Art How do I draw hair?

@sleepy knight
All right then, we have an agreement! Do you want to discuss this in private or publicly?

 

Oh my god!!! This! This is exactly what I was looking for. I saw this a long while ago but back then I was not at a level that could apply this method at all, I couldn't even draw the face expression (eyes, mouth etc) so learning hair was just not ideal back then. Thank you so much! The three section method is exactly what I needed (I'm going for the anime style).

 

@Midori Public or private is fine All advice is so helpful to me. It's like a building block to get me to the stage where I can finally draw any kind of hair. Right now I can't even do a hair style without it looking off.

So far I got some good start to start from literal level 0. Use the helmet method and the 3 part shapes. I'm going to do my best to move up from level 0.

 

Oh wow, this is how you know it's been that long for me, didn't even know there was something big going on. Fear not your words have reached me. I shall remember from thou forth. It's okay, it's okay, I won't say it again. Barbie shall remain untouched by thou words.

 

Thank you for the kind consideration

Pssst, BTW, you should put all your replies in one post as double posting is against the rules

 

I watched this video today, I hope it will be helpful

 

Ah, thank you for the notice. I will proceed with caution <-- *said in arnold schwarzenegger voice*

Okay wow, I'm saving this video. This literally answers my questions on how do I use the 3 shapes method to draw manhwa guy hair or spiky hair etc. It even shows how to go from starting point and build towards more complex strands.

 

Well, since you dont mind public, it's fine for me then. So do you usually draw digital or traditional(pen/pencil)?
What i'd like, mainly, is to see how you draw hair, so if you could post a video of you doing a drawing, i can advise better from there

 

I draw digital, but a couple weeks ago I did get the urge to try and to traditional (I heard it helps to level up). But I stopped... too much pressure and I kept forcing myself to draw with pen so I can't rely on erasor to save me so I only have this one sketch. It was based on me drawing from reference.

I gave up on the hair. I put effort on the top part of the head for hair, but then when it came to the sides I was just like ugh let them do whatever.
I prefer digital drawing.
I did a bunch of sphere and circle drawings (also shading) before I drew the above sketch

Spoiler: IMG

No pencil, all pen. I'm looking at the date on the image. Damn I did this like a month ago. I drew the sketch after a day or 2 of finishing circle drawings.

 

@sleepy knight the pen sketch actually looks pretty good! spheres are used more for lighting/shading practice, usually.

digital, do you use stylus, finger or mouse?

 

Thank you! Yeah, I got told filling up a page with circles (must draw with pen NOT pencil) helps with forcing you to learn control. I always draw circles and literally aanything with chicken scratches. That's how little control and coordination I have. That's why I did that exercise. And yep the sphere are definitely for shadow and light. Since I'm already focusing on control and I've draw circles, I figure why not work on shadows already, get it intergrated into my brain as I'm learning the basics. Obviously I'm not gonna be able to use it immediately but it forced me to learn how to shade with a pen. I suck at colours but I suck even more at where the hell does light and shadow go on the hair, face nose, etc etc. This is the only time in my life I was able to to shadows on a sketch. If I did the sketch but didn't do the spheres I have a feeling it would look pretty bad. I dunno in my eyes I feel like the hair only looks okay cause of where I put shading, if there was no shading it would look so bad.

Now that I think about it, I'm getting less motivated the more days that pass where I'm not doing these exercises. I feel like spheres are the easiest to practice and get motivated cause the chances of someone messing it up is so low. I tried cubes.... it was horendous. I got too ahead of myself, the shading somehow went baaaad.

Oh I use graphics tablet (stylus). But now that I think about it, I haven't drawn in a long while. I should definitely draw a few more sketches these days and use that as my current level status. My only recent drawing is the digital sketches of 3 heads and the 1 traditional pen sketch of girl (headshot).

....... I'm starting to realise I need to at least draw 10 sketches or more before I start trying to fix something. I swear I feel like hair is my weak point though. But again I haven't draw enough these days digitally... is it all in my head or na.... actually if I really think about it, I found it harder to coordinate with the graphics tablet. Cause it felt like I kinda want my lines to be a certain way but I just can't seem to make myself draw it that way... (maybe I need a screen tablet? Or maybe I need more time drawing with the tablet to get used the flow?)....

 

@sleepy knight oh yeah, using digital, there does usually feel like there is less control in terms of lines.

practice practice practice is definitely the core of doing art. (and mostly any skill, haha)

how about you post a hairstyle pic that you like, and i'll make a simplified version for you to practice it?

and also, whether pen or pencil, both are fine, actually. but definitely, if you are the type that likes to keep erasing, then i can see how pen drawings would be more suitable.

 

This is from pinterest. I like the hair style but my god there's so much going on. Where does it start from? How do I figure out what shape to start with? Because it's already a finished peice, disecting it and trying to figure out the shapes feels so damn complex... *sigh*

 

@sleepy knight
ok, so i will share a google drive link and some video links here!
first of all, here are the pics for you to practice! which means you should post #1,2 and 3 in this forum for me to see. let me know of the google drive pics arent showing up for ya. i use mobile for this, so there cooould be some issues.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1RTRRaaz301XUsAV4O38V5xMA7xK2XEMz

the following are videos.
this is a video of me drawing it following the reference picture
https://photos.app.goo.gl/pJY15viXjsamX6z16

additional video is me just drawing it in more of my style, in a sense?
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Q7EDNHx6jRkAR5w5A

 

Omg your deconstruction is amazing. I looked at the pictures first and thought, okay okay, I'm seeing it, I'm seeing it. I'm seeing what you're saying. Then with the recordings it was the "ah!" moment. For me there's a huge difference between the "okay I'm seeing it moment" cause I have the idea of what you're showing me, but there's no 100% sureness of if I can still apply it. Then the "ah" moment is where I finally see how to do what it is you're showing me. I needed this. Omg I really needed this. Thank you!

I swear it's like, it looks complex. And then you explain how to deconstruct it, but because the final peice looks so complex, even though I've been told how to deconstruct something I still have this huge voice telling me it won't work for this hair though, this hair style is waaaay too advanced). But omg, you actually showing the deconstruction really helped with getting past that hurdle. This actually helps me so much. Thank you! *hugs*

 

@sleepy knight
ayeee glad to hear it helped in understanding! Now for the practice!
Yeah, the pictures for practice are less step-by-step, but that is because the video is basically step-by-step hahaha! If you have any questions about it, feel free to ask!

 

Hair is a piece of fabric. It's a bit more stringy but it mostly moves like a piece of cloth in the wind.
If it helps, there are three basic shapes to hair.

Square, where everything falls in a straight line. Ppl call this one length.
Round, where it's shorter in the front, and longer in the back. Almost like layers.
Triangular, longer in the front and shorter in the back. You can search: A line haircut.

(This is true even in men's cut, but it may be a bit harder to wrap your head around bc it's much shorter, and lays on a sphere plane)

Then the rest is just using various combination of these three shapes to hair on a sphere(the face). If you want to be knit picky and really photo realistic, you can consider that even if twins are born with the same DNA, the hair whorl pattern will be different, they are like finger prints. You can observe which direction hair falls on various people to try and understand how and where hair falls.