How To Draw Realistic Hair

Learn To Draw Realistic Hair

Drawing realistic hair can be time consuming. But if you take the time to do it right, it will add a ton of realism to your penicl portrait.

Women's Hair:

Let's start with women's hair. The first thing you need to do is draw an accurate outline. Use the grid technique to get the proportion correct.

Use a pencil to add the darker Full and 3/4 tones. Check your original reference photo to see where to place each tone. Also, keep in mind the direction of the hair.

Now, we are going to use the "dirty eraser" trick to blend the tones you just added. Take a pencil and a piece of scrap paper. Scribble a very dark area of graphite onto the scrap paper. Using a sharp edged eraser (the kind that erases pencil on one end and ink on the other), rub the "ink" end onto the scribble. The eraser will pick up the graphite.

Begin to blend the dark tones in the hair by "dragging" the sharp edge of the dirty eraser over the tones. As you do this, the graphite will come of the eraser. It will naturally add some lighter lines. This will add some highlights to the hair.

With the eraser, drag the darker tones into the lighter areas. Likewise, drag the lighter areas into the dark. You can switch to the "pencil end" (the white end) of the eraser to add even more highlights. Check your original photo to see where.

Now take a tortillon and smooth everything. Make sure everything blends together smoothly and naturally.

Here's an example of a woman with short hair. The steps are the same.

Start With An Accurate Outline

Add the darker tones with your pencil

Shade and Blend

When you are drawing hair, build layer after layer until you get the fullness you need. To do that, just repeat the steps over and over a few times. This will build layers to the hair and make it look more natural.

Men's Hair:

The steps are the same for drawing men's hair. Start with an accurate outline using the grid.

Reffering to your original photo, add the darker tones with the pencil in the direction of the hair.

Using a combination of the sharp edged(dirty)eraser and the tortillon, build layers to the hair until you get the fullness you need.

African American Hair:

This is just a little variation of the same technique. Begin again with an accurate outline.

This time, use a sharp pencil to add tight, little circles to the hair. Keep the circles close. Overlap them.

Use a tortillon to blend the circles together. Roll the end of a kneaded eraser into a point. Dab around the hair to add some highlights. Continue this over and over until you get the fullness you need.

This is a short lesson on how to draw realistic hair. For a much more in depth study of drawing hair, please check out my How To Draw Books.