create volume.

• The light-green area (1) indicates the gap between the head and the edge of the hair.

• On the dorsum of the head (two) there are several layers of hair, but since it'due south straight pilus, the edges are almost unaffected, which allows a very subtle falling around the neck.

• The book varies depending on the corporeality of pilus on each side of the caput (three).

Many artists choose to simplify the hair using bones shapes, or annihilation else that helps them define the volume, the angles, and to easily approach values. And then they add together details to the surface.

Job: I ever recommend learning using real-world references. Accept some photos of hair styles and place where the locks are coming from and where they are going. Y'all can besides depict their edges.

▲Animated GIF

2. Shape:

Some drawing styles demand more than effort in the detailing stage than others, but it is ever necessary to accept into account the standard characteristics of hair. Let's look at information technology this mode:

The overall pilus is a set of many locks > locks are a set up of strands

• Pilus does not form a compacted shape, nor a consistent one. It is very light, so when the character moves, the wind, the humidity, or anything that surrounds it can affect its silhouette.

Let's see some examples, step by step:

Direct hair:

• My first step was to draw the edges of the primary lock (the 1 which will be the base of our cartoon), post-obit the direction in a Due south shape. Then I filled information technology in to create its silhouette.

• The petty strands on Footstep three follow a very similar direction, but slightly more pronounced, enough to add together dynamism to the shape.

Finally, I added some strands which movement in completely different directions than the original 1, to residual the composition and make information technology more bonny.

Curly hair:

• The lock curls itself around in a cylindrical shape. Try not to make this shape completely directly, otherwise the lock will finish up looking like a spring!

• Then I simplify, kickoff drawing a ribbon. See how it becomes thinner as information technology approaches the tip. The tertiary step is to detail the external and internal sides (A).

• I added some texture, following the management of the curves. I also put in some irregularities around the edges to lucifer the surface (B).

We can utilize this method to create more interesting and circuitous silhouettes:

I followed all these criteria to castor up my character and then I added the necessary amount of detail while keeping information technology simple.

3. Adding values:

I am going to use the value scale to define details and give a 3D consequence to the shapes.

The below paradigm is a hairstyle consisting of irregular layers and overlapping locks. If we only had the silhouette, we wouldn't notice all these details, thus I need to dissimilarity the dissimilar sections in order to highlight these shapes.

This is the step-by-step process which will help the states empathize better:
• I define the edges (1). In step 2, the mid-tones can be seen in the corner; the strokes follow a single direction to maintain the harmony of the shape, and the illuminated areas are left blank.
• In step three, we apply darker shades to darken and deepen some areas, for example, on the overlapping layers as indicated past the arrows. I continue this way until the drawing is finished.

Information technology is non a problem if nosotros are merely guided by our intuition when drawing shadows and lights. "Lighting" is an extensive and super interesting topic, and I am afraid that what I explain hither is not plenty to comprehend information technology! I'd recommend researching and practicing equally much as possible.

Hair types and textures:

Textures make unique sensations and enrich our illustrations. It may exist overwhelming to think about hair textures, only instead of working exclusively with lines, we must not decline other tools that can make tasks easier as well every bit creating incredible effects, both in digital and traditional art spaces. Information technology is e'er good to experiment to develop methods that highlight the qualities of our way!

I don't have a unique answer to which tool to use in each case, just here is a clue: imagine the feeling of each type of hair!

Short, about shaved hair feels like a rug —I've always thought and then! And when I draw it, I like to give it a prickly, pointy, rough appearance.

For wavy hair, I retrieve about the sea waves, curves finding one another. There is life, energy, and motion.

On the other mitt, straight hair has serene, calm, elementary and maybe elegant lines.

Explosive —merely not too much, curly hair is voluminous, hard to control and, many times, hard to comb! Fluffy, soft, playful and gorgeous, those are some adjectives we can think about. Textures save fourth dimension and add complexity to the shapes.

Conclusion:

These are all general approaches that use can utilize to make hair wait like hair. If you lot want to go further, break the rules! There is nothing wrong in, for instance, ignoring gravity, or exaggerating the book of hairstyles, or creating hair made of burn down! There are then many possibilities we can play with to create new things. I hope this article has been helpful for you. If you wish to run into some of my works, delight have a expect at my social networks and my portfolio:

https://www.instagram.com/eri_duh/
https://twitter.com/eri_duh
https://www.artstation.com/eridey

Thanks very much for reading!