【TUTORIAL】 The 7 tips you'll ever need to draw ANIME HAIR

Do you ever wonder how anime artists draw hair so well? Why can't you just make it look as pretty as them? The answer is not “because you suck”, you just need a bit of guidance in the matter. And today, I’m here to help you 🙂 Hello everyone! I’m Rina, a professional illustrator who’s been making anime art for many years. Today you’ve landed on my channel because you probably want to step up your game! Drawing hair is one of the most challenging things (as if art wasn’t already hard enough… hehe

), but hopefully after today’s tutorial you’ll find it a bit less difficult to draw 🙂 Before we start, I just want to say a big thank you to Clip Studio Paint, who’s sponsoring today’s video. Clip Studio is the program that I will use today. But don't worry! You’ll be able to follow the tutorial no matter what you use to draw, but... yeah, some of the tricks I’ll show you might be harder to reproduce on other art softwares or traditional media. So make sure to check out Clip Studio if you haven

’t tried it yet, I really really love this program. It took me a long time to get used to it when I started, but the struggle was totally worth it for me. It’s such a great program with many useful options for us illustrators such as filters and perspective rules, an infinite library of brushes for all your needs, and even animation tools! Okay, let’s start with the basics. To be able to draw hair that looks straight out of a shampoo ad, first we need to get familiar with its anatomy. Because ye

s, hair has its own anatomy too x’D Why are we artists such masochists? First thing you have to keep in mind is that hair grows on top of a sphere. It might sound obvious, but hear me out. Our heads are not a plain circle, they have volume, which means that hair also follows said volume. Imagine a piece of cloth and a sphere. If we cover the sphere with it, the fabric changes its shape according to the curve of the object underneath. If we put that clothing on top of a flat surface it would also

adapt to it. Hair works the same way, it morphs depending on where it's sitting, so it will never be completely straight everywhere. Hair grows up directly from the skull, and then it falls down because of gravity. So there will always be a bit of separation between the skull and the contour of the hair. How much separation will depend on the density of the hair, its thickness and the hairstyle. For example, tight up-do’s will leave less space between these two lines than a normal hairstyle bec

ause the hair is being pulled to this point with a lot of strength, but even with that, there will always be a tad bit of volume left between the skull. Okay, let’s keep getting familiar with hair. You might have heard how some artists like to separate it in different parts to make things easier for them; the most popular approach to this is distinguishing between front, middle, and back. The front is usually reserved for the bangs, which are the hair strands that grow closer to our face and eye

brows. The middle is, well, the middle xD it’s where we usually start finding longer or thicker hair strands (compared to the front) And the back, the part of the hair that tends to get hidden and kinda forgotten most of the time, as we don’t usually add many details there. This is a great method to separate hair, but if you only have this rule in mind, you might end up struggling a lot when doing certain hairstyles, or your drawing might lack depth in the end. Because… Hair can also be separate

d in 3 horizontal planes. Bottom, middle and top. I don’t know if you’ve ever had the chance to see how wigs are made, but there’s a technique where you basically have a long string of hair, and you saw it on the wig cap, which is a net that looks like a shower cap or a swimming cap. Depending on the hairstyle of the wig, these strings of hair must be sawn in one direction or another, to be able to adapt to the sphere of the head, and to the possible accessories that will tie it later. Separatin

g the hair in horizontal planes becomes especially useful when you have to draw up-do’s, or layered hair. Cool! Now that we’ve already covered the basic structure of the hair, we can move on to the actual drawing part! So how to actually draw hair? Well, first of all, we need a base to work on. A nice and shiny bald head. If you struggle with head proportions and want to go straight to drawing the hair, Clip Studio has these super cool 3D models you can use as a base. On version 2 of the program

, you can even modify their facial structure. You can make the eyes bigger, rotate them, change the mouth, the angle of the nose, ears size… They allow for a lot of customization to fit your artstyle a lot better than other 3D models do. For today’s demonstration I will go with the default anime head, as the main shape of this one is already perfect for me. I think one of the best tips I can give you is to think about hair in blocks. For example, I want to draw a bob cut, so I’m just gonna draw

a very rough idea of the contour, or even a splash of color. If I look at it from afar and I like the overall shape, then I’ll start adding details to it, but if I don’t, I’ll just keep playing with it. Blocking out shapes like this is very useful to plan the role of hair in your illustration. Perhaps you want to have a lot of movement on the hair because you’re drawing a windy scene. Or maybe you’re working on a character design and you’re still trying to decide on the character’s vibe. Differe

nt hairstyles can define a character’s personality. So when you’re unsure, working from vague shapes to more refined ones will help you save time and not get overwhelmed or lost in details that you might have to delete in the end. Another thing you should avoid is adding too many lines on your hair. Now I know this depends a lot on the artstyle, but even people who draw with realistic styles don’t draw every single hair strand because then, you’ll end up having an ugly mass of lines. But then ho

w can we translate these blocks of hair into something less flat? We add details but mindfully. For example, around the bangs, we can have a thin strand, and then a thicker one, then thin, then perhaps two thicks. And so on… The trick is to add enough variety in the width or length of every block so you don’t overwhelm the viewer with too many details. And it works the same way for the rest of the hair. We can have the shaft divided into a smaller strand near the edge, then add another one the o

ther side… we can also add hair strands coming out of the main shape. Some can be long, others can be short and point out… This adds a more organic feel to the hair, which helps build the illusion of realism. But I can already hear you say: yeah, Rina, these tips are great but what I really want to learn is to draw flowy hair like YOU! Patience, young grasshopper, patience, hahaha! Hair movement is similar to fabric movement, in the sense that it’s also a lot about tension points. You can check

my tutorial on that by the way. I’ll put the link up here and you can watch it after this video to know what I'm talking about. Basically, when hair is down, and there’s no wind around, it falls down because of gravity. We only have one tension point at the root of the hair. When the wind blows however, it pushes the hair, and that creates new tension points to put it somehow. The problem is that hair is made of many thin independent “lines”, whereas fabric is made of thin CONNECTED and INTERTWI

NED lines. This means that every individual hair can react in many different ways under the same type of wind, so its movement is a lot harder to predict than fabric. But as artists, we can take that downside and turn it into our advantage: we can have a lot of freedom when it comes to hair movement because no one can really tell if that would be the exact movement in real life because it's so hard to predict. So we can connect the different tension points with gentle curves, or use more extreme

shapes. WE get to decide on the kind of wind that’s blowing around. Perhaps it’s just a friendly breeze that coincidentally plays in favor of our character, shaping the hair in the most pleasing ways. Or maybe it’s some angry wind that will make their hairstyle almost unrecognizable. YOU are the artist, so You decide. What I mean with this is that when drawing hair, try to aim for shapes that feel good to you, shapes that can make out the most of the kind of scene you’re recreating, or shapes t

hat can make the character look even prettier. And then, based on those “aesthetically pleasing” shapes, try to make them make sense by connecting them or refining them in one way or another. It’s a drawing, it’s not real after all, so we can take a few artistic licenses regarding physic laws xD Another thing you can keep in mind to draw “flowy” hair is that hair isn’t completely straight. Even the straight type. So when you draw the strands always try to add a liiitle bit of a curve somewhere.

Thinking of some sort of S shapes, or maybe C shapes, seems to be the general consensus for most artists. It makes the hair strands look more natural and less stiff. If it helps you, you can also think about each strand of hair as tape or the ends of a ribbon. To do that CSP has got a very handy brush which is the Calligraphy pen. These thinner sections it creates can help you picture the way hair twists and changes its thickness depending on the movement of it. Using long strokes can help you w

ith these kind of organic lines btw. And if you’re one of those artists suffering from wobbly hands or chicken scratch, CSP got your back once again. Open the settings of any brush, and pump up the Stabilization number as much as you need. This will “slow down” your cursor and decrease any possible jitters. And if after all my explanations you still struggle with drawing hair, I’ve got another ace on my sleeve for you! Make a new layer and go to the layer properties tab, here click on this icon

and select a black color. Now, using a rather thick brush in white color start blocking out the main shapes of the hair. As you see, anything you draw on this layer will automatically have a black outline. If you use a small eraser on it you can even pretend you’re drawing lines. Some people find it easier to draw hair like this as, like I said, working with big shapes is usually easier than focusing on thin lines and details from the start. You can even make new layers underneath or on top of t

his one to separate the different parts or planes of the hair. Once you have something you like. You can merge them all together and go to Edit, and then convert brightness to opacity to get rid of the white pixels. With this you'll get rid of the white pixels. Different hairstyles Now we know the basics of hair anatomy, and some tips and tricks you can use to draw it faster or easier. But here’s the thing: there are soooo many different hairstyles out there, and of course some are more troubles

ome than others. And that’s why you’re probably here, because you’re looking for the secret to be able to draw ANY hairstyle you want, right? Well, I’m gonna tell you okay? Because I’m in a good mood today. The secret to draw any kind of hair is: to use references Yeah, I don’t like that answer Rina… Me either, but that’s how it is sadly xD Using references is key to master any type of skill. When you don’t know how things are, it’s very difficult to master them by magic. The difference between

the you before this video, and the current you, is that now you have more tools to absorb what references can offer you. Next time you are studying a certain hairstyle, try to identify things like the roots of the hair, the plains, either horizontal or vertical, the variation in the thickness or length of the strands, the silhouette, the movement. Is it falling down because of gravity or is it being affected by some wind or accessory that pulls it to another tension point? It’s tough at first, b

ut the more you analyze all these aspects and try to replicate them and add them into your art, the easier it will become. In no time, you’ll be able to draw any hairstyle and add as much movement to it, or as little, as you want! Highlights and shading Now if drawing hair can be done in many different ways, as you’ve just seen, coloring can be even more varied! It can be anything! You can do triangles, lines, rectangles, letters, or any random shapes for the highlights. I tend to do like an H?

or an N I guess? IDK, I don’t put much thought into the shapes I make. That’s another key point I think. Don’t try to make each shape of the highlight perfect. Remember when we said the hair strands should vary in thickness or length? This is the same. The less you think about making them all look the same and perfect, the more organic the shapes will look. And so more natural as well. If you’re unsure about the shape of the highlights, you can also find useful brushes for this on CSP Assets. I

really like this one in particular. I like using them as a base, to try out different things, and blocking out the main shape and then refining them to my preference and fit my style. If you can’t use these brushes or they simply don’t fit your style, you can start planning your shading and highlights by making soft gradients, then adding big chunks of colors and refine them little by little. Plan these while you’re zoomed out so you can create lights and shadows that fits the overall mood or am

biance of your drawing. The same way you don’t need to draw every hair strand on the lineart, you don’t need to shade every little hair. Don’t clutter it with a bunch of thin lines. That will be too much information for the eye and the hair won’t look pretty. It’s best to simplify those shapes to create key points of shading that add volume and depth to the hair And remember that the head is shaped like a sphere, so the highlights should follow the main structure of it, instead of being a flat/s

traight line (at least if you’re aiming for realistic shading). Take a look at references again if you struggle to know how to bend them. Different directions and curvaturas are better for certain angles and movements. And with this, we’ve reached the end of today’s hair drawing journey! I hope you’ve learned something new today. Shall we make a recap? Because I know I have the memory of a fish x'D -Spot the main shapes of the hairstyle you’re trying to draw, like the front, middle and back. But

also keep in mind if the horizontal planes are playing an important role on it -Work from vague shapes to more detail -Add width and length variety to every block of hair -Use gentle curves, like the shape of an S for a more organic look -Take advantage of digital tools if you have them and get a handy highlight brush to speed up the process, for example. -And the most important one: use references. Always. Whenever you don’t know how to draw something, just open up google, or pinterest, or any

place you use to collect visual knowledge, and study the shapes you see in those images. As I wrap up, I'd like to express my gratitude to Clip Studio Paint once more for sponsoring this video. If you guys want to try some of the awesome brushes or features I’ve mentioned, CSP offers a free trial. So, be sure to check them out via the link you’ll find in the description! I promise it's a great investment. If you found this tutorial helpful and want to continue your creative journey with me, don

't forget to support me on Patreon, where you’ll find early acess to all my art, sketches I don’t post anywhere else, brushes, and soon more tutorials! Thank you so much for joining me today, and remember, practice makes progress, so keep experimenting and keep creating! See you in the next video! ♥