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!



:pink heart: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] :pink heart:

XD It was the first thing that popped into my head. I actually ACCIDENTALLY typed Sparta at first, so then I just struck it out. O.o Where is my mind these days...?

Well, here's my first attempt- I give you my permission to laugh, it's pretty funny :P

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It may be pretty funny, but other than the hard edges, it ain't bad for a first try! :D Try making strands smaller.

I normally take an eraser at lower than 100% opacity, and go over and smooth edges. Then, I take -- you guessed it -- my smudge tool to them.

I did another one, this one only slightly wavy, just for kicks. I also experimented with makeup.

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So I had another go at this, and it's definitely better than my first attempt lol! I still wouldn't say I've mastered hair drawing or anything but this IS an improvement:

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Woah, yes! I agree, deeefinitely an improvement! I rather like it. Good job!

:simso: deffinitley something I'll have to try out ~

You should. It's fun. :D

Going to try this out

Woooot!

this is my attempt
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Gorgeous Rey! :D

thanks :pink heart:

Rey that looks gr8!

is drawing hair easy after a bit when you have tablet sooo excited for monday to start editing!
i didn't just get for simmies though i have been interested about editing for awhiles! ::

Anything is easy after you practice a bit, so yeah. :D

I have to try this one day! I've never thought of using the smudge for stands O.o Thanksies!

You're welcome. :D

I finally got around to doing this.
My result is HORRIBLE though :(

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Nah. It's not horrible. For your first try at this method, it's actually quite good. Just the top left part of the hair is messed up, where the cross strands intersect the down strands. Make the cross strands thicker, don't put down ones underneath them, and follow those throughout your process. If that makes any sense.

Yeah I know the top left section is messed up, I can never get the hang of it. But yeah, I'll try what you said. I'm always willing to improve :]

Just a warning - I suck at this kind of editing, but I decided to practice on your poor model xD this is what I got:


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Lookin' gooood!

Wow, I don't think I've ever seen hair this good from a smudging tutorial before, It looks way too detailed and strandy for that dastardly brush!
Nice Job Vanadis! :blue star:

Vanadis wrote:Oh, you did that without a tablet? wow. I thought you used one in this XD

:flutter: Im worse with a tablet since I rarely use it, I always find it uncomfortable, like I never know where to sit it :dohh:

a first hair for you
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i can see how that gets easier with practice...