WIP with hair tutorial...Update 12/29 p.7

[beth]

So, my brother calls me today with wonderful news that I'm going to be an Aunt again...and then proceeds to guilt me into doing a drawing for him. He has conspired with my grandmother to get me to do this picture of myself...because they say it is the look I have given every family member all my life. Okay...whatever.

So rather than bore you with ANOTHER family-requested self portrait, I thought I'd turn this one into a hair tutorial since a few people have asked me for one.

There are 9 stages, so bare with me while I post them with their descriptions, please.

STAGE 1:
The outline. I did this one freehand, but not from a mirror...sorry Bettyann! This is what it looks like when I've completed the sketch and then cleaned up all the yucky stray sketch lines and eraser lines. It looks dark here because I sketch very dark, going over and over my lines. But I then lighten it up by rolling blu-tack over the entire sketch, which you'll see in stage 2.

You'll see that with the hair I block in some of the highlighted areas, but I don't stay a slave to the picture...sometimes you can make it look much better!

[beth]

STAGE 2:

I am using a 3B 0.5 mechanical pencil through this entire tutorial, to keep it simple. I start laying down strokes in the dark areas, following the direction of the hairs. I know usually these tutorials say, "Don't draw individual hairs, just block in color." Well...I draw hairs....it works for me!

[beth]

STAGE 3:
Continuing to lay down strokes in dark areas. It's important to be careful with the direction of the pencil strokes. If you go too fast and they go all over the place, you end up with straw, instead of hair.

[beth]

STAGE 4:

STILL laying down strokes in the direction of hairs. I continue to go back to the beginning and darken things up while making the lines longer and longer to shape the style.

[beth]

STAGE 5:

Keep molding the style...continuing to keep to the darkest areas. Avoid highlights, but make the strokes into the highlights very random and jagged.

Also: Turn the paper as needed to make the direction of the hairs easier to draw.

[beth]

STAGE 6:

Finish up the style. Continuously going back and darkening things up in layers.

[beth]

STAGE 7:

Here I take my tortillon, dirty or clean, doesn't matter. And go over the entire style in the direction of the hairs. Avoid crossing the strokes as much as possible to avoid a smudged look. Smooth everything out.

[beth]

STAGE 8:
Pick out highlights. I use my beloved "Hold-tu" putty and shape it into a sharp wedge. Then "draw" (drag) lines, uneven to each other, into the highlights so they blend into the pencil strokes and brighten the areas a bit. You could also do this with a sharp white eraser I'm sure, but the hold-tu works best for me.

[J D Hillberry]

Excellent tutorial, Beth.
Thanks for sharing.
J. D.

[beth]

Okay, last stage of the tutorial.

STAGE 9:
Time to push the darks! Go back over all dark areas with 3B again, or use something darker if you like. Add stray hairs around edges of curls and outside of the "border" of the head and also around the face. I avoided the face ones a bit since I haven't put the skins tones down yet. Give the illusion of individual hairs all over the head by drawing them at various pressures into highlighted areas. Continue to go back and push the darks until the very end of the drawing. You will add a lot more stray hairs at the end, when everything is done with skin, background etc...as a last step.



Touch ups will of course occur right up until the end of the portrait.

Hope this helped some one!

Beth