Illustrating Hair

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In this tutorial I will teach you how to illustrate hair. I will show you the basics to using the pen tool and also working with layers in order to acheive what you want.

To begin, open up Paint Shop Pro and create a new image that matches the size you want your illustration to be. My image is sized 257 x 294.

Draw a circle onto the page using the Preset Shape Tool (P) . Make your first pallet transparent and match the second to a colour of your choice. Use this to draw a circle for the face onto your blank canvas; convert the vector layer created into a raster layer (right click it to do so).

I won't go into detail on what to add to the face in this tutorial, but you could checkout my other tutorial on creating a character.
The first thing I always do when illustrating hair is draw in the fringe. This is always on the top layer as it appears on top of the image. Select the Pen Tool (V) .
Match your pen tool settings to those listed below:
Segment type: Point to point
Meter limit: 15
Create as vector
The line width is not important as the top pallet is to be made transparent.

Like before, you want to make your first pallet transparent and match your second to a colour of your choice. In order to trace your shape with curve, click where you want the shape to begin, click at a different point and then drag the mouse (Example (from illustration guide tutorial).

When it comes to tracing the fringe that goes over the face, you'll notice that I usually do a sweep fringe. Mostly because I just find it the easiest to do. I won't walk you through how to do a fringe as it's up to you how you do yours. Use all that you know about the pen tool to trace on the fringe and when you're done convert the vector layer into a raster layer. (For ideas of what kind of fringes you could attempt check out my portfolio and this past layout.)

After creating the fringe, click on the bottom layer. The next part of the hair will appear behind the face and fringe. Use the pen tool at identical settings to before to draw on the hair behind in whatever shape you want, it may not be perfect but we will touch it up later. Once you've drawn it, convert the vector layer into a raster layer.

Adding Detail

Now things are really starting to come together, but in order to make it really look good we have to add detail. This should all be done whilst highlight the top layer.

Again, we'll use the pen tool at similar settings to before. First of all we will add bits sticking out of the hair. You can choose to add them wherever you want - just remember to be converting your vector layer into a raster layer as you go, and right clicking to 'create a new shape' when adding new streaks.

The last thing I do to add detail is add lines into the hair. To do this select the Select the Pen Tool (V) and match your settings to mine below:
Segment type: Point to point
Meter limit: 15
Create as vector
Color: Black
Width: 2.00
Make sure this time your second pallet is made transparent.

Using what we learned earlier about making the line rounded, add streaks to the hair. Make sure it's on the top layer so that it can be viewed. Once done convert the vector layer into a raster layer and set it to Soft Light at 30%.

And those are the basics to creating hair for your illustrations. The great thing about creating hair is that it can change all the time, hairstyles differ from person to person and this allows you to experiment!

Good luck! ^_^