HOW I DRAW HAIR

So, how do you draw hair? See, hair is

very complicated to draw, but there are

techniques and guides that will help you

understand hair. And this is how I do

it. Before we get to drawing the actual

hair, most beginners overlook this

important step, which is [music]

if you still don't know how to draw a

head, I'll give you a quick

introduction. First, draw a circle. Add

two lines.

The intersection is going to be the

center. Next, draw four lines with equal

spaces in between. Those are going to be

the level for the chin, below the nose,

eyes, and finally the hairline. And from

there, [music] you can continue on with

the facial features. Before we can

continue, a quick word from our sponsor.

This is Opera GX. You probably heard

about it already if you're a hardcore

gamer like myself since it is a gaming

browser. Well, they reached out for a

collaboration, and I'm going to be

drawing a really cool illustration for

them. So, stick till the end for the

process. But first, let's check it out.

This is my first time trying it out and

I got to say it's pretty interesting.

I've only heard about the name and

haven't actually tried it before and

it's very far from your normal browser.

There's this feature called GX mods

where you can literally mod your browser

which sounds impressive. So, let's check

it out. I was kind of expecting a simple

customization where you can just change

the theme from light to dark. Well, it's

actually not. Just see it for yourself.

There's a lot of good stuff in here, but

I think this one's the best. So, let's

download it real quick and see what we

have. Bro, how does this have 600

installs already? So, first we have a

really nice theme going on here and then

the chill background music. Then we also

have some pretty [music] cool tab sound

effects

and then of course the awesome wallpaper

which looks really good. Shout out to

whoever made this. And then we have the

keyboard sounds

and even more sound effects. This mod is

pretty awesome. Make sure to check it

out. You can also customize and combine

this with other mods as well, which is

pretty cool. Also, if you're planning on

switching browser right now, there's a

quick import tool that will help you

transfer your settings and bookmarks

real fast along with your browsing

history, cookies, and all that stuff.

It's also compatible with pretty much

all of the Chrome extension.

Right. So now let's make that wallpaper

illustration. Starting with the ideas, I

wanted to focus more on, of course, the

gaming theme, like a video game style

character illustration, the one that you

would see on League of Legends, like the

awesome splash art stuff. The first idea

that I had for the character is a knight

with a really cool sword. After I'm done

with the sketch, I started with the line

art, added the base color. I went with

the pink hair and then rendered the

armor, added some shadows, and then I

experimented with a bunch of effects to

really capture that cool sword. And

there we have it. You can support me by

downloading this wallpaper on the Oprah

GX store. If you don't have Opra GX, you

can download it through my links in the

description and the pin comment. Big

thanks to Oprah GX. Now, back to the

video.

The head is mostly overlooked because

most of us are not planning on drawing a

bald character. So we just jump straight

into drawing cool hair without actually

studying the foundation of the head. And

it's really crucial because if the head

is not proportionate or follows proper

anatomy, the hair cannot be built

because the structure is not placed

properly. So the hair is bound to fail.

So I highly suggest drawing some head

studies first because the hair is the

least of your worries.

Right, let's get to the actual hair. So

the first thing that we will be learning

is [music]

the hair is comprised of any single

strands. But if we did draw every single

strand, it's not going to be very

efficient. So instead, we have to focus

on what's important, which is overall

shape. We'll get to the details later.

Drawing the outline of the hair as

simple shapes when you're starting is a

good way to set up the hair since now we

can tell how the hair is going to look

like and we can feel whether the hair is

proportionate or not which is really

important. So combining that with the

proper head shape and the proper form of

the hair, we can easily draw a simple

but effective head without over

complicating it. And from there we're

going to add the hair strands which

we'll cover in a bit. For now focus on

overall shape and outline. [music] When

studying references, I always recommend

starting with real hair because it's

very difficult. But if you can

understand how real hair works, then you

can draw hair however you like since you

already started with the hard one. I

would even recommend tracing over

references just so you can see the

shapes easier. This will also speed up

the process and avoid examining every

single strand of hair and just draw the

basic shapes that you recognize. I think

the form of the hair is like 50% of the

problem. So once you solve that, you're

already 50% done.

You might think that hair is very

unpredictable and complicated or even

abstract. Well, it is. On top of that,

there's also a bunch of hair types, but

to keep this video simple, we're only

going to be diving in with straight hair

and a bit of wavy type. Hair can be

predictable as long as we're not drawing

actual hair. What I mean is we're only

going to imitate hair using the concept

of [music]

at the natural state of hair. Even

though there are hundreds of thousand

strands, you only need to draw some of

them. And the hair always follows a

constant principle, which is gravity.

And which also makes the hair flow

downwards. The top of the head would be

the base of the hair. At its natural

state, most of the hair would be coming

from this part. So, we're going to get

this kind of downward flow. Also, try to

avoid using the same lines next to each

other. Try to randomize a bit so it

looks natural and not stiff. Now, of

course, there are other hairstyle and

hair types, so it doesn't always flow

down. And in some instances, like this

for example, when the hair is wavy, some

ends will sometimes point to a different

direction, and this will create

interesting hair flows. But nonetheless,

it still follows the general direction.

The majority of the hair still flows

down with a few exceptions, and those is

what makes it interesting.

Let's now move on to a technique that we

can use. The

thing that makes hair look like hair is

of course the hair strands. And there's

a way we can oversimplify this. And this

is by grouping the hair strands

together. If you look hard enough, the

hair can actually look like a banana. I

think the trick here is not to make it

look like a banana,

>> but instead more like a hair. There are

also variations. There are thick, thin,

short, long, and make sure to combine

different sizes and variation to make it

feel more random because hair is very

random. Also, I would suggest having

quick lines with line weights instead of

just thick and consistent lines. This

will save you from having a boring hair.

After adding the big bananas, you can

start adding some smaller strands when

you add the base color.

So, there are levels to this. At some

point, you're not going to be drawing a

banana. The banana is only a support to

help you understand the flow and shape,

but it's also going to help with the

rendering later because it will serve as

a guide on where to put the shadows and

lighting. Another concept that you can

apply is layering. Imagine it as leaves.

The top part would always be above the

hair below. Hair is not just a single

leaf. It has multiple layers that adds a

lot of depth and detail. You can do this

by drawing multiple strands and then

erasing the ones that are below.

We'll now move on to render.

Rendering now is so much easier since we

know exactly how the hair works. Well,

not completely. We're at least on the

surface level. In this phase, managing

our layers is really important. If

you've been watching my videos, you

probably already know how I do my

layers. But if not, then it's very

simple.

Here, we already have the body and the

head. This is going to be in a separate

folder. And then above that would be the

hair folder. The line art would be at

the very top. And then at the bottom we

have the base color. And then above the

base color there's going to be clip

layers. Okay. Now let's start rendering.

First thing we'll do is add shadows. So

for that we're going to add a clip layer

above the base layer. And then we'll set

that as a multiply layer. For this pick

a color for your shadow. Don't use black

or gray. I mean, you can, but for this,

I'm going to use blue because it kind of

reflects the sky, so it adds a bit of

realism. The main thing that we'll do is

block in the main shadows, areas that

the light won't reach. I prefer using

solid lines to really establish the

shadows. This might look messy, but we

can leave it like this. We'll fix that

later. Next, we'll move on to the mid

tones. Add another multiply layer. Here,

we're going to choose a value that is

lighter than the shadows. So, this time,

let's pick a warmer color. Start

painting the mid tones on the parts that

are not in shadow and then smudge them

to avoid some consistency.

We'll also add a variety of midtones

here. We can also erase some areas to

add the highlight or the shine of the

hair. Imagine it as a ball when adding

your highlights. So, it's like going

around the head. Next, we'll add a

slightly dark lines and erase some parts

for the hair strands.

Remember to follow the flow. In this

case, the hair is divided into three

parts, and they all have different flow

direction.

After that, we'll go back to the shadow

and add a bit of flow. So, we're going

to be adding some darker shadows and

adding some flow lines. I would then go

back and forth within the layers and

repeat the process of adding brush

strokes until it looks like hair. It is

also really important that you have some

references that you can rely on. So,

here I'm not guessing on the whole

drawing. Instead, I'm trying to capture

how a real hair would look like. This

takes a lot of skill and experience. So,

take your time to truly observe and

apply painting techniques.

After that, I added some highlights

using an overlay layer. Now, this is

important. I then added a color burn

layer. Using a brown color and an

airbrush, I slightly painted over the

hair. It is important not to overdo it

because too much contrast and saturation

can ruin the painting. At this point, it

still needs a bit of work, but I decided

this looks good enough. And that's it.

Hopefully, you learned something useful.

And as always, God bless and I'll see

you in the next one. Peace.