The Scoop on How I Draw Hair :)

Hey there!! Okay, I was asked if I took any pictures of my WIP for this…heres a few. Keep in mind, as a kid growing up, I had no "YouTube" or formal art instruction to learn technique from. Just a couple comic books, and a desire to do something no one else I knew did.  So knowing that, my technique is made up by myself and may be a little strange....but then again so am I.

 So, Starting at the top....

     The first one shows- After putting down a light, simple grid, the rough outline is down and ready. The placement of the eyes at this stage is absolutely critical to me, as are teeth if they are showing.  With a 2B pencil I put down a light layer over most of the drawing. My layer is usually in two directions, it keeps pencil lines easier to blend later. Now with an eraser stick I pick out and erase where the highlights are going to take place.  

    The second one- The darks are going in here and the transition between the highlights and the darks are smoothed out. This is an old trick my High School art teacher taught me. To keep from getting "lost", in the hair, I made a window out of scrap to keep my Eye focused on the part I'm working on.  My IPad with the reference picture (not shown) works great because I can crop and enlarge the same area in my drawing. Capish?

    The third one- Here I have most of the main hair done and time to work on the face. Eyes, nose, mouth, and the hand. This is where I work to put the character and feeling into the faces. 

    Lastly- The minor highlights in the hand, teeth, eyes, and lips are "erased" in. Then comes the fun part..the details. Stray hairs, minor skin shading, eye lashes, Darken the darks, (if needed) and background blending (usually with a tissue) to get an even value behind the subject. To add depth to the hair on the side with my signature, I blended the highlights to soften it and make it look farther back.

   Thats it!! I hope maybe you picked up something to try. This, by no means, is a "how to draw" lesson. Just sharing how I go about drawing someone.