Drawing hair is dictated by several factors: the type of hair, its tint, texture, quantity, the arrangement and styling of the hair, the individuality and mood of the model or the photo, and the light effect upon the hair.

The arabesque of the hair is part of the overall construct. A correct construct is critical to the likeness of the hair. Many starting artists begin with the face and grow outwards from there. This is however a poor approach and instills bad habits that will prove hard to break.

In fact, the arabesque is especially critical when draw a hairdo. Attempting to draw the hair working from the inside out, bit by bit, is a recipe for disaster. The hair will result in being either too small for the skull or too large.

Sketching within the construct of the hairdo, first put in the main darks. These darks are best seen by squinting until an overall pattern of light and dark is seen.

Next, you need to blend the graphite in a painterly manner following the general gesture and motion of the hairdo. For this you can employ your fingers, a tissue, or a paper stump. If you employ a paper stump be careful not to deaden the look. If you employ your fingers make sure they are dry and also wipe them constantly with a paper towel.

Then, employ your putty eraser like a loaded paint brush to lift out the relevant lights. Do not be overly fussy here. A more virtuoso approach effects a sense of life and rhythm into the hairdo. If you make an error just blend the graphite again with your fingers or stump and do it again.

Sometimes when you block-in the hairdo other light parts of the skull pop out. This is one rationale why working the skull as a whole is necessary.

French braiding is a attractive hairdo style, but extremely complicated and hard to sketch. The idea is to draw these French braids fluidly and with motion. A balancing act is required here: the intricacy of the hairdo’s styling is best handled by first line-rendering the main locks and braids. As you lay out the braids be sure to plumb and carefully size and position each main lock and braid.

When working from a photo there is the temptation to copy it down to the smallest detail. You may or may not give in to this temptation but you should always make sure that the hairdo maintains its liveliness. However, in most cases, you will not need to sketch every detail.

Further block-in the darks taking into account the direction and gesture of the relevant locks of the hairdo. The most difficult thing is to avoid from plunging into an area of detail. Not to do this requires mental discipline. Best is to follow a layered approach that progressively stacks the arrangement of the hairdo, lock by lock.

You also should smooth the edges of the hairdo line so that it blends into the forehead and sides of the face. Hair does this naturally.

Make sure you used sharp pencils because dull pencils lead to dull, lifeless hair.

Having first mapped out and blocked-in the relevant locks of hair makes the rendering of the finer areas much easier, but is still labor intensive. You should be prepared to spend quite a bit of time on a hairdo.

Also, keep stepping back from the sketch to preserve an overview of the principal light/dark pattern because detailing can result in a flat mess in which the values close in on each other.

Hold back from rendering bangs too early in the process. This helps ensure that the hairdo and flesh can be unified into a coherent sense of spirit.

Drawing hair so that it reads naturally and has a rhythmic gesture is difficult. Generally it takes as much time and effort to render the hairdo as it does the face and neck. You must spend as much care in preparing the hairdo as you would for the restof the portrait. If you draw from a model be sure you do the hairdo before your model takes a rest because the hairdo will very likely have changed when the break is over. The strategy, then, is to devote a whole 20 to 30 minutes of a pose segment to the hairdo.

With these instructions you can be sure that in time your drawn hair will look real and energetic. Do not forget that rendering hairdo takes time so that you do not get impatient.

Do you want to learn the secrets of pencil portrait sketching? Download my brand new free pencil portrait drawing course here: pencil portrait tutorial.

Remi Engels is a pencil portrait artist and oil painter and expert sketching teacher. See his work at graphite pencil portraits.

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Posted in: Drawing Tips | | January 2009