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Now that we've looked at the facial features, let's
turn our attention to the top of the head - namely the
hair.
I would think that drawing the hair would be the easiest
thing for people to draw because you can draw shapes and
lines and not really worry about making the shape or
line look exactly like your subject. The trick to
drawing hair is not drawing each hair, but drawing the
shapes that the hair is creating. It doesn't really
matter if the hair is dark or light, long or short, you
would still draw it in the same way.
 First,
draw the contour of the hair. If it's long hair, draw
several contours of the various shapes that the falling
hair is creating. Draw these contours lightly because
you'll probably want to erase them before you start
filling them in. What drawing the contours of the hair
does for you is help define where it's going, you also
can get the shape of the hair in rough proportion to the
rest of the head. Measure from the hairline to the top
of the hair to get how tall the hair will be. Then also
take a measurement of the forehead by measuring from the
bridge of the nose to the hairline. Get these two
measurements correct before you start drawing hair. Of
course, if you're drawing some big haired person from
the 1980's then you probably won't need to do a lot of
measuring because it won't matter how big you make the
hair. The hair contour shape for short hair may follow
the shape of the head more than long hair would.
 Look
for shapes that shadows are creating in the hair and
draw and shade these shapes. If it's darker hair you're
drawing, you may want to lay down a flat gray tone over
all the hair (if the highlights aren't too bright)
before you start drawing shadows. Don't have your pencil
sharp as you draw hair. If your pencil is dull, you'll
get fatter, less harsh lines. With a dull pencil you
won't be drawing really thin, sharp lines that will make
your hair look "stringy". Start with the darker shapes,
these are usually closer to the head, then draw the
lighter shapes. When you draw these shadow shapes in the
hair, draw in the direction the hair is going. For
example, if your hair shape starts at the scalp, draw
your shadow shape starting at the scalp. With lighter
hair the shadow shape probably won't be all one tone,
there'll be several tones within the shape. Negative
space you leave will become a highlight in the hair.
 I
can't stress enough to draw in the direction the hair is
going. This is what's going to make your hair look like
hair. Go with the flow of the hair. If you just draw a
bunch of hair shadow shapes without watching out for the
flow of the hair, your drawing will look like a bunch of
shapes floating around in the contour of hair.
Work
your way from close to the face outward as you draw the
shapes. In lighter hair, the shapes may get lighter the
further out you go.
HINT: To prevent smearing graphite all
over your carefully drawn hair, I suggest getting a
blank sheet of paper and resting your drawing hand on
that as your hand travels across the drawing.
Depending on the hair, drawing it may take longer than
drawing the face. You're in no rush, so come back to the
drawing if you'd like.
Your
Assignment: Draw hair. I would recommend starting
with dark hair because it should fewer and larger hair
shadows that you would draw. Try drawing this woman's
hair. Draw and finish the face and hair, or just sketch
in the face and really work the hair. I see four or five
big shadow shapes in this hair, do you? Try and draw
short hair, and try blonde or white hair. |
