Hair with pencil?

[Mad Giraffe]

Could anyone please tell me what is the best way to draw hair/fur?..I'm getting quite disastrous right now...tried a lot of things..none of them did look very good.....as a technique then.
Thanks for any replies, I would really appreciate some help here.

Ps.:I mean the 'original' way...so nothing digital...

[mtw]

Are you doing a line or mass drawing? If it's a mass drawing, draw a shape that represents the hair with a tone that has a value you're looking for. Add varying tones that will show what the hair is like.

[Mad Giraffe]

Hmmm..sounds intresting...I'll try. Thanks mtw. Sure is going to be hard tough..since my tone control is not at the best, ah well...practice makes perfect I guess.

[nikia]

It's kind of hard to explain, but I'll give it a try. For hair: draw in the shape of the hair on the head, make sure you have some lines in for the direction of the hair, bangs, upswept, around ears and lenghth. Also leave an area clear for any parts in the hair, (such as down the middle, top side, etc.) Basically look at people's hair for, where the hair parts in different directions. For highlighting, sweep your hand back and forth, laying down pencil lines. Some areas darker, (kind of in a crooked row), some areas lighter, (usually above and below the darker shading) and some areas left with hardily any lines. (usually the part in the hair.) Also lighter areas would be where the light is shining on the hair.

For fur: basically the same thing, only shorter strokes, depending on the fur length. Anything from almost dots to longer strokes as in the hair above. In fur you want your lighter areas to highlight: muscle and bone structure as well as parts in the hair, and where light shines on the fur. Darker areas would be around joints, areas where legs meet the body, inside ears, around muzzles, etc. Basically anywhere normal shading would be applied.
Hope this is understandable and helpful.

[Lumi]

My friend, Sarah, has a lovely website that doesnt have any tutorials about how to draw fur, but by looking at some of her pictures, I've learned to draw 'furries' a bit. Check out her artwork section for pics of wolves, people, and assorted creatures. ^^' Good luck!


http://www.think-not.com/spiralunwinding/

[Trigger00]

http://www.sibleyfineart.com/index.htm?links.htm

drawing hair by using negative space

[Hedge-o-Matic]

The thing that makes hair a difficult subject is that it isn't really a surface at all, but a number of smaller surfaces. Because it grows and lays in layers, and has depth, there are a number of visual patterns that hair can create. All of these can be "faked" so that a person looking at a drawing immediately knows not only that the image is of hair, but can say something about its texture and consistancy as well.

First off, hair tends to "bunch". A lot of it grous ito a larger form, even when it's all together. These groups tend to grow outward in a similar direction, and if oriented toward the viewer, a dark patch is seen. Light patches appear where light hits the "top" of any curve in the hair bunches. Like this:

http://img6.photobucket.com/albums/v16/Hedge-o-Matic/Tutorials/Hair2.jpg


Hair is also arranged in various ways, and this makes the direction of hair groups go in the desired direction:

http://img6.photobucket.com/albums/v16/Hedge-o-Matic/Tutorials/Hair3.jpg


Also, the edges of the hair mass are sometimes dishevelled or irregular, so don't be affraid to add in strays:

http://img6.photobucket.com/albums/v16/Hedge-o-Matic/Tutorials/Hair1.jpg


Lastly, action effects even short hair. This example shows all of the above, in action:

http://img6.photobucket.com/albums/v16/Hedge-o-Matic/Tutorials/Hair4.jpg


Hope this helps!