h12 long straight hair

Brenda Hoddinott

H-12 BEGINNER: FOCUS ON PEOPLE You use slightly curved hatching lines of various lengths and values to draw realistic long straight hair. Skills include: identifying different approaches to drawing hair, drawing the contours of straight hair with curved hatching lines, and transforming a circle into a sphere.

This lesson is divided into the following four parts:

COMPARING HAIRY DRAWINGS: You observe a couple of basic approaches to drawing hair and examine various drawings in which the hair is drawn realistically. Drawing realistic hair involves creating the illusions of form and depth.

SETTING UP TO DRAW HAIR: You outline the contours of hair as they assume the shape of a head.

HATCHING LONG HAIR: You use curved hatching lines and various pencils to shade the texture and three-dimensional forms of realistic long straight hair. Curved hatching lines are perfect for creating the texture of both hair and long fur.

ADDING A SIMPLE FACE: You shade in a face and transform a circular shape into a spherical nose. This face will be EASY to draw! The eyes are hidden under the hair and the mouth is a tiny oval.

Suggested drawing supplies include good quality white drawing paper, kneaded and vinyl erasers, and various graphite pencils such as 2H, 2B, HB, 4B, and 6B.

13 PAGES – 22 ILLUSTRATIONS This project is recommended for artists, aged ten to ninety-nine, who have basic drawing skills, as

well as home schooling, academic and recreational fine art educators.

Published by Hoddinott Fine Art Publishers, Halifax, NS, Canada, Revised 2006

Copyright to all articles, images, text, projects, lessons and exercises within this drawing class belong to Brenda Hoddinott and may not be reproduced or used for any commercial purposes whatsoever without the written permission of Brenda Hoddinott.

E-mail [email protected] Web sites http://www.finearteducation.com and http://www.drawspace.com

- 2 -

COMPARING HAIRY DRAWINGS Many beginners try to draw realistic hair with long continuous lines and very little contrast. Subsequently, the hair looks flat, rather than three-dimensional. Drawing realistic hair involves creating the illusions of form and depth.

Contrast measures the degree of difference between the light and dark values within shading, and helps create the illusion of three-dimensional reality. Shading refers to the various shades of gray (values) in a drawing that make the drawing subjects look three-dimensional. Values are the different shades of gray created when you draw by varying both the density of the shading lines, and the pressure used in holding various pencils. Form, as applied to drawing, is the illusion of the three-dimensional structure of a shape.

ILLUSTRATION 12-01 ILLUSTRATION 12-02

These two illustrations demonstrate a couple of different methods for drawing long straight hair. Examine each to discover their differences.

Hair drawn with straight lines and little contrast looks flat. Flat hair is rendered with long continuous straight lines and a very limited range of values. Realistic hair is rendered with curved lines of various lengths, and a full range of hatching values from very light to almost black.

Some cartoon artists use straight lines to illustrate hair. This works perfectly when flat two-dimensional hair is the goal. Check out the first cartoon drawing below.


Drawing with only straight lines doesn’t work well for drawing realistic hair. Realistic hair is drawn with curved lines of various lengths, which follow the contours of the forms of the hair and/or skull (as shown in the second cartoon).



- 3 -

ILLUSTRATION 12-05

Take note of the point on the top of this little girl’s head, from which all her hair seems to grow. The hatching lines follow the contours of her skull, creating the perceived reality of her head being three-dimensional.

Hatching is a series of lines (called a set) drawn closely together to give the illusion of values.

ILLUSTRATION 12-06

Tiny individual lines can be sketched around the top and sides of realistic hair to create a soft wispy illusion.

Hair of all colors (including black, brown, blond, red, and purple), should be drawn with a broad range of values, from light to dark.

Keep in mind that all colors of hair tend to look darker further away from the dominant light source, and even more so in the darkest shadow areas. Light source refers to the direction from which a dominant light originates. The placement of this light source affects every aspect of a drawing.

More dark values than light, are used to create the illusion that the hair is dark (such as black or dark brown), rather than light. Conversely, light hair (such as gray or blond) is shaded with fewer dark values.



- 4 -

ILLUSTRATION 12-07

Long hair often curves in many directions, creating wavy rather than completely straight hair. Illustrations 12-06, 12-07, and 12-08, demonstrate how light and dark sections of hair are each rendered with a full range of values.

ILLUSTRATION 12-08

As you can no doubt tell, long wavy hair generally takes much longer to draw than straight hair. Examine these drawings closely, and take note of the following:

The dominant light source is from the right.

Strands of hair are much lighter closer to the light source.

The hair is darker in the shadowed areas further from the light source.

The hatching lines are of various lengths, rather than long continuous lines.

Almost all of the hatching lines are curved rather than straight.

The values range from almost white in the shiny areas to very dark, such as close to her neck.

Some sections of hair overlap others, helping enhance the illusion of depth and three-dimensional reality.



- 5 -

SETTING UP TO DRAW HAIR Put the cat out, let the dog in, and plan on having some productive fun learning how to draw realistic long hair. Speaking of dogs and cats, these techniques also work well for drawing long fur on animals! Find your drawing supplies, and draw along with me as I take you step-by-step through this project.

ILLUSTRATION 12-09

1. Use an HB pencil to draw an egg-shape in the upper section of your drawing paper.

ILLUSTRATION 12-10

This egg-shape is similar to the shape of a human head, and will be the foundation on which the hair “grows”.

The goal is to draw the hair in such a way, as to make the head look three-dimensional.

2. Lightly sketch the outline of the outer shape of the hair. Visually choose a point in the center of (and slightly above) your egg shape, and place a small dot here. This is the point from which the hair will originate.

Draw two long curved lines from this point (outside the egg-shape) downward toward the bottom of your drawing space. The lines begin by curving upward from the point, then out, and finally downward. They follow the contour of the head as they continue downward.

Continue drawing the long curved lines downward, to about three-quarters of the distance from the top of your drawing space.

Close to the bottom of the drawing space, both lines curve slightly inward, and then curve outward again.



- 6 -

3. With an HB pencil, lightly sketch several short (mostly curved) lines from the center point at the top of the head downward. The goal is to establish a blueprint or “guidelines” for drawing the hair. Take note that the line in the center is almost straight. Each line you draw closer to the outside edge of the hair is progressively more curved.

4. Draw a circle as the nose. Take note that the nose is located on the lower half of the egg-shape.

5. Lighten the outline of the head with a kneaded eraser, until it becomes very faint.


To help you draw a circle, rotate your paper and look at your drawing from different perspectives. This little trick often allows you insight into any problem areas. Looking at the reflection of your circle in a mirror will also help you to see areas in need of fixing.



- 7 -

6. Add (or extend) two more slightly curved lines that extend downward from the point, to the inside edges of the nose, and then begin again lower on the nose, until they almost meet at a point below the nose. These lines do not touch the very outside edge of the nose. The goal here is to create the illusion that small sections of the hair are behind the nose on each side.

7. Re-draw a tiny section of the chin (the lower section of the egg-shape) inside the triangular section formed by the two lines below the nose.

8. Add (or extend) two more lines to the outside of the previous two. These lines also begin at the point on the top of the head, and extend downward.

9. Erase the original drawing of the egg-shape (except for the chin).


10. Extend the curved lines from the upper section of the head, almost all the way down to the bottom of your drawing space. Observe, how the lines that are closer to the outer edges of the hair, curve in the same directions as your first outline of the hair.

The closer the lines are to the center, the less they curve.

The line in the very center is almost completely straight, except for a tiny curve at the bottom.



- 8 -

ILLUSTRATION 12-15

HATCHING LONG HAIR Curved hatching lines are perfect for creating the texture of hair (and fur). This very simple method of shading can produce a complete range of different values.

The light source in this drawing is coming from the left. Light affects the placement and value of every section of shading. Hence, the values need to be slightly darker on the right.

Different values are created by:

• Varying the density of the lines you draw. Density refers to whether the individual hatching lines are close together or far apart.

• Varying the pressure used in holding your pencils. For light lines you press very lightly with your pencil. Press harder with your pencil to make darker lines.

• Using various pencils. A 2H pencil gives you lighter lines than 2B or 4B.

11. Use your 2H and HB pencils to draw the light values. All the lines are slightly curved. Remember, straight hair often follows the form of a person’s head and looks more realistic when you use curved lines instead of straight.

The hatching lines are several different lengths and values. The edges are not abrupt stops, but rather feathered (or ragged) to give a more realistic appearance.

The graduated shading lines vary from very light to medium values. Graduated shading is a continuous progression of graduated values from dark to light or from light to dark.



- 9 -

12. Use your 2B pencil to draw the hatching lines for the darker sections of hair at the top (Illustration 12-16) and middle (Illustration 12-17) of your drawing.


The darker values in the

hair are also of various lengths and values with

raggedy endings.



- 10 -

13. Continue using your 2B pencil for the lower sections of hair close to the bottom.

14. Use your 4B pencil to add a few darker hatching lines at the very top and in a small section of the center sections.




- 11 -

ILLUSTRATION 12-20

ADDING A SIMPLE FACE This face will be EASY to draw! The eyes are hidden under the hair and the mouth is a tiny oval.

15. Use a 4B pencil to shade in the tiny triangular shape under the chin.

16. Add shading to the small areas of the face that are showing. Use a 4B pencil for the darker section above the nose. The shading is dark below the nose, but gets lighter closer to the chin. Use your 4B for the dark area and your HB for the lighter section.

ILLUSTRATION 12-21

17. Use a 4B for the mouth.

18. Add a full range of values to the nose to transform a circle into a three-dimensional sphere. Leave a small circular section white. This is a highlight.

The lighter values (created with an HB pencil), closer to the highlight are close to the top and left of the nose.

The tiny glow on the lower right edge of the circle is the reflected light. Leave this section lighter than the shadow section.

Use your 4B pencil to add the darker shading. The shading in the shadowed area of the nose looks like a backwards “C”.



- 12 -

ILLUSTRATION 12-22

19. Step back from your drawing and have a look at the overall values.

20. Add final touches to the shading on the hair, face and nose, if needed. You can make some areas of the face and nose lighter by patting with your kneaded eraser and others darker by adding more shading.

You make sections of the hair darker by simply drawing more hatching lines where you need them.

You just drew a three

dimensional hairy form

on a two dimensional

surface! If you enjoyed

using this technique to

draw hair, you may wish

to choose other subjects

and do more drawings.

Sign your name, write

today’s date on the back

of your drawing, and put

a smile on your face!



- 13 -

BRENDA HODDINOTT - BIOGRAPHY As a self-educated teacher, visual artist, portraitist, forensic artist, and illustrator, Brenda Hoddinott utilizes diverse art media including graphite, technical pen, colored pencil, chalk pastel, charcoal, conté crayon, and oil paints.

My philosophy on teaching art is to focus primarily on the

enjoyment aspects while gently introducing the technical and

academic. Hence, in creating a passion for the subject matter,

the quest for knowledge also becomes enjoyable.

>Brenda Hoddinott<

Born in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Brenda grew up in the small town of Corner Brook. She developed strong technical competencies with a personal commitment to self directed learning, and the aid of assorted “Learn to Draw” books. During Brenda’s twenty-five year career as a self-educated civilian forensic artist, numerous criminal investigation departments have employed Brenda’s skills, including Royal Canadian Mounted Police and municipal police departments. In 1992, Brenda was honored with a commendation from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and in 1994, she was awarded a Certificate of Membership from “Forensic Artists International”.

Her home-based art career included graphic design, and teaching recreational drawing and painting classes. As supervisor of her community’s recreational art department, Brenda hired and trained teachers, and designed curriculum for several children’s art programs. In 1998, Brenda chose to end her eighteen-year career as an art educator in order to devote more time to writing, drawing, painting, and developing her websites.

Drawspace http://www.drawspace.com incorporates her unique style and innovative approach to curriculum development. This site offers downloadable and printable drawing classes for students of all abilities from the age of eight through adult. Students of all ages, levels and abilities have praised the simple step-by-step instructional approach. This site is respected as a resource for fine art educators, home schooling programs, and educational facilities throughout the world.

LEARN-TO-DRAW BOOKS BY BRENDA HODDINOTT Drawing for Dummies: Wiley Publishing, Inc., New, York, NY, this 336 page book is available on various websites and in major bookstores internationally.

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Drawing People: Winner of the Alpha-Penguin Book of the Year Award 2004, Alpha - Pearson Education – Macmillan, Indianapolis, IN, this 360 page book is available on various websites and in major bookstores internationally.