Drawing hair can be tricky, particularly because hair comes with such variation, from Medusa’s tightly curled rope-like hair to long dreamy locks like Rapunzel’s. But we’re here to help! This article will teach you how to draw hair, along with a lot of helpful tips and techniques.
The Basics
To draw hair, you actually need a very good understanding of physics. You need to know exactly how hair absorbs and reflects light in different environmental conditions, and you need to understand how gravity changes the way hair falls. When Pixar first started animating films, the hardest thing for them to animate was human hair due to its complex interaction with the world around it. Drawing hair is much the same.
Curly Hair
Curly hair can be a blessing and a curse in more ways than one. Curly hair reflects light beautifully, but drawn wrong and it’ll look like a mess of coiled springs. First, determine the direction of light. Curly hair is more three-dimensional due to the bouncy, cylindrical curls, so playing with the lighting is what will help to make it look 3D. Poor lighting will make the strands look flat, which is the opposite of what you want. Avoid the temptation to draw clumps of hair in one curly mess – each curl needs to be defined, so it might take a while to get it right.
Frizzy or Permed Hair
It’s a little easier to draw frizzy and permed hair due to the difference in light absorption. Frizzy and permed hair is damaged, meaning it absorbs less light and can look dull in certain conditions. You won’t need to worry so much about how light shines off it, and you can afford to be a bit messier. Some strands of hair will also be sticking out at odd angles, so a misplaced hair or two will help to reach the desired effect.
Layered Hair
Drawing layered hair, no matter the texture, relies on drawing in sections. Start by drawing a base layer, and build on this until you reach the top layer. Remember, there will always be more hair at the back of the head where layers lie on top of each other that at the top of the head where hair falls straight down. Similarly, there will be less hair at the tips than the roots unless the hair is cut straight across.
Straight Hair
This is usually the easiest hair type to draw, but there are some important things to consider. Straight hair tends to be finer than curly hair, so you need to be careful not to be too heavy-handed. One harsh line and the effect will be lost, so stick to light pencil strokes. Straight hair also tends to flow and is effected heavily by gravity, so if there’s even a slight head tilt, the direction of flow needs to reflect this. Keep your pencil strokes long and fluid, and avoid short, sharp lines. This will give the impression of a head full of split-ends, so unless this is what you want, keep your strokes long!
No matter which hair type you are drawing, it’s important to remember two things: direction of light and the effect of gravity. Of course, the tips above are all for dry, styled hair, but things change dramatically if hair is wet, exposed to wind or un-styled. Drawing hair in these conditions requires further knowledge of physics, so if you’re a bit rusty on your school science topics, it might be worth studying a bit more! The more you understand, the more realistic your drawings will look. Keep practicing and, pretty soon, people won’t be able to tell the difference between a photograph and your artwork!
