ust a twenty year old girl trying to make it through college. I draw, paint, and take pictures. I'm learning how to be a graphic designer. This is a chronicle of that quest.sammykins asked:
I just want to say your Jared Leto drawing is amazing! My favorite part is the hair/facial hair and detailed it is. Thats one thing I have trouble with drawing, hair. Any advise? (btw if you haven't already seen 30 seconds to mars live you should! they put on the best performance)Well thanks! Hair takes a lot of patience. Did you watch the video?
I went about doing his hair (mohawk) by mapping out the general shape of it first, kind of like an outline with only a few lines to show the different directions. It’s like a road map of sorts for me. Then I looked at the image and outlined the darkest shapes in his hair and shaded them in just so they had a darker base than the rest. Then it’s all about making lots and lots of pencil strokes in the direction the hair is growing. Vary the pencil pressure according to where the pencil is on the page. (So heavier in the shaded areas and lighter as you approach the ends.) If you have a kneaded eraser then look at the picture you’re drawing from like when you were looking for the dark parts but this time look where the light hits the hair, this is where you’ll want to knead the eraser into an edge (not too sharp though) and lightly run it over the highlighted areas to pick up some of the pencil.
As for other types of hair (beard, shaved heads, body hair) for me it’s about keeping the pencil strokes light. Use a H or or 2H pencil for this.
- Beard - Look at your reference, notice how not all the hairs grow the same direction. Some go forwards and others go straight down. There’s even a stray hair once in a while that goes up or backwards. Just look at the reference and do it section by section lightly. There’s dark parts in a beard just like in the hair on top of a head, it’s usually at the bottom. That’s when you can get a darker pencil like a 2B or 3B and add more short strokes.
- Shaved Heads - You’d want to use something like a 2H (if you don’t have a pencil in that grade then just use what you have but be very light in pressure) and make tiny little lines in the direction the hair grows. Always look at your reference photo.
It should also be said that a big photo is better to work from than a small one. When you’re on google search that person’s name and then on the side bar of the image search click the ‘large’ button underneath the ‘size’ category. Then you’ll only search large images.
(And I have not seen them though I wish I had gone when they were in LA. I think it might be a while before I can see them. If I get the chance though, I’m going to go!)
