Draw Realistic Baby Hair With Colored Pencils – Easy Steps for Beginners

Now that the face is complete, we can move on to the hair and the last details of the portrait. This is the part that really brings everything together. I'll show you how I build the layers in the hair and add the final touches to the shirt. [music] With color pencils, taking your time here makes all the difference. If you want to follow along, there's a link below the video where you can download the reference photo. So, I'm just going to add a layer here of the sepia. But here in between those hairs, I do see a bit skin tone and especially here as well. So, first I'm going to on this side the skin is darker. So, I have the burnt sienna 50 here. I'm just going to color that. I think I'm also going to go a bit over this shadow here. And yeah, I will need to look at this shadow again and then look at look at it. But it's better to finish more and more of the drawing of the drawing to compare. It's easier that way. So here the the skin is lighter because the light is shining on this side and here's shadow. So I think this is enough. And then with the burnt ochre 10, I want to smoothen that. And with the burnt ochre 10, I want to color the light skin here that I see in between the hair, just all the way up to the corner here. What I'm going to do because I have the edge of the paper, not sure if you see it on camera. I have the ruler here. Going to put it to the edge of the paper and then I can just color up until the edge maybe here also in the middle. And then with the buff titanium, I'm going to blend this. Okay, I think that's okay. And eventually I can also scrape away if I need to. So now with the sepia and I might even add a layer of black over here because the hair is really dark and then you see a few hairs sticking out. First I'm going to so I'm going to go over this layer a few times to get rid of that grainy look. I'm using medium pressure and then color in the direction of the hair. And the point the tip is getting very dull. So I'm going to sharpen it and draw those hairs here. So just these back and forth quick strokes. The hairs the direction of the hair is going down. And then here the hair strokes are really thin and soft. The ones that go over the forehead. The hairs up here. Draw them more together. Draw those hairs you see sticking out. And another layer. So I'm using more pressure here. And here the transition from the hairline. I'm going to use the raw amber 10 or maybe the sepia 50 first cuz it's a bit darker. Also here also blend the hair a bit and here. So now I'm burnishing so I don't have a greeny look. But here I'm using light pressure again because here the transition from the forehead want to blend it a bit and here it's lighter. So with the with the sepia 10 maybe first the sepia 50 here and with the sepia 10. So I'm also drawing some of those light hairs that you see and blending here. So I'm creating a softer look here but then I'm going to go over it with the sepia to add those hairs on top. First I'm looking between those hairs at the at the forehead skin on the forehead. Not too much pressure because it will turn out too pink. So with the buff titanium and then blend towards the forehead here skin. Okay. Now I want to draw some of those hairs back. I'm going to start or I'm going to use the sepia 50 first for those lighter. I'm actually going to sharpen for those lighter hairs in between. And even though they go straight down, I also draw a bit a few bit more like curved here. a bit to the left because hair is never perfectly straight. So also draw it a bit curved. And then here you see some I'm going over the forehead. And then here I need to darken. So this is just for those lighter soft hairs I see on the forehead. And here to blend a bit here cuz I still see a bit of the white of the paper showing through. And I'm actually going to it looks a bit looks a bit messy here. So, I'm going to with this fence eraser, I'm going to lighten some of them and make it look like they're more to the back with the sepia 15. Let's see how far this some hairs are a bit more to more together. Some you see more space in between. So, try to draw a bit variation and not all of them straight down and all neat next to each other. Because it's hair, you want to make it look as natural as possible, a bit more flowy, even though the hair is straight. Some hairs here. And then with the sepia for the darkest hairs. So you see the more you hair you have, you can look at the value. And now if you step away, you can critique the shadows on the face more. You get a whole different look now just by adding the hair even though it's not finished. And then once after drawing the hair, you will need to move on to the rest because just to focus on something else and then come back to the hair to see if you're satisfied. So I think I'm even going to use the black pencil for some areas here. And then I want to go over that with the sepia. Not too dark on this side, but just adding a bit to create more depth and correct value. and going over the areas I added with the black with the sepia to blend it all. So, like I said, draw these clumps of hair instead of all of those individual hairs. I draw these thicker strokes so that it looks like it's hair together. Here's some hair on the side. Okay. Now, because I keep on focusing on the hair, it's difficult. So, I will need to step away and then look at the whole drawing. So once I finish all of the facial features, I still look back, critique, and look at the drawing as a whole with the sepia going over the nostril, the shadow under the nose, also dark. Next, [clears throat] I'm going to move on to the neck and the shirt. And then we're going to critique the drawing and add the final details or correct if [clears throat] we need to. I'm just going over some areas of the hair. And then once I have the neck and the shirt, then I can take another break and then critique everything. Step back, have another look, see if I'm satisfied with everything. Okay, let's just have a look. Let's just color the neck and then continue. Okay, so the neck is really dark. I'm going to start with the sepia. You see, if you put that sepia swatch next to the reference photo, you see that darkest area here. It's really dark. And the neck is also because it's in shadow, there isn't really a lot of color. So I think I'm going to just use the sepias. And maybe if I think it's too dull, maybe add a bit of the burnt sienna. But just [snorts] going to see how that will turn out. So with the sepia. And then for the shirt, I'm just going to use a light blue. Yeah, I'm going to You don't have to have it this exact same blue color as in the reference photo. So I'm using more medium pressure now because this is really dark. But here towards the lighter area the shadow I'm using lighter pressure here just next to the shirt. You see a shadow coming from that shirt coming from the shirt. And then and then here the dark shadow is coming from the head. Here I see lighter skin tone. So I'm going to use the burnt ochre 10 and I'm using medium pressure. Here I'm going to use the sepia 50 and blend. go over the edge here. Using medium pressure and I see that it's turning out very brown. Just what I thought. So with the burnt sienna 10, I'm using medium pressure. Now this looks like a dark strange area. But let's just draw the shirt now. And then see look at the color again of the neck. So, this is gray blue. And I'm going to color this first. I think I'm not going to draw the button. Just going to draw the folds and make this shirt. See this border? I'm not going to draw too dark so that it doesn't stand out that much. So, when you draw clothes, just look at all of those folds. you see the shadows, the highlights, because if if you draw it all one value, just one color, then the then it will look really flat. So, I don't like to put too much detail on clothing because I want to keep the focus on the face. So, you see here some stitches, the button, I'm choosing not to add that because like I said, I want to keep the focus here on the face and here I see a shadow. The rest is really light here. So now I'm looking at the shadows here. It looks like I see a shadow, a cast shadow from the hand. Now with the French gray tin, I want to gently blend over just to blend the shadows, shadow areas. And I don't want to use the white because it will turn out too light. And I'm also shading a bit around the folds where I see that the shirt next to the folds is a bit darker. And then I want to go over this all with the blue with the lighter blue. hear that cast shadow from the hand. And now with the lighter blue, I have the light cobalt blue. You can use any light blue or medium blue color. So with clothes, you can't really go wrong as long as you add all of those values for the folds because otherwise it will look flat. So then you will have a realistic looking face but then a flat looking shirt. And with the French gray 10 desaturate this a bit going over the blue to blend. So I'm using a bit more medium pressure where I want to blend and create a smoother result already. You see that now you have more of the shirt the shadow on the neck doesn't stand out that much. Just like before when you had it comparison to the white of the paper. So it's really strange how how your eyes or your mind can think what is that dark block area doing there. But once you continue more then you see it. That's why why you need to wait before you critique your overall drawing until you have more and more to compare it to and so that it looks better. And now you see that the hand the shadow here can if you compare it to the dark shadow and also maybe the cheek here just darken it a bit and then you see that beautiful reflected light. So that's for the finishing touches. Then you notice then you notice that I also see I can darken chest a bit here. But what I mentioned before, once you have that dark shadow, you can compare the rest to it. And I see that I can work on the hand some more. Let's see the shadow areas. And I have some folds bigger, wider than on then in the reference photo. That's okay. Doesn't really matter as long as you just create these folds with the white. Now if you look at a fold in the reference photo you see so the the fold those are you know wrinkles that's the the area or the part of the shirt where it goes up. So the left part is in highlight and then the right part of that fold is in shadow. So next to the fold I'm going to use the white pencil and where I see that it's lighter I'm just going to add this white. And here this is all lighter. So, I'm just blending over it with the white pencil. But everywhere where I put down the gray for the shadow, I'm going to color over it and make it all look more a whole like it's a blue shirt. So, I use gray for the shadowed areas and white for the highlight with the gray blue. Again, just go over this for the border and darken here just a bit so that you create a smoother result and don't see any don't have a grainy look. Okay. Now I want to use the sepia 50 and darken here and also make it actually with the sepia. So you see that kind of it isn't just straight the shirt you see kind of a bit more wrinkled. Okay. Now I want to darken this shadow a bit here. So this is still the sepia 50 and also gently going to darken this cheek. And then be careful for the reflected light so that you don't lose it. And eventually if the reflected light looks too bright that it looks like now, then I can go over it again or go over it, make it less bright cuz it looks like that now. So I'm very lightly going over it and with the burnt ochre 50 to add a bit color. And here I can add this is the burnt ochre some darker color. And then with the sepia, I'm going to blend over the reflected light here. And blend and darken. This is the sepia 50. Go over this shadow also to darken just a bit. And with the burnt sienna 10, I'm using light pressure. I just want to add a bit here. Blend more. Actually, also over this shadow or think the burnt ochre 10 will be better because it's a bit warmer here. I drew a bit more hair than in the reference photo, but because the light is shining on the hair on this area, it looks like the boy has less hair there. And if I recreate that in my drawing as well with the sepia 50, if I recreate that in my drawing as well, then it might look like a a bald area, and I don't want that. So I added a bit more hair than I see in the reference photo and that's the reason I did leave a bit of the skin showing through more than here because here it's in shadow of course and here is highlight but it's lighter in the reference photo because of that light shining. You know sometimes you have a photo the sun is shining really bright on a part of the hair and that changes the color completely or it maybe even looks like the person is bald on that area on that spot. So you will need to improvise a bit as an artist. You can change things. You can make things look better. If something looks a certain way on the photo, maybe because of the light shining on it, then you can change that. If you think that looks better with the burnt sienna 50, I want to look like an outline here. I don't want that. I want the cheek behind the hand to blend nice. And with the burnt sienna tin using light pressure because I don't want to darken too much or add too much of this color. And then with the buff titanium to blend further and on camera this looks less pink but I well with the pink maybe added a bit more. So I think it looks and pink enough but on the on camera it's not showing. It looks a bit more saturated, but okay. With the buff titanium, the white might make it too bright. So, using medium pressure, blending this all. And that's it. It's finished. If you want to draw this entire portrait with me in real time, the full step-by-step version is available inside the membership. You'll also get access to all my portrait video lessons. Thanks so much for watching and I hope to see you in the next tutorial.