How to Draw Curly Hair - Tutorial
Aug 27, 2010 Drawing, Tutorials
Hair on its own can be enough to send the beginning portrait artist into fits of anxiety.
Make it curly hair and the anxiety only increases!
Curly hair presents its own set of unique challenges, but at the end of the day, drawing it is no different from drawing straight hair.
The key to drawing realistic, curly hair is paying close attention to the interlocking shapes, building layers of texture with your pencil strokes, and simplify, simplify, simplify!
If this is your first time here, make sure you check out my tips for drawing hair and my tutorial for straight hair. I’ve also written about how to draw different hair colours.
This tutorial features a slightly different technique than my tutorial for straight hair. Instead of shading in the values, I am using only pencil strokes to create volume. Both techniques are good and valid and produce similar effects; it’s just a matter of preference!
Our reference image again comes from the Wetcanvas Image Library, which is a great place to go for royalty free images to practice your drawing skills.
First, we’re going to use an Hb or 2H pencil to draw our gridlines. Then we can start to map out the basic shapes created by the hair. To help you identify these shapes, it can be useful to squint at the reference. This is where it’s important to simplify. You can’t draw every single hair, instead focus on the “chunks” of hair and the major shadows and highlights. Follow the grid to help you get an accurate line drawing. Carefully erase the gridlines.
Next, using a B pencil,we will lay in the pencil strokes in the direction of the hair growth. The important part here is that you treat each chunk as separate. Use a wrist-flicking motion to create each pencil stroke, going from the darkest part of each chunk and pulling towards the highlight. Build up layers in the darkest areas, letting the pencil lines taper off. Pull a few strokes all the way through the highlight as well. It’s also essential to make sure that each pencil stroke curves in the direction of the curl.
Now we’ll use a 2B to darken the shadows and add another dimension to the hair. Again, pull some lines all the way through the highlight, but focus on building layers in the darkest areas. You want to make sure that your pencil is nice and sharp!
All we have left are a few finishing touches. Use a kneaded eraser to clean up the highlights. You can also use a 4B or 3B to make the shadows even darker. The last thing we need to do is add some fly-away hairs. No hair sits flat and perfect, so adding some fly-aways will make your drawing look that much more realistic.
Did you like this? Let me know what other tutorials you’d like to see!
Tags: curly hair, drawing tips, hair, Tutorials
Blonde, Brunette and Black - Drawing Hair Colours
Aug 15, 2010 Drawing
I recently got an e-mail from a reader asking me how to draw dark hair. Drawing different coloured hair has more to do with the pencils you use than using different techniques. Here are the guidelines I use when drawing blonde, brunette, and black hair.
To learn more about the specific techniques for drawing realistic hair, read my hair drawing tips and check out my step-by-step tutorial.
Blonde Hair
Here I have used only two pencils: a 2H and a B. I started with the 2H as the bottom layer, pulling each stroke towards the highlight in the centre. It’s important to let a few pencil strokes go all the way through the highlight. Then I used the B to darken the shadows, also pulling a few strokes all the way across the highlight.
With blonde hair, the shadows aren’t as dark and the highlight area is usually larger and brighter.
Brown or Brunette Hair
Brunette hair requires more layers than blonde hair to create the darker values. I used exactly the same method and technique as I did for blonde hair, but I also used a 2B pencil to create the darker shadows.
You’ll notice that the highlighted area is smaller and looks more like individual hairs are reflecting light. For brunette hair, you will want to draw more pencil strokes through the highlight.
Black Hair
Again, I started with a 2H pencil, then a B pencil, then a 2B pencil. For black hair, I use an even darker pencil to create the rich, dark shadows. Here I’ve used a 4B and a 6B pencil. It’s all about creating layers to simulate the texture of the hair.
I’ve also made sure to continue the dark pencil lines throughout the highlight. At the very end, I used a kneaded eraser to pick up a few bright highlights.
Conclusion
As you can see, it’s not really a matter of using different techniques. Drawing darker hair requires more layers and softer pencils. Light hair has a big, broad highlight and dark hair has highlights on just a few hairs.
As always, use a good reference image and pay close attention to the value. When working with pencil, it’s the value that will communicate the hair colour!
Tags: drawing tips, hair, portraits, texture
Afraid of Colour? An Intro to Coloured Pencil and Pastel
Aug 4, 2010 Colour Theory, Drawing
For a graphite or charcoal artist, making the leap to colour can be a little scary. I was terrified of colour at first and it was really tough to get out of my comfort zone and start playing again. Paint is totally different from dry drawing materials, but luckily there are a lot of other choices to make the transition from grayscale to colour.
Here you’ll find a quick intro to the two most basic coloured drawing media with links to more information.
Coloured Pencils
A fancy term for pencil crayons, these can be a good introduction to colour. If you’re interested in experimenting with coloured pencils, it’s definitely worth it to invest in a better quality. Regular pencil crayons have less pigment (colour) and more binder. Student grade coloured pencils have more pigment and artist grade ones have even more pigment. Of course, you pay more for that. To play around with, the student grade pencils are perfect.
Coloured pencils are meant to be used by building up layers of colour, letting you create many more hues than what is available in the box. This also makes them good for experimenting with colour theory. Coloured pencil drawings can be time intensive, but they also produce very beautiful, luminous works of art.
Read more about coloured pencils.
Pastels
Pastels are another good choice for drawing in colour, although pastel artworks that cover the entire support are often referred to as paintings. Pastels are sticks of pigment and binder. You have a choice of chalk pastels, which are more dry and powdery, and oil pastels, which are softer and buttery. Chalk pastels can produce a lot of dust, which you don’t want to breathe in, and may need to be sprayed with a fixative. They also blend fairly easily, while oil pastels don’t blend as well.
When working with pastels, layering is also important. You will need to be careful that your colours don’t get muddy. Working from dark to light can help with this.
Recommendation
Art supplies can be expensive and most of us can’t afford to go out and buy everything we want. My recommendation is to start out with a less expensive student grade set. Play around with the material, experiment and see how you like it. If you find you really love it, then invest in a higher quality product.
I have a set of student grade pastels I’ve had for years which I use every now and then to do some sketching. If I ever decided to pursue pastel art more seriously (to sell or to show) I would look into buying some better ones, but until then, the pastels I have are perfect!
Tags: art tips, coloured pencil, drawing tips, pastel
Rethink Ink!
Jul 5, 2010 Drawing
If the only things ink brings to your mind are ball point pens and note-taking, think again!
Ink is yet another versatile tool in the artist’s tool box. Dark and rich with the ability to be watered down, ink can be used in many different ways with many different tools. Have a read through these techniques and see which one you’d like to try!
1. India Ink
India Ink is an opaque black ink that resists water when dry. It is as black as anything and makes for some beautiful line work. You can use it straight out of the bottle for a dark, striking black, or dilute it with water to create washes in a range of values. With india ink, a little goes a very long way!
A) Brush it On
Ink can be applied using a variety of different brushes. Bamboo brushes are made especially for ink: they have thick bristles to hold a lot of liquid and taper to a fine point. You can also use acrylic or watercolour brushes. Different brushes will obviously give you different brushstrokes, but they are good for creating loose, expressive lines. An art-school friend of mine even experimented with using brooms and mops to create large, expressive works!
B) Use a Stick?
Surprisingly, sticks are another tool you can use to apply india ink. Fat sticks, skinny sticks, it’s up to you to experiment! It’s also fun to try drawing while standing up, using a very long stick to draw on a large paper on the floor.
C) Random Objects
You can find unconventional tools all around your house and the outdoors. Pretty much anything can be used as a stamp to produce a repeating pattern.
2. Pen and Ink
It goes without saying that pen and ink go hand in hand, but it’s worth mentioning a few different types of pens and how they can be used.
A) Calligraphy Pen
These flat, wide-tipped pens are best known for writing fancy scripts, but they can also be used to create beautiful drawings. The traditional calligraphy pen requires refills of ink cartridges, which can be found in several different colours. The best thing about these pens is that you have a built-in strategy for producing variance in lines.
B) Bamboo Pen
A bamboo pen is much like a calligraphy pen, only it is made out of wood and has a blunt, flat tip. It is used by dipping it into a jar of ink and is similar to using a stick, except for that its round shape lets it hold more ink so that your line flows more steadily.
C) Fine Tip Pens
These drawing pens are perfect forcreating finely detailed drawings. They come in a range of widths to allow you a greater control over value and are great for hatching and pointillism.
D) Ball Point Pens
As ordinary as they are, ball point pens are nothing to sneer at as an art tool. These pens can also be used for hatching and pointillism, and with enough finesse they can even create an illusion of smooth shading. Check out this ball point pen art for an example of what can be achieved.
3. Coloured Ink
Ink is also available in a huge range of vibrant colours. Called artist acrylic inks, they can also be diluted with water, and are water resistant when dry. Because inks are water-based, they can be used with acrylics. Oil-based media can be used on top of inks, but not vice versa.
Paint it, draw it, splatter it, drip it, dilute it…. whatever you do, try it! Ink is fun!
Tags: drawing tips, ink
Drawing and Painting Glass
Jun 27, 2010 Drawing, Painting
Question: How do you draw something that’s clear?
Answer: You don’t.
Confused?
The key to drawing or painting glass is not to render the actual glass object but to render the way the glass distorts and reflects the objects around it.
Glass is clear so we see through it, but glass can be many different shapes. What we see through the glass gets warped. This warping is what gives us the information we need to determine the shape of the glass.
In the painting above, you can see a glass bottle sitting in front of some blinds. The way the blinds are seen through the glass tell us about the shape and volume of the bottle. When I painted this, I didn’t paint the bottle, I painted the blinds as they are seen through the glass. This is key!
When rendering glass, you’re going to need a reference image, either from life or a photo. You will also need to use your artistic observational skills. You really need to pay attention to what’s going on within the glass. That being said, don’t get too caught up in the myriad of tiny shapes that you can see. You will need to simplify and edit the shapes. Pick out the major light and dark areas, then work the mid-tones.
The other thing to remember is that glass is reflective. This means that shapes and objects in front of the glass may be seen in it, but it also means that there will be bright highlights. These highlights are what communicate the shiny, reflective nature of the glass.
Drawing and painting glass is not as tricky as it looks. Pick a simple object to start (the more complex your glass object, the more difficult it will be to draw). Focus on the lights and darks, pay close attention to the way the glass distorts the background, and observe the subtle variations in tone. As you draw the visible shapes, you will begin nto see your glass objects take shape.
Good luck! I’d love to see the results of your efforts!
Tags: art tips, drawing tips, drawings, paintings
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