Digital Painting - Part 2: Chloe's Hair

Final Image

Mmkay, let's start with the Sun Hair (aka Blond). For anyone who didn't know already, blond is an awesome color to paint hair in! Forget all the jokes with blondes now, because this hair has the sun in it! Mmkay. Take the Brush Tool, set it to a hard, round, about 20px (though size varies, depending on the size of your canvas) in size and give it the following settings:

I also recommend setting your canvas background color to a neutral gray, helps a lot :) I used #636363 Hmm..okay now that we have taken care of these basic stuffiez, let's move on to the actual hair =D So. Set your Foreground color to #c9864c and start brushing the base shape and strands of the hair. Start by brushing with a large brush, to block in the base color, then use the "[" and "]" keys to make your brush size smaller or larger fast :) Make your brush smaller and smaller....and smaller....until you get to some 2 px. With that 2 px brush paint the rebellious, individual hair strands. Okay..well..do it so that in the end you get something similar to this:

Kay...name this layer "Hair Background Color", then create a new layer above it and name it "Hair Midtones". Then take a lighter tone, say something close to #e7af70 and with a smaller starting brush this time, brush more indidual strands. Vary the size of your brush a lot, a whole philosophy is hidden in brush size varying, hehehe xD Notice how the midtones strands are VERY random? Though seemingly they all go in the same direction, they are terribly random. Sometimes pass with the brush twice, thrice in the same place, with the brush size sset to different sizes. It'll help give volume.

Riiight...now we'll deal with the sunshine xD I mean..err..the highlights. So make a new layer over the Midtones one, name it "Highlights". Set your Foreground color to #fcd699 or something close and set your brush to a small size, like..5px maximum, can go as low as 1px though hehe. Now, important part: we won't be drawing these highlights all over, but in precise places. Notice the "Midtones" hair streaks/strands we made? Those streaks we will follow! Zoom in to like 200% and start drawing carefully, following the Midtones strands. See animation below---> ...So that in the end you get something like in image 2 below:

Rawr! It's starting to look better! =] Okay, now to give our hair volume (ask girls, they know that hair volume is a MUST! hehehe) :) ...we will add shadows. Make a new layer on to of your "Highlights" one and name it..why of course, "Shadows" Set your brush to a small size (no larger than 4 or 5px) and set your Foreground color to something close to #af6936 Then zoom in to 200% and start adding shadows....but mind you! only in the already-shadowed areas of the hair...like...inter-strands? xD Words can't describe it well, but the animation in image 1 below will :) ...okay, so that you get something like this (image 2 below)--->

Alright! This is where magic happens :) Click on the "Midtones" layer in your Layers Palette. Make sure it is your active layer. Then take the Dodge Tool (O) and give it these settings: ---Size: about 80px. ---Range: Highlights ---Exposure: 11% ---Airbrush: ON And on the Midtones layer dodge in the areas circled with red below in image 1, so that you get a result similar to image 2 below. Basically brush in all the areas that are "inflated", that have more volume than thus reflect more light. We need to make them more shiny :)

Next, take the Burn Tool and give it these settings: ---Size: about 60x ---Range: Shadows ---Exposure: 9% ---Airbrush: ON Then brush a bit on the Midtones and then on the Base Hair Color layer as well in the areas circled in image 1 below, so that you get something like in image 2 below--->

Looking better a tad :) Now let's go back to the Dodge Tool, and this time dodge on the "Highlights" layer. We need to make those highlights live up to their name! xD Dodge your "Highlights" layer in the same areas in which you dodged on the midtones layer, so that you get something like this:

Now...let's start adding refinments :) First and foremost with the refinments is helping our hair..or..err..her..hair..get rid of this plastic look >___>; Dodging and burning is all sweet&nice, until you hit the plastic look xD So. Create a new layer on top of all your hair-related layers. Name this new layer "Highlights 2". Set your Foreground color to #fffad7 and taking a small-tastic brush (2px) zoom in to 2-300% and start brushing fine streaks of light-colored hair carefully following the lines already drawn on the Midtones&Highlights layers. So that you get a result similar to below--->

All nice&pretty, but to look really natural 9or..err..semi-natural haha) our hair needs to be rebellious! <333 So take a 2px sized brush, set your Foreground color to #ffe4a3 and your Background color to #c27f46 and creating yet another new layer on top of all your hair-related layers (name it "Hair Details"), start drawing random hair streaks, pressxing the "X' key every once in a while to reverse your colors. Careful not to over-do it though >___o Notice the subtle, yet significant difference?

Now, optional step: To give it even more volume and softness, silky look, let's work those gradients xD So, create a new layer..yeees, above all your other hair layers no need asking....and name it "Highlight Gradient". Yey! ^^ Then let's obtain a selection of our hair by Ctrl(Cmd on Mac computers) + clicking on the layer thumbnail of your "Hair Background Color" layer so that we obtain its selection like in image 1 below---> And then taking the Gradient Tool (G), setting it to Foreground-to-transparent and Reflected Gradient, drag in the areas selected below in image 1-----> Then set the layer to Linear Dodge layer style and lower its Fill to 87% and its Opacity to 25%. Should get something like in image 2 below--->

Riiight...now create a new layer on top of the "Highlight Gradient" one, name it...why of course! "Shadow Gradient" xD Obtain the selection of your Hair Background layer again if you by any chance deselected, and pressing X key to make your background color the "working" color (that should be #c27f46) drag with the same gradient as before in the areas selected in image 1 below---> ....so that you get something like in image 2 below--->

Now what we still need to do to make this hair realistic, is to give the skin under it some shadows! Ha, have you ever seen a hair that casts no shadows? O___o; Oki, so. Obtain a selection of your hair again like in the previous two steps and setting your Foreground color to a medium-saturation brown (say #965240) and fill that selection with our awesome medium brown ^^ Name this layer "Shadow Hair" and make sure it is a clipping mask to our Skin layer (this way we'll avoid any unwanted shadows popping up where we least expect them hehehe) Then lower the Fill to about 45%. Oh, and set the layer to Multiply blending mode hahaha. Also, transform the layer a bit to make it look as if the shadows are casted on the face (you can use the resize, transform normally or warp methods, each works wonderfully). So that you get something like this:

Now of course that you can give your hair some adjustment layers to make it more....eyecandy xD Here's how mine looks in the end:

Sweeet! Now let's start on the Earth/brown hair hehehe Since we already covered the basic technique, I'll only show you an in-depth walkthrough, and not explain each and every bit so in detail anymore xD For the base color we'll set our Foreground color to #4a1d14 like in pic 1 below *don't forget the dodge&burning*---> For the Midtones layer we'll choose #8d3e1a Like in pic 2 below---> Now, for the Highlights, choose #d68b63 Like in pic 3 below---> For the Shadows, let's go with #351209 (pic 4 below)-->

Remember, for this color and for the next two, the only clues are only the colors and step-by-step screenshot :) No real need to explain the same..exact..technique 4 times in a row riiight? xD Moo-vin' on :) We reached the point where we added the shadows. Gooooood..... Let's go with #f09f6d for Highlights 2, see pic number 1 below: Then for the Details, let's switch between #fb834c (light color) and #3c130a (dark color)...remember the small sized brush :) --image 2 below: ...aaand for the Highlight Gradient go with #df7d2f while for the Shadow Gradient choose something like #5b3c29 . Final result: image 3 below---> Remember: the darker the hair color, the darker the "shadow" it casts will be.

Rawr! Firey hair time ^_^ Bet'cha you've been waiting for this heh? :) Remember: red is ALWAYS a tricky color to deal with. That is because of its hues&saturation, it doesn't "glow" right. Because of that we won't be able to add many dodging and burning to a fiery red hair...soooo..let's make it less fiery&more natural, heh? xDD Let's start by choosing #621110 for base color.... then (remember to dodge&burn hahaha) ...then let's go with #a23434 for the Midtones, and with #ee7875 for the Highlights :) Also let's go with #621314 for the Shadows (remember to set the layer on Multiply blending more and adjust Opacity! ) See pics below ^^

Let's move on to the finetuning of the fairy hair now <3 Select #e9b1a7 as your Foreground color and draw the Highlights 2 :) Use the colors #f1cfc9 (light tones) and #4c1111 (dark tones) to draw the Hair Details. (image 2 below) For the Highlights Gradient and Shadows Gradient let's choose #df7d2f and respectively, #5b3c29 For those of you who are observant, you will notice these are the exact same colors we used for the Highlight Gradient of the brow hair. Why? Simple. Because Red doesn't have convenient highlights of its own hehehe. You try: try to make a glowy golden ..thingy...and try to make a red glowing thingy. You'll notice the red glowing thingy will look weird, while the gold will have available color tones to make it look relistic ^__~ So we're cheating a bit ..oOOooo.. o3o Okay, for red, due to its..erm..."special-ness"...we're going to use a bit of additional adjustment layers help, to make it look eyepop :) See in image 3 below..it doesn't look really good now does it? We'll change that because we are smart! ^_~ So. We'll deal with 3 adjustment layers. First, obtain a selection of your Hair Background Color layer by Ctrl(Cmd on Mac)+clicking on its Layer Thumbnail in the layers palette. Then, go to Image--->Adjustments--->Photo Filter (well, you can use the small black&white circle icon at the bottom of your layers palette too...your pick! ^^ ) Make sure the Photo Filter is on top of any hair-related layers you have till now and give it these settings: ---Warming Filter (85), Density: 70%, Preserve Luminosity: checked! Then obtain the hair selection again and this time choose a Brightness/ Contrast adjustment layer. Give it these settings: ---Brightness: +8 and Contrast: +9 ...Obtain the hair selection agaaaaain.....and choose a Photo Filter (again) with thse settings: ---Warming Filter (85), Density: 55% and Preserve Luminosity: checked. Now let's see what a beautiful change these adjustment layers have made! :) Image 4 below--->

Darkness hair! <3 Let's start off by chooseing #0a1014 for our base color, then going with #434e59 for hair mid-tones, of course don't forget the dodging and burning, hehehe. Then take #4a4f50 for the Hair Highlights (set layer to Linear Dodge mode, Opacity 29% and Fill 87%), choose plain...black #000000 for the Shadows. like below :)

Right. Now let's do the Highlights 2....with a #8a999a color...and a Hair Details layer using #a8b3b4 for light tones and #000000 for darker tones :) Now, for the Highlights Gradient use something like #a8b3b4 and for the Shadow Gradient use plain good ol'black, #000000. Good! :) Now there's one more thing that is bothering...that this black hair is too...err..white? xD So let's obtain its selection and give it a Curves adjustment like in image 4 below, so that we get a result more like in image 5 below :)

So. Let's see what we have managed to do :) Let's look at the image below......which hair color suits our Chloe best? ^__^ Not too shabby eh? ^_~ Please remember: these are just the BASICS of (my way) of painting hair. It's not the best, nor the only one out there, so please, experiment and practice as much as you can, ey? :) Also, I left in the .PSD a half-hair for you to try out your strengths =D Gogogogo ^^ Of course, for any questions/showing finsihed product/etc. related to the tutorial please feel free to contact me via my DeviantArt account at http://seiorai.deviantart.com/ or via my Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001907117980 Love painting <3