Tips On Pencil Portrait Drawing - Drawing Hairdos
January 22nd, 2009 | 
Drawing hair is dictated by several factors: the type of hair, its hue, quality, quantity, the arrangement and styling of the hair, the character and mood of the sitter or the photograph, and the light effect upon the hair.
The contour of the hair is part of the overall construct. A correct arabesque is essential to the likeness of the hair. Many starting draftspersons begin with the face and grow outwards from there. This is however a poor approach and instills bad practices that will prove difficult to overcome.
In fact, the arabesque is especially significant when sketch a hairdo. Attempting to render the hair working from the inside out, bit by bit, is a recipe for failure. The hair will end up in being either too small for the head or too large.
Sketching within the construct of the hairdo, first put in the primary darks. These darks are best seen by squinting until an overall pattern of light and dark is seen.
Next, you need to stump down the graphite in a sculpturally manner following the overall gesture and movement of the hair. For this you can employ your fingers, a tissue, or a paper stump. If you make use of a paper stump be careful not to dull the look. If you use your fingers make sure they are dry and also wipe them constantly with a paper towel.
Then, use your kneaded eraser like a loaded paint brush to lift out the critical lights. Do not be overly picky here. A more bravura approach effects a sense of life and rhythm into the hairdo. If you make an error just blend the graphite again with your fingers or stump and do it again.
Occasionally when you block-in the hair other light parts of the skull pop out. This is one rationale why sketching the head as a whole is necessary.
French braiding is a stunning hair style, but extremely complicated and hard to draw. The point 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 lay out the braids be sure to plumb and carefully size and situate each main lock and braid.
When sketching from a photograph there is the temptation to copy it down to the smallest detail. You may or may not give in to this pull but you should always make sure that the coiffure maintains its liveliness. However, in most cases, you will not need to sketch every detail.
Further block-in the darks paying attention to the direction and motion of the major locks of the hairdo. The most difficult thing is to avoid from plunging into an region of detail. Not to do this requires mental discipline. Best is to follow a layered approach that progressively stacks the arrangement of the coiffure, lock by lock.
You also should soften 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, lifeless coiffures.
Having first mapped out and blocked-in the critical 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 bit of time on a hair.
Also, step back from the drawing to maintain an overview of the key light/dark pattern because detailing can result in a flat chaos in which the tones close in on each other.
Hold back from sketching bangs too soon in the process. This helps ensure that the coiffure and flesh can be unified into a coherent sense of spirit.
Sketching hairdos so that it reads naturally and has a rhythmic gesture is difficult. Generally it takes as much time and effort to render the coiffure as it does the face and neck. You must spend as much care in preparing the coiffure as you would for the rest of the portrait. If you draw from a model make sure you do the coiffure before your model takes a rest because the hair 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 tips you can be sure that in time your sketched hair will look authentic and energetic. Do not forget that drawing coiffure takes time so that you do not get impatient.
Do you want to learn the secrets of pencil portrait sketching? Download my brand new free pencil portrait drawing tutorial here: pencil portrait course.
Remi Engels is a pencil portrait artist and oil painter and practiced drawing teacher. See his work at graphite pencil portraits by Remi.
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