Do’s and Don’ts of Drawing Realistic Hair

Shading hair can be a little daunting for the beginners because they tend to jump into a lot of detail right away without looking at the bigger picture. But don’t worry it’s not that hard if you follow a certain set of instructions and unlearn some of the wrong techniques. So let’s have a look here at some do’s and don’ts of drawing realistic hair

Don’ts

You don’t need to shade everywhere!

Seriously guys you don’t really have to shade everywhere when it comes to drawing hair. Beginners often think dark hair requires them to apply graphite strokes everywhere in order to get the opacity and volume their reference depicts but that’s certainly not the case.

Don’t shade with one pencil:

One graphite pencil can only give you a very narrow range of light and dark values but if you want to incorporate a wider range than it’s best to use more than just one pencil grade.

Don’t try to draw every single strand of hair:

See this is where the magic lies, beginners think you have to draw every single hair strand if you want to make them look realistic but that’s not true, you just have to create an illusion of every single strand.

Don’t shade too uniformly:

Yet on another hand some beginners tend to shade too uniformly or in an organized fashion. Let the hair be a little messy at some points, let your hands loosen up a little at some places, create some stray strands and that’s how they’ll look more natural.

Do’s

Shade in the form of sections:

Instead of shading and applying individual strokes for each strand of hair, practice to divide the hair into different sections, and work on those individual sections.

Start with a lighter shade:

Always start lighter so you have the margin to make corrections or improvements.

Always use a Grid to sketch the outline:

I have nothing against free hand drawings, trust me because I do that a lot myself. But when it comes to someone who is just starting out it is suggested to make a grid for better and proportionate outline.

Be mindful of the direction of hair locks:

Once you start shading in the form of sections you need to be mindful of the direction of each sections as it can differ from section to section depending on the kind of hairstyle you’re going for as a reference.

Use a sharp pencil:

It’s very vital to keep your pencil sharpened at all times especially when it comes to drawing realistic hair You can also learn the do’s and don’ts from this video demonstration I created