How to Draw Realistic Hair with a Pencil - pencil drawing techniques

Hair can be the bane of any artist's existence, but with a few good techniques, drawing hair can be easy, fun, and relaxing.

• First thing's first. It's a lot easier to draw hair if you divide it into sections. Start by lightly drawing the outline of one section of hair. Make sure not to get crazy and drive your pencil into the table, a light outline will do.

• After you have lightly drawn a section of hair, we are going to come in with a little more detail. Many people have a hard time drawing hair, and actually try to draw every strand of hair. Drawing this way makes the hair look flat and very two-dimensional. In order to draw realistic, lustrous, full-of-volume hair, you will ONLY need to draw the SHADOWS of the hair. So, start by lightly drawing in where the shadows of the hair will be. Use light, flowing, wispy lines to simulate the shadows in the hair.

• First start out lightly until you can get a feel for how you need to move your hand/wrist. Use flowing lines, and draw in the shadows a little darker now. Keep in mind that the darker your shadows are, the darker-colored the hair will look. Spread the shadows out as far as you think you need to in order to achieve the desired effect, BUT it's easy to over-do it, so it will take some time to learn when enough is enough.

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