How to Draw Hair With Graphite Pencils

Graphite pencils, unlike other types of pencils, never create a very dark line. Thus they're not good for any type of art where you need intense, dark areas to contrast against lighter ones. If you would like to draw hair with graphite pencils, it's best to pick a subject with lighter hair. While it isn't impossible to draw a dark haired person using graphite pencils, accomplishing the task will be a bit of a challenge.

Difficulty:

Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• High quality drawing paper
• Graphite pencil
• Kneadable eraser
• Cloth or tissue paper

1. Set up your drawing with an art projector ahead of time for greater accuracy and photo-realism. You can also try printing out a black and white picture of your subject with extremely heightened brightness and contrast, then trace it to get your outline. This picture will also help you to find the areas of light and dark when you work on the details of your drawing. However, don't attempt to use the art projector or tracing methods to flesh out your drawing. These tricks will only help to reduce the errors that artists often make when they're working on a drawing, and reduce the amount of time it takes to produce the finished product. You still have to know how to draw in order to complete your work. After working with an art projector or doing a tracing, you should have only the faintest possible outline of the most major aspects of your subject. The rest will be done by eye.

2. Make sure that the outline of the face, the eyes, nose and mouth and most prominent aspects of the hair are delineated. Use a very fine line, as you may need to adjust it later.

3. Phase one of creating the hair. The darkest areas have been fleshed out.

   Begin to draw the hairs of your subject, in the direction of the hair growth, beginning with the darkest areas. Don't rush this step. It will take time and effort to get a dark line with a graphite pencil. The purpose here is not to represent each and every hair on the subject's head, but rather to give a general impression of the tone and texture of the hair. Keep drawing lines, applying somewhat heavy pressure when necessary, but do not bear down too hard. It's much better to repeat your line over and over again than to apply extreme pressure.

4. The hair with the medium tones drawn in. Some gradual shading has been started.

   Add in the medium tones of the hair. Pay close attention to the places where minute, fine shading occurs, and where there are streaks or blocks of shine. Continue to make your lines in the direction of the flow of the hair to represent the hairs, but make sure that you leave enough untouched white paper to represent the brightest areas of the hair. If necessary, go back with an eraser and remove dark areas which should not be there. Then go back with your pencil and put in the correct texture and tone.

5. The finished drawing with all regions of the hair completely drawn in.

   Draw the hairs over the lightest part of the hair region. Hold the pencil from the top half, and make your lines very lightly. There is no need to draw a hair over every inch of this area. If an area appears very light on your subject, don't hesitate to leave the paper white in that region.

6. Flesh out the face and neck of your subject. The technique I have used here represents only the most crucial areas of the subject and omits most of the shading from the face, creating an enhanced feeling of contrast. This method is very useful when using graphite pencils, as attempting to color in every single shadow on your subject's face in this medium can result in a mottled mess.

Tips & Warnings

• Use a chamois cloth, tissue paper or even just your fingers to smudge the pencil to get a smoother look.

• A kneadable eraser is an excellent tool for working in hair highlights.

• Don't backtrack on your hair line or make hash marks. Keep the line of the hair flowing downward. It is not necessary to return to the top of the head to create every single line. Some lines can begin in the middle or toward the end of the hair.

• Graphite pencil smudges easily. Take precautions to protect your picture from rubbing against other objects.