Introduction

Hi there, welcome to a tutorial on drawing stylised hair. The main sources of inspiration for these stylised hair are from anime and cartoons while also observing how real life hair behaves.

 

For this tutorial we will breakdown the hair drawing process into 3 main methods using Shapes, Tufts and Strands. We will cover on drawing hair starting from its simplest form to building up variety with these forms and then adding texture.

 

So, let’s draw some hair!

Method 1: Shapes

Hair in its simplest form would be derived from shapes that represent its silhouette.

 

Try to imagine simplified forms of drawing hair such as just the outline of a shape wrapping itself around the character’s head.

For example, we could use just 1 basic shape like a semicircle or experiment with multiple mixtures of shapes such as triangles, ovals, etc.

Method 2: Tufts

From simple shapes and forms, we proceed to combining more than just a couple of shapes to create tufts of hair.

 

When applying this style of drawing hair, imagine drawing a patch or tuft of hair and then multiplying it in various directions and sizes.

 

It is also important to keep in mind of the direction the hair is growing and to spread it out from this main source or point. Most often, this point is positioned near the top/back part of our head and maybe be slightly off centre.

Using simple ‘S’ and ‘C’ shapes, you can create and build up voluminous tufts of hair for your character:

Method 3: Strands

In the earlier two methods, we are drawing mainly with simplified and exaggerated shapes to create stylised hair. To further build on top of these methods, we now look at adding in some strands of hair.

 

This method is probably most closely depicting and resembling how actual hair is in real life.

 

In a stylised method, it can help to add a sense of movement to the hairstyle and also give some textured detail in the various strands drawn.

 

The strands are mainly built up by drawing linear strokes of varying lengths and directions. Try layering the strands to create a denser appearance.

Drawing different types of hair

1. Straight Hair:

 

For very stagnant hair, we can draw straight vertical lines. However if we’d like to give straight hair some life and movement, imagine an ‘S’ shape which has been stretched thin.

2. Wavy Hair:

 

To achieve that voluminous quality in wavy hairstyles, we can take the ‘S’ shape and exaggerate it by making it wider and curvier. Or we can even use an exaggerated ‘Z’ shape as well.

3. Curly hair:

 

Just like the name, we’re taking a ‘C’ shape to help create and build up the various curved tufts to create a curly hairstyle. These could also be mixed in with the ‘S’ and ‘Z’ shapes from before to provide some variation in the mix.

4. Short Hair:

 

Depending on the type of short hair, we can adapt the previous varieties of hair types to create a look. In this case we may shorten the strokes and if the hairstyle is very short then we can use smaller shapes and lines to create the silhouette.

Combination of 3 methods

Now that we have gone through the 3 methods, we can also combine all of these when drawing stylised hair.

Here is an example of step by step process:

 

1. Create a rough sketch of the headshot with the desired hairstyle silhouette. In this case we are going for a short and slightly wavy style.

2. Clean up the sketch on a new layer, we can define the direction and shapes of the main tufts of hair. Remember how we can create shapes for the tufts using various ‘S’ and ‘C’ directions.

3. Let’s lay in a base with colouring in the main tufts of hair. You can add or leave the white parts of the highlights, imagine the part of the shape that is facing out or is rounded. These would usually catch or reflect the light source, therefore creating a shine/highlight.

4. To give some dimension to the hair, we can create another layer and set it to Multiply mode. This helps to darken the colour on top of our base which creates the shadow areas.

 

Add some loose single strands for an effect of wind and movement.

Below are a few more examples of hair using shapes, tufts and strands:

Thank you for reading this tutorial and I hope it can help you face drawing hair with some useful tips and new ideas ☺️