Art Fun Cheap

By Remi Engels, guest blogger

Rendering hair is dictated by several factors: the type of hair, its color, texture, amount, the arrangement and styling of the hair, the character and disposition of the sitter or the photograph, and the light effect upon the hair.

The contour of the hair is part of the overall arabesque. A correct construct is relevant to the likeness of the hair. Many beginning draftspersons start with the face and grow outwards from there. This is however a bad procedure and instills bad practices that will prove difficult to break.

In fact, the arabesque is especially important when draw a hairdo. Attempting to draw the hair working from the inside out, piece by piece, is a recipe for disaster. The hair will end up in being either too small for the head or too large.

Drawing within the construct of the hair, first put in the primary darks. These darks are best seen by squinting until a general pattern of light and dark is seen.

Next, you need to blend the graphite in a sculpturally manner following the general gesture and movement of the hair. For this you can utilize your fingers, a tissue, or a paper stump. If you utilize a paper stump be careful not to deaden the look. If you employ your fingers make sure they are dry and also wipe them constantly with a paper towel.

Then, make use of your putty eraser like a loaded paint brush to lift out the important lights. Do not be overly picky here. A more virtuoso approach creates a sense of life and rhythm into the hairdo. If you make a mistake just blend the graphite again with your fingers or stump and do it again.

Sometimes when you block-in the hair other light parts of the skull pop out. This is one rationale why drawing the head as a whole is necessary.

French braiding is a striking hairdo style, but extremely complex and hard to draw. The intent is to sketch these French braids fluidly and with motion. A balancing act is required here: the intricacy of the coiffure’s styling is best handled by first line-rendering the main locks and braids. As you map out the braids be sure to plumb and carefully size and situate each main lock and braid.

When working from a photograph there is the temptation to reproduce it down to the smallest detail. You may or may not give in to this temptation but you should always make sure that the coiffure retains its liveliness. However, in most cases, you will not need to sketch every detail.

Further block-in the darks paying attention to the bearing and gesture of the critical locks of the hair. The most difficult thing is to avoid from plunging into an region of detail. Not to do this demands mental discipline. Best is to follow a layered procedure that progressively stacks the arrangement of the hair, lock by lock.

You also should smooth the edges of the coiffure line so that it blends into the forehead and sides of the face. Hair does this naturally.

Make sure you used sharp pencils because dull pencils lead to dull, dead coiffures.

Having first mapped out and blocked-in the important locks of hair makes the rendering of the finer regions much easier, but is still labor intensive. You should be prepared to spend quite a lot of time on a coiffure.

Also, step back from the sketch to maintain an overview of the prime light/dark pattern because detailing can result in a flat mess in which the values close in on each other.

Restrain yourself from rendering bangs too early in the process. This helps ensure that the hair and flesh can be unified into a coherent sense of spirit.

Sketching hair so that it reads naturally and has a rhythmic gesture is difficult. Commonly it takes as much time and effort to render the hair as it does the face and neck. You must spend as much care in prepping the hairdo as you would for the rest of the portrait. If you draw from life be sure you do the hairdo before your model takes a rest because the hairdo will very likely have changed when the break is over. The strategy, then, is to devote a whole 20 to 30 minutes of a pose segment to the hairdo.

With these guidelines you can be certain that in time your sketched hairdos will look real and lively. Do not forget that sketching coiffure takes time so that you do not get irritated.

Do you want to learn the secrets of pencil portrait sketching? Download my brand new free pencil portrait drawing course here: pencil portrait tutorial.

Remi Engels is a pencil portrait artist and oil painter and practiced sketching teacher. See his work at graphite pencil portraits.

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