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Fantasy Art Tutorials in the FARP Section

By :-) Birthe Jabs, Gallery 503.

Drawing and painting hair

Part 3, Hair in watercolour

Now we are coming to giving Maedhros his proper copper red hair.

We begin as usual with the sketch of his head. I coloured his face already for skin colouring is not the topic of this tutorial. Plan the strands again and begin with a golden yellow. Leave the absolutely white spaces out. (Important! For you can hardly erase watercolour. What shall be white in the end must never be touched before.)

Copperhead, lights

This, by the way, is the brush I use for that. Looks horrible, uh? But it is just the right thing for this.

Brush

The gold is a sub-colour of red hair. For other hair-colours you would use the fitting sub-colour that comes out in sunshine. I'd say a reddish brown for brown hair for example, and blue for black hair. It's always nice to use two slightly different colours for dark and light parts of the hair. That makes it look more genuine, more realistic. Keep the brush pretty dry. I dab it into a hankerchief after I took up water, then I take up the paint. The single hairs of the brush must be able to seperate and not paint a massive blot. That means you will have to take up a little water and much paint pretty often. But patience! I believe the result is worth it. When the golden undertone is dry (what should happen quickly due to the use of little water!) You can begin with red. Use just the same technique - little water, much paint. But now you only paint the "valleys" in the waves of Maedhros' strands or whoever you are painting.

Copperhead, red

It makes sense to begin at the top left and work your way down to the bottom right, but as the paint is supposed to dry quickly it would not be too important in this case. You paint the dark parts strand by strand, decreasing pressure until you take the brush off to achieve frayed transitions.

Copperhead, more red

You will make some layers, but with hair you don't need many. Perhaps three layers will do: The first with little paint, reaching farthest into the highlights. Then the second layer with a bit more paint, not reaching as far, and the third layer using much paint only in the "valley" to make the shadows.

That's it!

First: Drawing Hair

Prev: How to Draw Braids


FARP Article Guestbook

DateNameComment 
7 Jul 200945 Anon.
thank you! this tutorial is awesome
21 Jul 2009:-) Rebekah Dawn VanSlooten
wow, that is an extremely helpful tutorial. i think i can actually make decent hair now=]
8 Aug 200945 Anon.
wooooooow11111111111
8 Aug 2009:-) Edi Hoogenboezem
This is a great and helpful tutorial.
keep it going!1
8 Aug 2009:-) Edi Hoogenboezem
it’s a miracle!
I’m drawing braids!
22
Thank you very very much!!
15 Aug 200945 Anon.
thanks sooo much this is great!
15 Aug 200945 Anon.
thanks sooo much this is great111!!
16 Aug 200945 Anon.
wowmyfriends are empressed
25 Sep 2009:-) John Mad And Dark Prince Mironenko
Thank for the lesson you really helped me!12
16 Nov 200945 Anon.
thankyou so much!
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