How to color anime hair

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How to color anime hair

How to Draw Anime Hair

Hair is a very complex subject to draw, because it’s like a substance that can take many shapes and forms. Because of this, manga artists have developed a special method of simplifying hair. In manga or anime, you draw hair as a mass or a cloth. This way it can be drawn quickly, with exaggerated shading that conceals the lack of detail.

In this tutorial, I will show you how to draw various manga hairstyles: straight hair, wavy hair, pigtails, and short hair. I will also explain the method behind it, so that you can draw your own anime hairstyles from scratch. Before you start, you may want to take a look at our previous tutorials on How to Draw Anime:

You can draw your own head base for this tutorial, or download my template.

1. How to Draw Anime Hair

Let’s take a look at the method behind drawing anime hair first. Once you understand it, you’ll be able to create your own anime hairstyles with no help!

Step 1

Hair doesn’t lie flat on the skull. Always start by defining some distance right above the head, drawing a simple helmet like this:

Photo credit: young woman in dress stock photo on Envato Elements

Step 2

Next, sketch a simple outline of the hairstyle. How long is it? What is its general shape? This will help you see the effect of the hair on the composition before actually drawing it.

Step 3

Hair needs to reveal the face in some way. Draw the outline of the bangs, or move the hair to the sides.

Step 4

Now sketch the inner outline of the hair. Imagine the hair as a single mass, and mark its edges.

Step 5

Next, find the secondary rhythm in the hair. Mark it with lines and curves. The fewer of them, the better.

Step 6

Outline the rhythm lines, creating strands of hair.

Step 7

Finally, draw additional lines repeating the rhythm, simulating the spaces between thinner strands.

2. How to Draw Straight Anime Hair

Let’s see how to use this method in practice to draw straight anime hair step by step!

Step 1

Draw the «helmet» to mark the distance from the head. Straight hair usually is not very voluminous, so you don’t have to add a lot of distance.

Step 2

Draw the basic shape of the hairstyle. Straight hair goes smoothly down. The only curve appears where the hair falls on the shoulders.

Step 3

Draw the bangs. Our character will look cute and innocent with them!

Step 4

Draw the inner outline of the hairstyle now.

Step 5

Draw some secondary rhythm lines inside the main outline.

Step 6

«Close» the shape of the strands by drawing a line from the tip of one rhythm line to just below the tip of the other.

Step 7

Add some rhythm lines to the bangs, too.

Step 8

If you draw additional lines between them, you’ll create nice, thick strands.

Step 9

Separate the strands of the long hair the same way.

Step 10

The guide lines are done, so let’s get to the main drawing now! Copy the rhythm lines along the strands to make them more detailed.

Step 11

Outline the whole shape of the hair.

Step 12

Outline the bangs. Keep your lines clean and confident!

Step 13

Outline the inner side of the hairstyle.

Step 14

Outline the tips of the hair. Avoid sharp ends.

Step 15

Copy some rhythm lines randomly inside the main outline.

Step 16

Accentuate the edges to create some contrast between the outline of the hair and the detailing lines.

Step 17

Add more detail lines, if necessary.

Step 18

It’s done! Of course, there are many manga styles, and not all of them require the same level of detail. Feel free to modify this method to achieve the style you prefer. There are a lot of shortcuts you can use to simplify this style even more!

3. How to Draw Wavy Anime Hair

You know how to draw straight hair. Now let’s learn how to draw wavy anime hair step by step!

Step 1

Although a wavy hairstyle may look quite voluminous at first, it doesn’t add a lot of distance to the top (of course, feel free to modify it for an exaggerated effect!).

Step 2

Draw the outline of the hairstyle. Wavy hair doesn’t give in to gravity so easily!

Step 3

Part the hair in the front, revealing the face.

Step 4

Draw wavy strands on the sides of the face.

Step 5

The upper part is usually straighter, because of the weight it holds.

Step 6

Draw the lower part with more curves.

Step 7

Outline the strands, making them thicker on their way up.

Step 8

Draw another wave on the side.

Step 9

You can make the strands more detailed by spreading them:

Step 10

Once you have the main, clear strands, add some parts of them here and there. This will create a nice, overlapping look.

Step 11

These were the guide lines. Now we can draw the final lines over them. Start with the top of the head.

Step 12

Outline the waves. Add a lot of overlapping!

Step 13

Accentuate the outline of the hair.

Step 14

You can accentuate parts of the lines to simulate shadows where the strands cross.

Step 15

If you want to make the hair more detailed, you can add lines following the rhythm.

Be careful when drawing these lines inside the wavy strands, though—they may look too heavy with long lines inside. Instead, try to pick your pen/pencil up from time to time to make the lines less continuous.

Step 16

All done! Of course, you may want to simplify some steps. A wavy hairstyle can be successfully drawn with very few lines, if you shade it properly.

4. How to Draw Anime Pigtails

Pigtails are a very popular hairstyle for cute anime girls! Let’s see how to draw anime pigtails step by step.

Step 1

Because the pigtails pull the hair on two sides, you can mark two «humps» at this point already.

Step 2

Outline cute, long bangs surrounding the face.

Step 3

Mark the hair ties on the sides.

Step 4

Mark the rhythm of the pigtails. In anime, they tend to be very springy, defying gravity in a way.

Step 5

Sketch the coils of the pigtails.

Step 6

Turn this coiled wire into a coiled ribbon with a few outlines:

Step 7

Add similar coils on the sides to add volume.

Step 8

Draw cute bows on the ties.

Step 9

That would be the end of the guide lines! Time for the final lines now. Outline the main part of the hair.

Step 10

Outline the bows. Remember to keep them behind the head.

Step 11

Outline the curls.

Step 12

Add some detailing lines, if you want.

Step 13

Accentuate the edges. Because this hairstyle is very exaggerated, it’s more suited to thick lines than the others were.

Step 14

It’s finished! These curls, though not very realistic, fit the anime style perfectly.

5. How to Draw Short Anime Hair

Finally, let’s take a look at classic short anime hair, suitable for both girls and boys. Follow me to learn how to draw short anime hair step by step!

Step 1

Short hair can be very voluminous on top, as it’s not pulled down by its own weight. Feel free to add a lot of distance here!

Step 2

Gently «close» the hairstyle behind the head.

Step 3

Sketch the rhythm of the bangs.

Step 4

Sketch the rhythm of the strands on the sides. Keep them slightly random for a messy look.

Step 5

«Close» these strands.

Step 6

We’re done with the guide lines already! Now draw the final outline of the hairstyle on top.

Step 7

Outline all the strands, adding some details on them as you go.

Step 8

You can add some detailing lines on the strands.

Step 9

Because this hairstyle is so stylized, don’t be afraid to use thick lines here.

Step 10

Our short anime hair is finished!

Beautiful!

Now you know how to draw anime hair in many variants! If you like your end result, feel free to post it in the comments!

If you want to keep learning about drawing in simple styles, you will like our series on How to Draw Like Disney:

And if you want to learn more about how to draw hair, we have more tutorials on this subject:

How to draw and color anime hair

Artist Hyanna Natsu shows how to draw anime inspired, colorful hair in this text and video tutorial! Learn what «makes» an anime style haircut and how you can give them a beautiful shine!

Hair is one of my top 5 favorite things to draw and color, and this was also a very requested tutorial. I tried to add as much information as possible while keeping the video fun to watch and full of tips!

Nothing here is a hard rule, and it’s mostly to show how I do things, so I hope you enjoy it 🙂

Using references

It’s tough to draw things when you don’t check what they look like in real life. So every time you’re stuck, search for photos! Not just of anime drawings, but actual people as well.

Where, you ask? There’re plenty of places; you can go on Pinterest, Instagram, DeviantArt, etc.! And if you think that’s cheating, copying, or stealing, it’s not. Every great artist uses references, so you should too!

Shape and volume

Hair and eyes in anime are often used to express emotions and a character’s personality, so they’re usually given more details than in real life. But this is drawing, so there aren’t any complex rules for this! Let your hand flow, and practice your creativity. Take a look at your favorite anime drawings. How does the hair make you feel?

Straight black hair feels serious;

while fluffy curls are warm and welcoming!

Sketching tips

I start hair just thinking of the general outline without giving much attention to details: when sketching, only the general shape matters.

If you don’t know where the hair starts in the head, think of the skull, and add some padding. A simple line in the middle should be enough to represent that. You can make the top part more complex as you learn how hair works.

Also, it’s good to work with S curves. Even if the hair is straight, it can be a long open S, making the hair look light and flowy. With wavy hair, the S curves will be more visible!

For perfectly curly hair, I use a different technique. I first draw a spring and define the front part. Then, I duplicate that line shape.

After that, I erase the lines that are on the back and connect them to form a full spring!

You don’t need to draw every strand like that (feel free to do so if you like though!), a few will be enough to give the feeling you are looking for, and the back can just have a simple shape.

Don’t be afraid to delete what looks wrong and try again. Even if it takes time, spending time on this part to get the feeling right will pay off in the end.

Another important tip is to work with long lines, not short chicken scratches. It will make your drawing look more polished, and you will have fewer chances to hurt your wrist!

Take breaks if you are lost, and look up new references to refresh your eyes. Make sure to leave them open while you draw; it will help a lot.

About lineart

Depending on the drawing, I will clean up the sketch instead of creating lineart.

By “clean up”, I mean I will erase the messy lines and go over them when necessary, giving it a different feeling than a perfectly clean line. I feel this helps me relax about art and not worry too much about details.

You don’t need to over-zoom and glue your face on the screen to be sure the lines are perfect! To be quite honest, you are likely to be the only one that will be able to spot your small mistakes.

The brush for lineart can be the same as for sketching, but this will depend on how you want it to look. I highly recommend looking at the standard brushes or checking Clip Studio Assets. There are many fun brushes you can easily download and use.

In this phase, you can make the lines thicker where they intersect or where shadows will be. It will give your lines more depth.

Shading

Once you have the base color added, define where your light source is. Remember your basic lessons about ball shading? Do exactly that.

To do this, lay out a general shape with the shading color.

Once you have the general shape defined, you can polish it until your liking.

But as you are still learning, you don’t need to go fancy on the shading. Go slowly, within the scope of what you feel is challenging enough for your current skills, then make it complex as you go!

As you can see, there’s some kind of backlight on the black that matches the grey on the white side. I usually add some extra color to the hair I draw, because it looks pretty!

Now, how to pick the right color?

Short answer, there is no right color! Play with them until you find what you like: try pink in blue, purple in green, orange in yellow, and so on. Have fun! Wonder how to make black and white hair not look grey, purple, etc.

If you use similar colors to your drawing’s surroundings, the tone will look correct. For example, if her shirt were red, I would add more red tones to the hair. I tend to use colors already on the drawing and playing around with them. Like this hair strand in a blue and red room: there’s a bit of each color on it.

But if you are working with complicated hair like a rainbow or gradient, you can set a new layer on top in Multiply blending mode, and test out which colors work better without messing up the gradient.

Highlights

This part is very fun, and there are many ways to add shine to the hair.

Yes, even white hair!

I like to airbrush the skin color on the bangs, so when I add white highlights on top, it will show!

If you don’t know which color to use, you can take the hair color, create a new layer, set the blending mode to Add (Glow), and then add blobs, triangles, lines, etc. Any shape works, so do what fits your taste, and then use hue and saturation (Ctrl+U) to change the color to a tone that matches.

When I add highlights, that’s when I also add messy strands. We all struggle with messy hair, right?

Another little thing I enjoy is making the eyelashes and eyebrows transparent. You can easily do that by locking the lineart layer, and then coloring with a color that’s darker than the hair, or lighter. Try it out; it depends on the hair color you are using, and if your lineart is set as multiply or not.

Conclusion

Maybe you’re still unsure how to draw hair even after this tutorial, but I don’t expect you to suddenly be a pro. As I always say, art takes time.

So at the very least, take away this important point from this: use references! I can’t repeat this enough but make sure to use them mindfully.

I believe you don’t actually need a step-by-step to learn something. Instead, try to understand things in your own way. As long as you enjoy what you do and are up for the challenges life will bring, you will grow as an artist!

Practicing is key, but patience and passion make up the door.

Thank you very much for checking it out!

Have a good time drawing ☆ ～(‘▽^人)

How to Shade Anime Hair Step by Step

This tutorial teaches the basics of anime and manga style hair shading with step by step examples of twelve different hairstyles.

Anime different hairstyles shading

Above you can see a preview of the different hairstyles shown in this tutorial. Even if you are only interested in some of them it may be a good idea to read over the entire tutorial as certain hairstyles have more detailed explanations on shading particular parts of the hair. It’s set up this way to avoid some repetition.

Things to Know About Anime Hair

Before going into the actual drawing examples below are a few things that can help you gain a better understanding of how to shade anime hair and why it’s shaded the way its.

1. How Anime Hair is Draw

Anime hair is generally drawn in large clumps with a lot of it based on real hairstyles.

When drawing hair it can be helpful to break it down into the front, sides, and back/top sections as shown in the red, green and blue above. This is also how to hair will be broken down in this tutorial.

For examples like the one above of all of the hairstyle used in this tutorial as well as general instructions on drawing anime hair see:

For more tutorials on drawing anime hair also see:

2. How Anime Hair is Shaded

Generally anime and manga hair is shaded without gradients and has hard transition between it’s light and dark areas. This makes the shading process much faster but at the same time a little tricky as it can be difficult to figure out where the boundary between light and dark should be placed.

Where the actual shading is placed depends on the lighting conditions the artist wishes to show.

Anime characters (hair included) are generally shaded in two ways:

This particular tutorial will focus on the more generic shading as it’s very common and can be used in most scenes. Please note however that even in the “well lit” lighting setup the strongest light will generally comes from somewhere above (the sun or indoor lighting). This means that shadows will tend to form towards the bottom parts of the hair.

Don’t however confuse this with a one directional light source form above which would be more like shining a flashlight down on someone in a dark room.

For examples of shading in one directional lighting see:

Finally also keep in mind that anime/manga style shading does not need to be perfectly accurate or overly realistic. The goal is to have just enough basis in reality so that it looks believable.

Hair Drawing Tips Before You Start

A few quick notes before you get started to help you better prepare for the tutorial.

1. Adding the Shading

When drawing the shadows for this “generic lighting” setup make them just dark enough to stand out from the base hair color. If you make them too dark they will look unnatural and if you make them too light they may not be visible.

For how you actually darken the shaded areas can depend on the drawing method you use (paints, pencils, etc…). For example you can either mix in darker paints or simply press harder on the pencil.

2. Drawing the Highlights (Important)

For this particular tutorial the main difference between shading digitally and shading on paper can be in how you add the highlights.

If you are going to be shading the hair on paper you can use a white correction pen or white paint to draw the highlights. Alternatively you can also simply leave the area white and color around it.

If shading digitally you should add them in last as shown in the step by step breakdowns.

For different types of anime hair highlights see:

Shading Long Anime Hair Step by Step

Step 1 – Prepare a Line Drawing of the Hair

Before shading the hair first prepare a nice and clean line drawing similar to the example above.

Step 2 – Color the Hair

If you are drawing digitally or are going to add the highlights using a correction pen or white paint as suggested earlier you can fill the entire area of the hair with one solid color. If you don’t have those options available then simply leave the highlights area white and color around it. If you wish you can also lightly outline the highlights with a pencil to help make sure you don’t go over top of them.

Step 3 – Add the Shading

As explained at the start of the tutorial the hair shadows will be added in a generalized way. This means that such shading can apply to most scenes of anime or manga where the character is in a fairly well lit area.

Due to the cone like shapes of the hair clumps and the lighting setup described above the shadows will tend to form along the bottoms parts of the clumps running along their sides.

You can also add a few shaded parts sort of “cutting into” some of the larger clumps to give a hint of hair folds.

Add the shadows in the following areas:

The last shaded area will form due to that area of the hair being fairly closed off from the light on most side as the hair/head make a kind of “tent” around it.

Step 4 – Add the Highlights

To make the hair look shiny add some highlights. You can draw these as a series of lines with some joined into small zigzags.

Sometimes anime hair will be drawn with only one main highlight area but in this case we will add a highlight for each major part of the hairstyle (also common in anime and manga).

In this case add the highlights running across the top part of the hair (around the forehead area) with a another set of highlights lower down running across the sides and background portions of the hair.

Shading Short Anime Hair Step by Step

Step 1 – Prepare a Line Drawing of the Hair

First prepare a nice and clean line drawing of the hairstyle.

Step 2 – Color the Hair

Apply color to all of the hair if you are going to add the highlights over top or leave the highlight area white if you want to simply color around them. You can see the last step for their shapes and placement.

To add the highlights over top of the hair color it’s recommended that you either use a white correction pen or a white paints.

Step 3 – Add the Shading

As explained at the start of the tutorial the shadows will be added in fairly generic places that they are likely to form in with.

In this case these will be as following:

Step 4 – Add the Highlights

Similar to the previous long hair example add the highlights as sets of curved lines and zigzags.

Draw the main highlight running along the forehead area with two more lower down along the sides/back portions of the hair.

Shading “Hime Cut” Anime Hair Step by Step

Step 1 – Prepare a Line Drawing of the Hair

Prepare a clean line drawing of the hair before you begin the shading.

Step 2 – Color the Hair

Depending on how you are going to add the highlights either fully color in the hair or leave the highlight area white.

As mentioned at the start of the tutorial you can add the highlights over top of the hair color if drawing digitally or by using a white correction pen or paints.

You can also simply leave the highlight area white and color around it. If you wish to do this then see step four for their shape and placement.

Step 3 – Add the Shading

For this particular hairstyle the hair clumps will be trimmed off as compared to the pointy clumps in some of the other styles.

Add the main shadows along the the sides of these trimmed clumps and draw a few smaller shadows randomly “cutting into” some of them.

Place the shadows in the following area:

As already mentioned for the long hair shading example the large shadow around the neck will be created by that part of the hair being largely closed off from the light.

Step 4 – Add the Highlights

Similar to the previous examples add the highlights as a series of lines and small zigzags.

Place one large highlight going across the forehead area of the hair with two smaller highlights lower down on each of the sides.

Shading Long Messy Anime Hair Step by Step

Step 1 – Prepare a Line Drawing of the Hair

Prepare a nice and “not so clean in this case” drawing of the “long messy hair” similar to the example above.

Step 2 – Color the Hair

Depending on how you will add the highlights either fully color in the hair or leave the highlight areas white.

If you are drawing digitally or if you have a white correction pen or white paint you can draw the highlights in over top of the hair color. If not leave the highlights white and color around them.

For the shape and placement of the highlights see step four.

Step 3 – Add the Shading

Draw the shadows running along the sides of the various hair clumps towards the bottom portions of the different section of the hair.

Add them in the following places:

Yet again as mentioned in some other examples this large shadow around the neck is created due to that part of the hair being fairly closed off from the light.

Step 4 – Add the Highlights

Draw the highlights as a series of lines and small zigzags. Place the largest highlight running along the forehead area with two smaller highlights lower down along the sides.

To emphasize the messiness of the hair you can also add a few tiny highlights along the clumps sticking out from its outer edges.

Shading Ponytail Anime Hair Step by Step

Step 1 – Prepare a Line Drawing of the Hair

Start by making a clean line drawing of the ponytail hairstyle.

Step 2 – Color the Hair

If you are coloring digitally or have an option to draw the highlights over top of the hair (white correction pen or white paints) fill it’s entire area with color.

Alternatively you can leave the highlights white and simply color around them. For this option see step four for their shape and placement.

Step 3 – Add the Shading

In this case the hairstyle will have trimmed hair around the forehead area similar to the “hime cut” example.

You can again shade these hair clumps by adding darker areas along their sides and add a few random shadows “cutting into” these clumps to show some hair folds.

Position the shadows in the following places:

You will want to almost fully shade the bottom part of the ponytail as the part where it gets narrower will generally curve away from the light and start casting a shadow on itself.

Step 4 – Add the Highlights

Draw the highlights as a series of small curved lines or zigzags. The main highlight will be going across the forehead with the second going across the ponytail though for this example they will look as pretty much one continuous set.

Shading Anime “Hair Over One” Eye Step by Step

Step 1 – Prepare a Line Drawing of the Hair

Have a line drawing of the hair ready before you begin shading.

Step 2 – Color the Hair

If you have the option to adds the highlights over top (drawing digitally or using white correction pen/paints) than you can color/fill in the entire area of the hair.

If you don’t have those options available then simply leave the highlight area white and color around it. To make this easier you can lightly outline them with a pencil.

See step four for the shape and placement of the highlights.

Step 3 – Add the Shading

For this hairstyle and the generic shading used in this tutorial most of the shadows will again be running along the sides and bottom ends of the hair clumps.

Add them as follows:

Step 4 – Add the Highlights

Add the highlights as a series of small curved lines and zigzags. Place the main highlight going across the forehead area of the head. Afterwards add another one lower down on the left side of the drawing going across the side.

Finally draw a sort of “broken up” looking highlight with fewer lines over the part of the hair that is covering one of the eyes.

Shading Pigtails Anime Hair Step by Step

Step 1 – Prepare a Line Drawing of the Hair

First make a line drawing of the pigtails hairstyle.

Step 2 – Color the Hair

Either fully fill the hair with a solid color or leave the highlight area white depending on what drawing options you have available.

If you are drawing digitally or have a white correction pen/paints you can add the highlights over top of the color.

If those options are not available to you then leave the highlights white and color around them (see step four for their shape and placement).

Step 3 – Add the Shading

The pigtails will be shaded similar to the pony tail in an earlier example with the hair clumps being shaded similar to most other examples.

Add the shadows in the following places:

Similar to the ponytail example the pigtails will tends to have a shadow cast on them by their upper part as they get narrower towards the bottom.

Step 4 – Add the Highlights

Draw the highlights as a series of small curves and zigzags. In this case there will be three highlight areas with one being across the forehead and one across each pigtail but you can pretty much just draw them as one continues set.

Shading Combed Anime Hair Step by Step

Step 1 – Prepare a Line Drawing of the Hair

Start by making a clean line drawing of the hair.

Step 2 – Color the Hair

Either fully color in the entire area of the hair or leave the highlights white based on the drawing method you are using.

If drawing digitally or if you have a white correction pen or white paints you can add the highlights over top of the hair color. If not you can color around them (optionally lightly outlining them with a pencil).

For the shape and placement of the highlights see step four.

Step 3 – Add the Shading

As there are fewer hair clumps shading this particular hairstyle is fairly simple. You can shade the parts of the forehead hair tucked under the sides with very thin shadows along their bottoms and some fairly small shadows along the lines of the folds. The hair clumps in the middle can be shaded as other similar examples.

Shade the hair as follows:

Step 4 – Add the Highlights

Draw the highlights as a series of curved and zigzag lines. Position the first highlight across the forehead area of the hair. Try and draw the lines that comprise it to flow along the shape of the part of the hair that they are on. For example draw the lines on more of an angle to flow along the curved parts of the hair that are tucked under the sides.

Add the next two sets of highlights lower down along each side of the hair.

Shading Curly Anime Hair Step by Step

Step 1 – Prepare a Line Drawing of the Hair

Start by preparing a clean line drawing of the curly hair.

Step 2 – Color the Hair

Fully color in the hair if you have an option of adding the highlight over top of it such as if you are drawing digitally or have a white correction pen/paints. Otherwise leave the highlights white and color around them.

For the shape and placement of the highlights see step four.

Step 3 – Add the Shading

Shading the curls will be a little different then the regular hair clumps

For this generic shading described earlier you can fully shade the inner parts of the curls and add only a few small streaks of shadows along their outsides to give a hint of some folds.

In general you can add the shading as follows:

Step 4 – Add the Highlights

Add the highlights (one major highlight in this case) as a series of small lines and zigzags.

For the main highlight draw the lines that comprise it angled in the direction of the hair flow on each side of the head (similar to the combed hair example earlier). This will help emphasize the shape of the hair.

After the main highlight draw some small highlights (just one line each) along the the hair curls on the sides. Place these highlights close to the edges curves as those will tend to catch the light.

Shading Anime Hair Buns Step by Step

Step 1 – Prepare a Line Drawing of the Hair

Begin by making a nice and clean drawing of the “hair buns” hairstyle.

Step 2 – Color the Hair

Either fully color the hair (if adding highlights later) or leave the highlight areas white.

You can add the highlights over top of the hair color if you are coloring digitally or if you have a white correction pen or white paint.

If you are going to color around them instead than see step four for their shape and placement.

Step 3 – Add the Shading

The main difference between this example and the rest are obviously the hair buns which are fairly easy to shade. In the generic lighting described earlier you can place the the larger shadows along their bottoms as well as along their more downwards facing curves.

Overall pace the shadows as follows:

Step 4 – Add the Highlights

For the main highlight going across the forehead as well as the smaller highlights going across the side sections of the hair draw them as a series of small liens and zigzags.

On the buns add some tiny highlight with just one or two liens each along their various folds.

Shading Short Messy Anime Hair Step by Step

Step 1 – Prepare a Line Drawing of the Hair

Same as the other examples begin by making a clean line drawing of the hairstyle.

Step 2 – Color the Hair

Either fully fill in the hair or leave the highlights white based on the coloring method you’re using.

Adding the highlights over top of the color can be done if drawing digitally or using a white correction pen/paints.

If you don’t have those options you can color around the highlights leaving them white. For their shape and placement see step four.

Step 3 – Add the Shading

For this particular example the middle large clump of forehead hair will have a shadow on its tip as it will be curving inwards. The other clumps will be curving upwards (facing more towards the light) and thus will only have small shadows running along their bottoms.

Place the overall shadows of this hairstyle as follows:

Step 4 – Add the Highlights

Draw each of the highlights as a series of curves and zigzags.

Place the first set of highlights along the forehead. Try and draw the highlight in a way where the lines that comprise it flow along the the general shape of that part of the hair.

Afterwards add another set of highlights lower down along each of the sides.

Finally to emphasize the hair’s messiness add some tiny highlights on the small clumps sticking out from the different parts of the hair.

Shading Short Pigtails Anime Hair Step by Step

Step 1 – Prepare a Line Drawing of the Hair

Same as the other example yet again begin with a clean line drawing of the hairstyle.

Step 2 – Color the Hair

If you are going to be adding the highlights over top you can fully fill in the hair with color. This will apply if you are drawing digitally or have a white correction pen or paints.

Otherwise you can simply leave the highlights white and color around them. If you are going to do this it may also help to first lightly outline them in pencil.

For the shape and placement of the highlights see step four.

Step 3 – Add the Shading

This particular example is fairly easy to shade. You can simply add a few shadows running along the bottom portion of the pigtails as shown in the above example. The rest of the hair can be shaded similar to what’s already been described in other examples.

Overall place the shadows as follows:

Step 4 – Add the Highlights

Draw the highlights as a series of small lines and zigzags.

Position the main highlight running across the forehead area of the hair. Afterwards add two more highlights along the side sections.

Finally draw the last pair of highlights along the upper area of each pigtail.

Conclusion

The process of shading anime hair is fairly simple. The main challenge comes in knowing where to places the shadows and highlights. This tutorial should give you a good idea of how to do that in fairly standard lighting conditions and for quite a few different hairstyles.

Anime-Style Skin Coloring Tutorial

In anime-style character illustrations, the way you paint the skin is important for bringing out your character’s appeal! Use soft blush, highlights, and shadows to create a three-dimensional effect. Artist Nanniimo explains the steps in detail.

Index

INTRODUCTION

Coloring skin is one of the most important parts in a drawing! It can be very hard sometimes, especially if you can’t choose the right colors and tools for it! That’s why I decided to make a small tutorial showing how I color skin using Clip Studio Paint. I hope you enjoy the tutorial and find it helpful!

COLOR PALETTE

Skin has way too many tones. It can be very light, very dark, or somewhere in between! I usually use light-reddish color tones for my drawings, so I decided to choose this palette for today’s tutorial as well.

The following picture shows which colors are used for what part in the face. I will be explaining more about them later!

BASE COLOR:

Fill the area you want to color skin in with the base color first! Make sure you don’t color outside your lines.

The base color should be brighter than the final skin tone that you want to have. This is because we will add darker shading later!

Step 1:

Create a new folder (SKIN) and add a layer (BASE) to it.

Make sure to keep the Skin folder at the very bottom, because we want to color under the lines and not over them.

Step 2:

Choose your tool. For the base color, I use Turnip Pen on 100% Opacity. There are many other brushes that you can use. These should be hard brushes so you can color the area completely without leaving any transparent areas.

Step 3:

Pick the color and fill the area.

SHADING

To be able to shade, you have to ask yourself: where should the light come from?

For this tutorial, I want the lighting to come from above on the left corner.

Step 1:

Create a new layer (SHADING) above the first layer (BASE)

Click on the icon for Clip at layer below. This will confine the coloring inside the base color area only, which makes the coloring easier without worrying about it going out of the lines!

Step 2:

Choose your tool. For the shading part you can choose whatever brush you’re comfortable using! I personally enjoy using the Watercolor brush the most.

Step 3:

For shading, it’s always good to use more than one color. It will make your drawing more pleasing to look at and less boring!

The colors you choose for shading should be darker than the base color.

Usually, I use two tones and sometimes mix between them to create more tones.

Areas I add shading to:

BLUSH:

Blush makes your drawings look softer and cuter. You can add it on any part of the body depending on your style!

Step 1:

Create a new layer (BLUSH) over the previous layer (SHADING)

Click on the icon for Clip at layer below.

Step 2:

Pick the color. For blush, I like using light reddish tones.

Step 3:

Choose your tool. I’ll use the same Watercolor Brush as for shading!

Add some blush on the cheeks and any other parts you like

Using the Blend tool, try to smudge it from the edges only to make it look soft. (Advice: the bigger the brush is, the faster and cleaner it blends.)

HIGHLIGHTS:

If your drawing has shadows, that means there is a light too! That’s why we add highlights, which gives the skin a soft glow!

Step 1:

Create a new layer (HIGHLIGHT) above the previous layer (BLUSH)

Click on the icon for Clip at layer below.

Step 2:

Pick the color. For highlights, I personally just use a whitish color for this type of skin tone! For darker skin, white will look very bright, so I would go with light pink or brown tones instead.

Step 3:

Choose your tool. I’ll use the same brush again which is Watercolor Brush.

You’re free to use any brush you’re comfortable with. It always depends on your style. If you want the drawing to look smooth, use soft brushes. If you want it to look sharp, use hard brushes.

Add the highlights on the parts where the light comes from. For this drawing, the light is coming from the left.

I put highlights on the nose, cheeks, lips, and neck.

You can also use the Blend tool to blend some parts if needed.

REFLECTED LIGHT EFFECT:

To make your drawing more realistic, it’s always nice to put reflected lighting on it. This appears in the darkest shadows, caused by refracted light from nearby surfaces. The color depends on the environment, such as clothing, objects, and even the sky.

Step 1:

Create a new layer (REFLECTED LIGHT EFFECT) over the previous layer (HIGHLIGHT)

Click on the icon for Clip at layer below.

Step 2:

Pick the color. For the reflected light effect, I choose the color depending on the drawing. This drawing is cold and has lots of blue in it, so I thought the blue light effect will suit it the best.

You can always use any color or even multiple ones! But always make sure that the tone you chose fits well to the skin tone!The light effect should always be a bit lighter than the area you’re going to add on.

Step 3:

Choose your tool! For this step I’ll go with Soft Airbrush. I think it does the job perfectly. But again, you’re always free to try any brushes you want.

You can put this light effect on any part you like! I personally think it looks the best in the dark shading parts, which is the neck.

Different Skin Color Palettes:

Here are 4 different skin palettes for you! There are way too many skin tones, so this is just a few examples. You can always create your own palettes and colors.

This is the end of my skin coloring tutorial! I tried to make it as simple as possible and easy for you to understand. I hope you learned new techniques and things today!

There is always more to learn and discover! Clip Studio Paint is definitely amazing and easy to use once you learn more about it.

Remember to practice a lot and have fun!

Artist Profile:

Nanniimo | Tasnim is a freelance artist specializing in digital and traditional pencil work. She has worked with companies such as XP-Pen, Skillshare, Amino and more.

How to Draw Anime and Manga Hair – Female

This tutorial illustrates how to draw anime and manga hair with twelve step by step drawings of common anime and manga hairstyles for a female character.

Drawing Anime & Manga Hair

Anime hair is often based on real hairstyles but tends to be drawn in clumps rather than individual strands. One good reason for this is that if you are drawing multiple frames of animation or multiple panels of a manga it will simply be too time consuming to draw anything overly detailed.

A good approach to drawing anime hair is to split it into several different parts such as the front, sides and back/top (as will be shown for each hairstyle below).

For drawing characters that can go along with these hairstyles see:

For more on drawing anime hair you can also see:

Drawing Long Anime Hair

Long straight hair is probably one of the most common hairstyles in anime and is fairly easy to draw.

Above you can see the breakdown of the long hair drawing example into:

You can apply a similar breakdown to drawing other hairstyles as well. Thinking of the hair this way can make the drawing process a lot easier to manage.

Keeping this in mind we can move on to the actual drawing process.

Anime long hair step by step drawing

Step 1

Start by first making a drawing of the head and an indication of the hairline. While in this particular hairstyle the hairline is less important as it’s full covered by the hair it can still help you better judge the overall length and position of the front and side hair sections. Make the head/hairline drawing fairly light so you can easily erase parts of it later.

Step 2

Draw the hair right over the top of the head and hairline as in the example above.

For this particular hairstyle where the front section of the hair has been cut fairly short you can draw it in relatively small pointy clumps.

Make the “side hair” fairly long with it’s overall shape slightly curved. You can also split it into several smaller clumps towards the ends.

Draw the top part o the “back hair” pretty much following the shape of the head (a bit of a distance away from it) and then widening until it’s finally hidden behind the shoulders.

Step 3

Erase the parts of the head hidden by the hair and add a few lines to show the inner folds of the front and back hair. You will generally want to position these folds in between the hair clumps as that is where these will usually tend to form in real hair.

Step 4

Next add some folds in the “back hair” to give a bit more definition of it’s shape as well so that it does not just look like a flat cut out.

You can also add some basic shading to make the hair stand out a little bit more once you finish the line drawing.

Drawing Short Anime Hair

The short hair drawing example above is fairly similar to the long hair with the hair once again broken down into three basic parts of front, sides and back.

The actual breakdown of the drawing process can be as follows:

Anime short hair step by step drawing

Step 1

Again start the short hair drawing with the head and hairline. Same as the previous example the hairline will not be as important here as it is in other hair styles but can still be helpful.

Step 2

Yet again very similar to the long hair draw the “front hair” section with a set of small clumps. For this particular example the hair will be a bit more messy so the clumps will curve more in different directions. If you want neater looking hair you can draw them the same as the first example.

Step 3

Same as before erase any parts of the head hidden by the hair and draw the bottom portion of the back hair. Generally it’s a good idea to leave this section of the hair for the last part of the line drawing as in the front view of the head it will be in the back behind most of the other parts of the hair. If you try and draw it first you without the other hair to sort of “frame” its position you will probably end up with some overlapping lines and have to do extra erasing.

Step 4

Add the inner fords (just one in this example) and if you like, some basic shading.

Drawing Trimmed Anime Hair (Hime Cut)

For trimmed hair draw the hair clump with flat ends that look like they’ve been cut off by sissors.

For a neat look the different hair clumps should generally be drawn pointing in the same direction as the clumps next to them and any shifts in direction should be gradual.

Anime “Hime Cut” hair step by step drawing

Step 1

Start by drawing the hair and indicating the hairline. For the “Hime Cut” the hairline will again be covered by the hair.

Step 2

For the initial drawing of the actual hair you can start with the sides followed by the back. You can indicate the front section of the hair with just one line.

Step 3

Now draw in some small splits into the front and side parts of of the hair to make them look more natural. Erase the line in between the splits when you are done. You can also erase any parts of the head that are covered by the hair.

Step 4

Finally again similar to the first example add some lines to the hair in the back to show it’s various inner folds. Try and draw these with fairly random spacing and slightly varying curves. If you space everything evenly and make all the curves trace one another too closely the hair will not look very natural.

Drawing Long Messy Anime Hair

The long messy hair is somewhat similar to the first example but with some extra hair clumps. Again it can be divided up into three parts like all the other examples so far.

Draw the long messy hair as follows:

Anime messy hair step by step drawing

Step 1

As the other examples start by first drawing the head and hairline. Drawing the hairline will help you make sure that none of the splits between the hair clumps for the “front hair” go too far up.

Step 2

To make the hair look more messy draw the front hair clumps pointing into different directions and of varying shapes and curves. You can draw some that are wavy and some that juts curve in one direction.

Draw the very middle portion of these clumps reaching further down. You can do the same with the outer clumps on the sides of the front section. This will again give more of an impression of hair that has not been well groomed.

Step 3

Now draw in some additional hair clumps randomly sticking out of the back sections of the hair. This will make the otherwise neat looking back hair look messy as well. You can also add a pair (or more) clumps to the inner parts of the “side hair”. You can either erase the outlines of the hair where you want to draw these or add them and erase the overlapping outline afterwards. Next you can add in some split lines in between the hair clumps same as some of the other examples. To finish the line drawing again erase the parts of the face and head that are covered by the hair afterwards.

Step 4

As this example also has long back hair you can again draw in some of it’s inner folds to make that section look more like actual hair. You can also make them a bit more wavy than the other examples to again make the hair look more messy.

Drawing Anime Pony Tail /Tied Back Hair

Another fairly common anime hairstyle is the ponytail. You will notice that there is basically no side hair in this particular example (other than the tiny bits of the hairline on the sides). So the hair can pretty much just be splits into the front and back sections. The back consisting of the hair over the top of the head and the pony tail.

Draw this type of hair as follows:

Anime ponytail hair step by step drawing

Step 1

Draw the head and indicate the hairline which for this hairstyle is slightly more important than the previous examples as some of it will be visible in the final drawing as already shown.

Step 2

You can pretty much frame the front hair for this hairstyle with just three curves. Two for the sides and one for the bottom. As mentioned there is very little side hair in this example as the hair is pulled back revealing parts of the hairline.

Draw the back hair just slightly over top of the head eventually merging into the sides.

Though usually pony tails will face directly backwards for anime hair you can draw it slightly more to one side so that it’s shape is more visible. Otherwise the pony tail can just look like a bump on the head. You can draw the pony tail with a sort of question mark like shape. You can also add a small split at the end.

Step 3

Same as for the “Hime Cut” draw in some small splits into the front section of the hair and erase parts of the bottom line of the “front hair” to make spaces in between them. Also erase the parts of the head hidden by the hair.

Step 4

You can again give the hair some light shading if you like. You can also optionally draw in a few more lines into the hair to make it look a little more split up than the “Hime Cut” which tends to have more dense “front hair”.

Drawing Anime Hair Over One Eye

For the hairstyle with hair over one eye you can yet again split the hair into the front, sides and back. In this style the front section of the hair will be fairly large and sort of merge into the “side hair” next to the covered eye.

Anime hair over one eye step by step drawing

Step 1

Draw the head and the hairline same as the other examples.

Step 2

For this particular hairstyle draw the front hair clumps going far enough down the face to fully cover one eye. For the “side hair” you can draw the section on the side of the covered eye somewhat blending into the front hair.

Draw the back hair split into tow curves that pretty much hug the shape of the head as they go down eventually sticking out in clumps to each side.

Step 3

For the very bottom section of the front hair draw a few small clumps sticking out around the top of the neck area. Erase any overlapping lines from the head that should be hidden by the hair when you are done.

Step 4

To wrap up the drawing you can again add a few lines to show some splits and curves of the hair going from between the hair clumps.

Drawing Anime Pigtails

The pigtails are another very common style of anime hair. Same as the ponytail example you can see that this particular drawing can pretty much be broken down into the front and back section of the hair. With the “back hair” split into the hair covering the head and the pigtails. There are really only tiny bits of actual “side hair”.

Anime pigtails hair step by step drawing

Step 1

Draw the head and the hairline. In this example a large section of the hairline will be visible in the final drawing. It will also help us place the front section of the hair.

Step 2

Though most of the hair in this particular example will be pulled back you can draw some clumps for the front section of the hair to just one side to make the hairstyle look a little bit more interesting.

As already mentioned there will pretty much be no side hair other than the tiny bits around the top of the ears. Draw the top/back section of the hair blending into that side hair.

For the actual pigtails draw them similar to the “Ponytail” example vaguely resembling two questions marks in their overall shape with one being flipped over.

Step 3

Now add some random hair clumps sticking out from the pigtails to make them look a little more interesting and erase any overlapping lines that this creates. Also erase the outline of the head where it’s hidden by the hair.

Step 4

Add a few more lines to indicate some folds in the hair to the pigtails and optionally some shading.

Drawing Neatly Combed Anime Hair

This hairstyle can again be split into three parts with the front, side and back hair. The front section of the hair however is a little different from the previous examples.

Anime combed hair step by step drawing

Step 1

Draw the head and hairline. The hairline in this example will be particularly useful for placing the front part of the hair.

Step 2

Draw the side sections of the hair with steady cures somewhat hugging the shape of the face. Roughly from the middle of the hairline draw two curves going downwards towards the “side hair”.

This will be the “front hair” tucked underneath the sides which will be combed down over top of it. Draw the back hair with a fairly obvious split in the middle with two curves going in each direction. This will help show that the hair has sort of been neatly combed to each side.

Step 3

Add some small hair clumps for the bottom background hair.

Step 4

Finally you can add a little clump of hair hanging down from the middle of the front section of the hair. As sometimes the hair in that area will be to short to be tucked under the sides and part’s of it may hang down. This will make the hairstyle look a little more natural and interesting. Finally add some fold lines to the front sections of the hair going to the sides to help show that the hair is tucked underneath there.

Drawing Curly Anime Hair

Curly hair is probably the most challenging anime hairstyles to draw. This particular hairstyle can again be split into the front sides and back with the front hair being similar to the previous example.

Anime curly hair step by step drawing

Step 1

Start the drawing the the head and hairline sketch.

Step 2

From the hairline draw two lines going towards the sides of the head to indicate the front hair. To show that the hair is curly you can draw these lines in light waves.

The “side hair in this example will be completely curled. You can first draw some lines at the base of the curves to indicate the volume of the hair that will then transition into the sort of “spires” of hair below.

To draw the actual curls first draw the parts of them that are in the foreground. You can sort of think of them as a cone that’s been sliced on an angle and pulled apart.

Step 3

Now erase any parts of the head hidden by the hair to avoid confusion and add the background lines of the hair curls. You can think of these as the front parts filled over.

Finally you can draw some splits at the end of each curl.

Step 4

For the final step you can draw a little squiggle of hair hanging down from the middle of the front section and add some lines to the bottom of the background hair to indicate some inner folds. Make these lines more wavy than in the previous examples to show that the hair is curly.

Drawing Anime Hair Buns

The hair bun’s are somewhat more rare but still popular style of anime hair. This style can also be split into the front, side and back hair.

You can draw the hair buns hairstyle as described below:

Anime hair buns step by step drawing

Step 1

Once again start the drawing with the head and hairline.

Step 2

Draw the “front hair” in small clumps pointing towards the middle of the face and the sides same as most of the other examples.

Draw the “side hair” with light curves somewhat “hugging” the face.

Make the “back hair” pretty much curve around the shape of the head.

Finally draw the actual hair buns with somewhat of an oval shape for each with part of it hidden behind the “back hair”.

Step 3

For this step simply erase the parts of the head that are hidden by the hair

Step 4

Draw some o the inner curves of the hair bun. You can pretty much draw these at random but try and somewhat follow the outer curve of the bun with at least a few lines. This will help create that sort of “ball of yarn” look that hair buns tend to have.

Drawing Short Messy Anime Hair

The short messy hair is again easy to split into the front, side, and back sections.

You can draw it in the following steps:

Anime short messy hair step by step drawing

Step 1

Same as other examples draw the head and hairline to start.

Step 2

Draw the front section of the hair with the outer clumps sticking out to the sides instead of resting on the forehead like most other examples.

Add the side sections with the splits at the ends sticking out in opposite directions.

Draw the background hair with a slightly split to one side and the two curves that come out of it eventually transitioning into hair clumps on each side of the head.

Step 3

Now add a pair of wavy clumps to the upper split are of the background hair and another pair of clumps to the inner areas of the “side hair”. Erase the parts of the hair where you add the clumps and erase any parts of the head/face lines covered by the hair.

Step 4

Add the bottom portion of the background hair drawing in small clumps pretty much the same as the other shorter hair examples in this tutorial.

Drawing Short/Low Anime Pigtails

For the final example of anime hair in this tutorial we have the short/low pigtails. As most other examples in this tutorial these can again be split into the sides, front and back/top hair.

Draw this particular hairstyle as follows:

Anime short low pigtails hair step by step drawing

Step 1

Start by drawing the head and hairline as all the other examples.

Step 2

Add the front section of the hair first as in this example it will be sticking out a little more to the sides overlapping the side sections. Draw the “front hair splitting into fairly small clumps and do the same for the ends of the “side hair”.

Make the “back hair” pretty much following the shape of the head.

Finally add the pigtails at the bottom of the head with small splits at their ends.

Step 3

Clean up the drawing by erasing the parts of the head hidden by the hair.

Step 4

Add some lines to show the heads inner curves and fold. In this case just one for the front hair clump.

Hair Highlights

Hair highlights can really make hair stand out even without any additional complex shading and are fairly easy to add.

For drawing them check out:

Conclusion

When drawing hair it can be very helpful to organize it into separate sections. Not only will this help you get a better grip on how to draw it but it will also allow you to more easily alter the hairstyle by changing its various parts. For more hairstyles you can experiment by mixing different parts of the front, side, and back sections of the hair in this tutorial or by adding entirely new designs.

For shading these hairstyles see:

For more on drawing anime and manga style hair see:

If you would like to learn how to draw the head with all of the facial features check out the:

For drawing hats and head ware see:

This tutorial has been almost completely redone and updated with new art but you can see the old examples below.

Examples of how to draw Anime and Manga hair

Источники информации: