I've been illustrating for over 5 years now, and it's been a fun journey.

Transitioning from pencil sketching to digital illustrations wasn't easy. Especially because I had no clue about human anatomy or effigy drawing. And I got meliorate only past practicing every day.

Just i of the nigh hard things I've had to learn was drawing cartoon pilus. Luckily for you, I'm going to shorten your learning curve with this easy tutorial so you'll learn how to draw cartoon pilus.

I will show y'all how to describe cartoon hair of both types – straight pilus and curly hair.

The procedure is very straightforward, and if y'all practise a little bit, you'll go the hang of cartoon hair in no fourth dimension.

I am completely self-taught and what I'thou going to teach you lot is my method of how I describe cartoon hair.

Now, I don't draw many men, then I'm going to teach you how to draw cartoon daughter hair for this tutorial. If you are interested in developing your art skills farther and making money with it, do check out my new art course!

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Okay, permit's brainstorm with the basics.

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Tools I'm using to depict my illustrations and the drawing hair

Okay, before I begin the tutorial, I demand you to know what I'1000 using to make my illustrations.

I'g currently using:

  • An iPad Pro of 12.9 inches
  • An Apple Pencil 2nd generation

And I'm using the Procreate software. It'southward a one-time fee of $10. And that's it. You tin draw on information technology forever for free after that.

I draw more most my illustrating procedure and tools in this post.

You tin use any software because everything I'1000 going to explain below can be done with Photoshop and a graphic tablet as well.

How to draw cartoon hair – Direct Pilus

Okay, I'm going to start with straight pilus first considering cartoon curly hair is much easier, so nosotros can save that for later.

one. Start with an outline of the head

I always start with a nice outline of the head. I use the dry ink brush (it'south free on Procreate), which is on a completely new layer. Yous want to describe a head considering you need the shape of the head to describe the hair. Information technology makes the overall shape of the hair more than realistic.

2. Draw simple strokes of straight pilus

Okay, next, I'm going to begin by drawing her hair over her scalp, and I'm going to pull it into a ponytail.

When you're drawing the hair, make sure you lot're using a new layer and so that it becomes super easy to erase the mistakes.

You desire the strokes to be in the direction of the hair growth. I'k going to describe information technology in pink and so you lot can see it clearly. Notice the green arrows. So, if she were pulling her hair into a ponytail, that would exist the direction of her hair strands.

Now that her hair is pulled up, we're going to draw the ponytail.

Call back, direct pilus is very fluid and actually adheres to gravity (dissimilar curly pilus), and then motion your mitt in long-flowy strokes. Don't feel disheartened if information technology doesn't come naturally to you at outset. Information technology takes practice.

iii. In one case you're happy with the outline of your hair strokes, draw over the sketch

Okay, I'm pretty happy with the outline, so I'chiliad going to create a new layer (working on a 3rd layer at present) and depict the hair in dark brown. I'm going to lighten the head layer so you can see how the pilus looks over the scalp.

Notice how the ponytail isn't too tight because the hair is extremely loose at the sides and nearly flat at the summit.

Now, I'm going to erase the scalp that is underneath the hair and then we tin can perfect the outline.

To make things easier, I'm going to merge both layers.

And congratulations, we're done with the outline of the drawing head and the drawing pilus!

Now, all that's left is to color the hair. Coloring is super easy, and I'm going to testify you lot how to do that!

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4. Add the base colors

This is super easy to practise. Just make sure you're adding a new layer for every base color.

This ways one new layer for the eyes, some other new layer for the skin, and another for the base of operations hair color. I use the dry ink brush for coloring the base layers equally well.

5. Describe the hair strands

Okay, this is great, simply nosotros want to add together more details to the hair. And the best mode to do that is to add a few individual strands.

Now, to describe the pilus strands, we're going to choice a color on the color palette past choosing a colour that'due south darker and more saturated. Whenever I say saturated, I mean brighter – which means moving to the correct on the color palette.

See the diagram below for more data.

When choosing a colour for the hair strands, we're moving down on the colour palette and a little bit to the right to option a color that stands out in the pilus.

Create a new layer over the purple colour pilus layer and click on it to select "clipping mask." So at present, when we describe the hair strands, we can simply draw over the layer that is underneath. Y'all don't have to worry nigh coloring outside the area.

Following the direction of the outline, we draw the hair strands with the same ink brush.

Nosotros're now going to add some highlighted strands to give the pilus more than color and texture. Cull a color that's lighter than the base color. I'm going to decrease the width of the brush so that the highlighted pilus strands are really fine earlier drawing a few strands.

vi. Calculation the lights and shadows

Okay, so straight hair is pretty glossy and reflects low-cal more easily than curly hair.

So, we're going to add a new layer over the other hair layers. And cull a nice turquoise blue and simply add a few shapes over the hair. Adjust the layer property to "Add together" and decrease the opacity to 10-15%.

At present, for the shadows – I'm going to choose a medium royal and and so utilize the "Bonobo chalk" castor and become over a few sections of the hair to create the shadows. I'm going to change the properties of the layer past tapping on the layer and setting it to "Multiply" and so decrease the opacity to 25-35%.

convert the layer to add so that you can add a nice sheeny gloss to the cartoon hair.

seven. Add the finishing touches

I'thousand going to choose a light pink for the blush and use the same bonobo chalk castor to add some blush to her cheeks. And with the dry ink castor, I'k going to add some purple lipstick in another new layer.

And we're done.

Voila, you've just learned how to describe cartoon hair that is straight.

Let's move on to drawing curly cartoon hair.

If you're using Procreate, here are some fantastic resources:

  • 8 Grainy Brushes for ProCreate
  • Graphic symbol Drawing Toolkit for Procreate (This pack comes with gratis drawing tutorial worksheets!)
  • 21 Custom Pencil Brushes for Procreate

How to depict cartoon pilus – Curly Hair

Okay, I'm not going to elaborate on drawing the head, because we already went through that, and then I'm going to go ahead and dive into drawing the outline of the hair direct upwards.

1. Draw the outline of the hair

As yous can see, curly hair can take whatever shape. And it's totally fine because curly hair doesn't follow any rules – including gravity.

So, when drawing the outline of curly hair, you want to make sure that y'all add some small lumps and some big lumps so that it looks slightly more realistic.

2. Add the base color

I'thou going to draw the hairline because I forgot to exercise that and then go in with a squeamish warm chocolate base color for the hair.

3. Draw the strands

Okay, just like we drew the darker strands in the direct pilus, we're going to pick a slightly darker brown color for the dark curly hair strands and add that in. Drawing curly pilus is a lot of fun considering you lot can go whacky with the lines.

Remember, curly hair grows outward, so when drawing your strands, the lines should radiate outward – okay?

At present information technology's time to draw the lighter strands.

To cull this colour, we're going to move up the color palette and and so move right a piffling then that we go a lighter, saturated colour. And increment the thickness of the brush a bit before yous depict the lighter strands.

Wow, we're nearly done!

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4. Add together the shadows and highlights

Now, just similar we did earlier, we're going to select the purple color then draw the shadows.

I'grand not going to use the Bonobo Chalk brush though because curly pilus is so much thicker and denser and I like the shadows to be a little heavier. So, I'm going to stick with the ink brush.

And now we're just going to change the properties of the layer to Multiply and decrease the opacity to our liking and we're washed with the shadows.

Allow's movement onto the highlights.

Using the same turquoise blue as before, I'one thousand going to carefully draw forth a few of the edges on her curls considering the light is hitting her from behind and the top.

And I'1000 going to click the layer and change the layer backdrop to "Add" and decrease the opacity to 10-15%.

And nosotros're washed. Yous've just learned how to depict curly cartoon pilus as well.

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Y'all tin can see this video to understand how I drew the curly hair:

Conclusion

Drawing isn't easy especially at the beginning considering there is a huge learning bend.

So, don't feel disappointed if you lot don't similar your cartoon. Remember all of this comes with practice. Go on drawing different hairstyles till you get the knack of drawing hair.

If you practise drawing hair daily, you'll learn how to draw cartoon hair really fast!

I draw a lot of hairstyles on my characters on a daily basis and I love experimenting with pilus.

If you enjoyed this cartoon tutorial, you might enjoy these other blog posts!

  • How to Get an Illustrator
  • How to first an art blog – a pace-by-step guide!
  • 10 things I wish I knew before becoming an Illustrator
  • 10 signs y'all're a natural-built-in creative person
  • 23 surprising means to overcome creative blocks
  • How to gainsay negative comments and trolls as an artist
  • How to be a confident artist and keep drawing even when you feel like yous tin can't

Earlier I wind upwards, I want to cover some resources that helped me grow equally an Illustrator and shorten my learning curve.

Resources to help you depict ameliorate:

Courses for Artists

If you enjoyed this tutorial, you'll definitely bask my free art class that helps artists brand money with their creative skills!

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I highly recommend checking out Domestika's Courses considering they take courses on about annihilation you lot want to learn and they're structured beautifully. It's very well organized and their website is super fast. Their app is lovely likewise. Yous can download the classes and watch them offline and the best role? Once you buy the course, you own information technology forever!

Use STRAYCURLS-10 during checkout to go an additional x% off!

Domestika has a lot of art courses for anyone looking to improve their art.

And if you're using Procreate, here are some fantastic tools:

  • 8 Grainy Brushes for ProCreate
  • Character Drawing Toolkit for Procreate (This pack comes with free drawing tutorial worksheets!)
  • 21 Custom Pencil Brushes for Procreate
  • Make money from home using your creative skills. This creative guide for creatives is the best ebook for creative people who want to earn while working from home. Formerly known as the creative workbook for creatives.
How to draw cartoon hair - an easy guide for beginners. Learn to draw straight hair and curly hair with this step-by-step guide.