Vana's Smudgerific Hair Drawing Method

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Notes: This was done in GIMP. I'm positive it'll work in Photoshop as well. Dunno about Elements or anything, as I've never used it.

This tutorial will not teach you how to use GIMP. Though, if you have any questions about using it while trying out this tutorial, and you can't seem to find the answer elsewhere, ask away and I or someone else will certainly answer.

Also, I use a tablet. I'm not sure how well this would work out using a mouse or trackpad, as it's pretty much all freehand. So, really, this is not the hair to do if you're in a rush, LOL. This tutorial took over eight hours, and about three quarters of it was drawing the hair. BUT I DO IT BECAUSE I LOVE YOU!

On to the tutorial!


STEP ONE.

Find your photo that you want to use. I find it easier to use a bald Sim, though one with short hair works, too.

Out of personal preference, I do all my skin smoothing and shading and makeup and fixes and whatnot before I start on the hair. If you want to do any sort of lighting effects, you can wait until after the hair is done, as it'll affect that as well.

So, we're going to use Miss No-Name here. We'll call her Sophia for now.

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STEP TWO.

Find your hair colors that you want to use. I'm going to go with a blonde. You can ALWAYS change this later on. I love the color effects. :D

Like most people I've seen tuts by, I also use an outline and a palette. I use between SEVEN to TEN colors, usually, plus dodge and burn. The many colors is I think how I get it looking realistic. Real hair just has so many tones in it it's not even funny. Multitude is also the main depth-adding factor.

I'm only gonna use seven colors this time. So, make a NEW LAYER (if you don't, you'll cry) and find your colors. Smack them on this layer. You can call it palette or whatever. I'm a dork and I number my colors, but this is because I name my layers the corresponding number.

Then, I outline my hair on that same layer, since this whole layer's going to go bye bye at the end. I use color 2 or 3 for this. I'm using 3 here.

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Looks borked, right? Yep. This method looks seriously funkified for a while. Don't fret.

STEP THREE.

Make a new layer. I call this layer 1, because it corresponds with hair color number 1. This is going to be the darkest. Move this layer down underneath the Palette layer, so that when you brush color on, you can see your guidelines. Hold onto your hats, ladies and gents; this is going to look even MORE borked.

Brush Color 1 on. Like so.

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Now ain't that a masterpiece, or what? (I hope you said 'what.')

STEP FOUR.

Make a new layer. This layer is called 2, because it corresponds with hair color number 2. The second darkest. Move this layer above Layer 1 but underneath Palette. (One of these days I'll spell palette right on the first try.) If I lost you, your layers look like this:

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The brush I use for this is one that comes with GIMP; it's your general every day brush, the circle one. There are a few. I use Circle (07). So, I've got my size set at 1.60 with that brush, and I start to brush over Color 1 with Color 2. This time, I cover up almost everything, except for the parts I want to be the absolute darkest, such as the roots, and the separations between different sections of hair.

I don't consider these 'strands' yet. This is the preliminary shading, really. So, I take my smudge tool at a really low opacity (about 15% or so) and smudge it. Take extra care to blend in the 'ends,' though, just so you don't end up with big chunks of WTF in the hair. Make sure you follow the lines while smudging.

Before the smudgie:
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After the smudgie:
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And then, about this point, I go back to the palette layer and erase my hair outline, because after the first two shades, it just starts to confuse the whole thing. (Of course, if you want to keep the outline, definitely keep it.) I get something that looks like this:
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STEP FIVE.

New layer, call it 3. If you didn't erase your outline, move it between Palette and 2. If you did, it doesn't matter where it is, so long as it's above 2. My brush is now scaled to about 1.25. When drawing, I drew over some of everything, but this time, kept the biggest sections to where the highlights are going to be. I followed the same steps pretty much as in step four.

Before smudge:
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After smudge:
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STEP SIX.

New layer, call it 4. Same deal. My brush is scaled to 1.05 this time.

Before smudge:
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It didn't look quite like I wanted, so I took a tiny eraser and erased some of this highlight layer, then smudged again. Still didn't, so I repeated the step a few times, until I got this:
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STEP SEVEN.

New Layer. Called it 5. Brush is now scaled to 0.85. This is where you really start paying attention to highlights. Like, crazy attention. This is the LAST layer that is going to be SHADING. Colors six and seven are highlight only, for the most part.

Before smudge and erase:
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After smudge and erase:
(I did the smudge then erase then smudge step like four times that time. You can now start to really see the individual strands. I LOWERED the SMUDGE OPACITY even lower this time, to about 5%. Still 50% rate, though.)
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STEP EIGHT.
New Layer. Called it 6. Brush is now scaled to 0.35. You pay even more attention to highlights here! This is the all over highlights, but still, most of the concentration of color should go where your light source is hitting your sim. There are going to be highlights in other places too because of ambient lighting, but not too many.

Before smudge:
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After smudge:
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Then, I did this step over AGAIN (though on the same layer, and with the same color, but this time with a brush scaled to 0.25. I went even closer to only the highlights.)

Before smudge:
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After smudge:
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STEP NINE.

Almost there!

New Layer. Called it 7. This is the last and lightest color, used only – ONLY – for highlights. Brush is scaled now to a measly 0.10.

Before smudge:
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After smudge:
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STEP TEN.

Here, I deleted my Palette layer. Then, I merged all the HAIR layers down, starting with 7 onto 6, 6 onto 5, etc. Do not merge 1 onto the background (your Sim) yet. So you should have your Sim layer(s) and ONE HAIR LAYER.

If you like, you can smudge some of the hairs, whatever. Blah. It's a tut, so I'm not going to bother with that right now. Especially with how long this has taken me. (But I had fun doing it! :D )

Here, I used the Dodge tool on a low opacity, low rate (like 15 opacity, 30 rate) on JUST the areas where the main light source hit the hair. Then I smudged it in using that uber-low opacity smudge that has been our best friend forever throughout this tutorial.

Voila.
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So, now you folks know the basic gist of how I draw my hair. Yes, it's long, and tedious, but I adore the result.

Usually, I don't like the result at first. Like... now, actually. Haha. SO I have a few things I do afterward that make it more pleasing to me.

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Here, I went into the menu: Colors>curves, and played around with the curves and got this pretty ash blonde (I think) color. Woo!

Or, I like to do more fun stuff.

HEY! I haven't used GREEN hair in a while. Let's do that.
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Here, I went into menu: Colors>Colorize, and fiddled with it until I got a minty green. On a whim I decided I wanted it to look blacklight reactive, so I went to Colors>Brightness-Contrast, and made this.


And that's all, folks!

I hope this helped someone!



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Trying this tomorrow! It looks so easy and the end result is amazing!

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..My first attempt using someone elses model :3

Niiiiice Flutterbug! Maybe use less strong of a smudge, but nice!

Okay ^_^ It was kinda rushed.. Im planning on trying to use a tablet next time

Oh, you did that without a tablet? O.o wow. I thought you used one in this XD

My tablet doesn't work in Gimp for some reason :-( So I have to use a mouse - it's so annoying when my tablet is sitting there D:

:O

How did I only just notice this tutorial?!

I can't wait to try it out when I have time (:

Ooh, looks awesome Vana! I might try this out ::

I tried and failed. I dont even wanna post what I did, cuz Im such a perfectionist. I have to work on it more. And understand the flow of hair better. :sorrow:

I think I might have time to try it tonight ^.^

Edit: Woot, woot! New rank!

Thanks you all!

JaLiBo: It helps to have a picture of a hair that you want to do, the first few times. Like, a reference. And it does take a lot of practice.

Woot Monks is a noob now!

Ohh yeah. n00bs are cool
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Fail at peace sign FTW

Here's my first go! I used it in a competition entry

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Heehee! I saw that! I was like, "Oooh, is that mah method?" It looks really really good Nutty!

Thanks Vana :pretty:
It's my favourite hair drawing of mine EVER :D!
I love your method, it's simple and it really works!!

Yay, I'm glad you like it! And it just works so great in that pic, with the dramatic contrast and all... Gorgeousness!

I made an attempt... I can't draw hair for squat lol but here goes

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maybe i will try this...i am so lazy and rushed when it comes to things but when my dad is not here to bother me,i will give it a go

:Bump: I wanna see more hair drawings :D

Me too! Draw some more hair! For hair is the fountain of... *imagines a fountain of hair* LOL The fountain of LOL. Yes.

So. I feel like the tut needs to be added to... maybe a section on how to do waves, curls, braids, etc... But is there anything else anyone wants cleared up in pictures?

Flyaways!! Or are they just like small strands but you smudge them? If so, I won't be needing pictures for that I don't think haha xD!

And yes, different styles of hair would be useful :D.

The way I do flyaways is I take a tiny smudge brush, at a higher opacity than used for the rest of the hair and I smudge out away from the hair.

Hokay, will work on some different styles. I'm kinda bad with curls, but I'm practicing... I'm good with wacky updo's though. XD Will probably show braids and dreads, waves, crimps, etc. *nods*

I spend hours on flyaways... I draw them in with a pen tool :seen:

Allright, SO. Listen up chicos y chicas. (Or don't, doesn't matter XD)

Because I don't want to make that first page tutorial any longer, the next part is going HERE, and I'll just link to it on the first post for ease of finding.

This is SPARTA!!!!! waves and small curls.

This is not going to be that in-depth, because it's just a matter of following the basic principle. As always, ask any questions you have, and I'll get back atcha.

STEP ONE.
Start with the outline. I have this.
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When I draw waves, it's more a matter of keeping my hand a bit more loose when I draw, than when I draw straight hair. I throw in a few little wide U shapes at the bottoms here and there, because wavy hair, especially when layered like I did here, has little flippy-outy bits.

STEP TWO.
Fill 'er in with your darkest color.
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STEP THREE.
I skipped a bunch of steps here, because really, it's the same.
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Keep following your guide lines. When doing wavy hair, I also like to make some of my lines (strands) criss-cross for variation and realism.

This is my fifth color
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And this is my fifth color smudged.
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Sixth...
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This is the first highlight layer, the overall highlights.
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make sure you mostly get those little flippy out bits, because the light is going to shine on those the most. The next most shine should be up at the top of the head.

This is the next layer of highlights, the lightest.
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When smudging these, I did smudging, then erasing along the hair pattern, then smudging again until it looked natural.

Stick a fork in it; It's done.
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Reeeeally simple when you have the basics down. It's all about changing hair shapes, and understanding light sources.

For the flyaways in this, I just drew them in when I drew the other layers and smudged them a bit. I smudged from the bulk of the hair to the tip of the flyaway, NOT THE OTHER WAY. Smudge your flyaways OUT, not in. :D

And really, that's about it.

Looks fabby Vana :D!

Was lolling at: This is SPARTA XD