Hair is a complicated subject

Hair is a complicated subject, though it can be a lot of fun to draw if you are up to the challenge.

The key to drawing hair , the key to drawing anything complicated actually is to do it in steps. Start out simple and work your way into details. A lot of problems start from trying to tackle too much at once. Or from trying to get to the details too soon. I equate it to baking a cake. You can’t put on the frosting until you have baked the cake. So for now leave out the frosting, and start to make your cake.

I have two main things I look for when drawing hair, value and shapes. You can do the values first or the shapes. Or go back and forth between doing both.

Now, get all of the ideas in your head of what hair is. Forget about all those wispy lines you want to draw in . After all it is called hair, as opposed to hairs. Think of it first as a whole. Getting the right shape to the outside of the hair is important. It is part of the persons’ look. Draw the shape of the hair as you would any other shape in the face ( see negative space) .

.First take a look at the hair you are drawing, there are many types. So you have to judge what steps you need to take.

Simple hair- not a lot of curls-Some people will have very simple hair that may show lots of strands, which may look like you should just start drawing in tons of strands. You don't want to do that. What you want to do is look for those same things, shapes and values, try not too focus on the hairs. What would be helpful in this case is to look for the
	values and get them in before you start going for more detail. Start to look for values in the hair. It helps to break it down into three values. Light medium and dark. Of course you may see a lot more values but try to group them into three. This will give your hair form. If you are having trouble seeing values , squint your eyes ( or take them out of focus if you know how) this will help you to see more solid shapes and less detail. If you are confused whether a section is dark or light, just pick a value for now you can adjust things later. This is just a starting point. Next look for more shapes and values within the ones you have already done. Look at the left side of his hair. It's pretty clear that there art three separate locks of hair. Make sure you get that darkness in between the them. If you shade the whole head in the three values and you use strokes in the direction the hair is growing it will help give the feeling of hair. remember you are not drawing pieces of hair by doing this. You are just shading.
	By blurring this photo you can see how the hair is broken down into masses of light and dark. You can blur the image to see these values more clearly by squinting or unfocusing your eyes. Some values are more obvious than others, with practice, you will become better at seeing these values. Try to break them into three values; light medium and dark. If you see more than three values that is fine. Just try to keep them to a minimum. I try to start out with breaking things down to three values at first and then breaking down those masses further into more subtle values.