How to Draw Hair: Step by Step Tutorial (2024)

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Finally, don't miss the downloadable hair drawing infographic at the bottom of the page, as well as this braid drawing tutorial!

Mostoften I suggest to draw all block ins using straight lines. However, inthis case I am drawing the hair almost exclusively with curved linesbecause I want to achieve a feeling of "flowing" hair right from thebeginning of the drawing.

When learning how to draw hair, one way to reinforce this flow andinterconnectedness while improving the accuracy of your drawing is tolook for gestures. You can think of gestures as invisible, curvedlines that flow from one element of a picture to another, creating akind of underlying structure that connects all the elements in an image.

In the above image, you can see that even though my drawn lines are notliterally connected, the blue line suggests how the eye might travelfrom one to another. In this way, you can make sure that every linevisually leads to another line in the drawing.

Thisis where I will stop working on my block-in with line. It doesn't makemuch sense to go into more detail at this point because I will lose someof my drawing when I start drawing in values. However, just because Iam moving to value drawing does not mean that the block-in stage isover.

It is always easier to get somewhere when you know whereyou want to go. The same applies to drawing. When you have an idea ofwhat you want to draw or communicate (whether it is a particular look,mood, atmosphere, etc.), that goal can guide all of your decisions.That way, if you are ever unsure of what to do next, you can check inwith your intention and it will help you figure out how to continue.

Toreach both of these goals, drawing every hair or curl that I see doesnot have to be a priority. Instead, part of my challenge will be tofigure out how to design what I see. To decide which details areimportant to include and which I can simplify or leave out of mydrawing. I want my pencil marks to be considered, conscious decisions.

Drawing the shapes specific to your subject creates a likeness.

This is true no matter what you draw,
whether it is a still life, portrait or figure.

It's worthrepeating: The specificity of shapes is what creates a likeness.

Iam continuing to find and draw the dark shapes in the hair. This preliminary addition of tone can be considered the 'block-in' of the value stage. Everything Idraw is still tentative, subject to change, and there is no sensitiverendering yet.

Looking at the bottom section of hair under the chin: All I have donehere is find the dark shape, find the approximate light shape with myeraser, and slightly gradate in between the two. I haven't evened outthe values, yet it is already starting to look like dimensional hair,especially when compared to the surrounding flat shapes.

This is a strategy I will use throughout the drawing: finding the darkshapes, then the light shapes, and creating a gradation between the two to createthe half-tones. However, before I continue I should establish the restof the values in my picture by drawing the face.

Since this tutorial focuses on how to draw hair, I will go through rendering the face in only a few steps. For an in-depth step by step tutorial on shading the face, please click here.

I begin rendering by massing in the shadows (remember: specific shapes = likeness!) From here I start creating gradations from the shadows into the half-tones.

If you refer to the reference photo, you will notice that the leftside of the face (the model's left, our right), is generally darker thanthe right side. This suggests that another way to begin rendering the face could be to mass in a lightvalue across the whole left side of the face before continuing to shade.

Asyou can see, I tend to move around the face as I render. For example, Imight start with the hairline (which is often a nice soft edge to beginshading from), move to the cheek, then the chin and so on, withoutshading any one area to completion.

I do this so that I have more and more values to compare, minimizing mychance of drawing inaccurate value relationships (not a clue what thoseare? Read about them on the Value Drawing page or watch Lesson 5 of my free Mini-Course).

Nowthat I have drawn the face, I have all the values to compare to that Icould ever need. This is a good time to step back from the drawing,evaluate, and plan my next steps.

Haircan be thought of as various forms depending on the hairstyle. Forexample, some curls can be thought of as cylinders, and can be renderedin much the same way. Notice that both the curl and the cylinder have ahighlight, halftone and shadow area. The core shadow on the curl issomewhat obscured by its texture.

Itcan be helpful to visualize hair as having planes, just as forms do.In this example, the highlight shape of the hair is the plane receivingthe most direct light, and as the planes turn away from light theybecome incrementally darker.

Ihave rendered the hair at the top of the head, using both the form andshape approaches discussed. (Notice that this is where the hair liesflattest on the head, revealing its form.)

First, I drew the carefully observed highlight shape. Then I drew theshadow shapes, because finding the half-tone (or middle value) iseasiest when you first have the two extremes: light and dark.

Finally, when I was happy with the overall form and 3D quality of the drawn hair, I drewjust a few individual strands to create the illusion of texture. Noticehow few strands I had to draw on top of the form to achieve the illusionof hair.

Note: Notice that the left side of the model's face (on our right) isslightly darker than the right side. To create the illusion that thehair and face are being lit by the same light source, the left side ofthe hair also needs to be darker than the right side.

As I continue drawing I look for "ribbons" of hair to indicate, usually with a highlight and halftone.

Iam working from general to specific as I draw the hair. For example,about halfway down the hair on the left, light illuminates all threesections of hair. In the step before this one, I noticed this and madethem all the same, lighter value.

In this step I looked more specifically at each section and defined theshapes with highlights and subtle half-tones. Notice that while theyall look ribbon-like, they are not repetitive and each has a uniqueshape and curve of its own.

Iam keeping the darkest values and highest contrast around the face. Iam purposefully keeping the lower half of the hair lighter because highcontrast and dark areas attract the eye, and I want to make sure thatthe face remains the focal point, even with all of this distractinghair.

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