Lounge Artists--advice about drawing hair?

[Lyric]

I've recently decided to try and teach myself to draw a little. In my life, I had never really sat down and *tried* until recently. I love horses, so I started there--and I think I did okay for a n00b. I looked at a picture of a horse on the cover of a book, and this is the version I ended up with. Except for the hair.

I'm catching on slowly to getting body proportions right, and I think I can figure out shading with some practice, but hair is an *entirely* different matter. I cannot seem to figure it out. For now, my "hair" is just horrible scribbles. It's truly awful. I got so intimidated when it came time to draw the hair that I nearly gave up on it. Nothing I did looked *anything* like the original version, which was lovely and wavy and flowing and curly, and I would reeeeeally like to learn how to do that.

Example:



So is there a secret to drawing hair? Or is it just something you have to learn on your own? Guidance/advice would be very much appreciated.

One more thing: it took about ten billion pounds of courage to post the above pathetic little scribble in the same forum with so many REAL artists, and I fear that I will sink through a hole in the floor and die if you laugh at me. So please don't. Laugh silently if you must, my dear friends.

:blush:
:rofl:

[MrScorpio]

1. Try drawing the shadows of the hair rather than the hair itself

The eyes are drawn first to the shadow, then the strands

[Lyric]

4. Okay--I'll look back at the original

and see if I can pick out the shadows. Thank you. :)

[MrScorpio]

5. Take a cue from Adam Hughes

[ghostsofgiants]

2. I suck at drawing hair. BillySkank gave me some tips in another thread...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=8193603&mesg_id=8193675

[Lyric]

3. Thanks for the link

I'll read it thoroughly, as billyskank definitely knows what's he talking about.

:hi:

[mopinko]

6. not about hair, but

get out and draw from life. learning to draw from picture can lead you to draw in a very flat fashion. you need to learn to capture volume. it is not in photos. mr scorpio's examples are helpful. learning from other drawings is better.

but if there is a life drawing workshop somewhere, go there. most places have one somewhere. usually, they are just sharing the cost of the model, and you do what you want to do. i never used to let anyone look at my drawing at the one i went to.

[Orrex]

7. Simple. Just draw bald people. And animals.

[Lyric]

8. D'oh!

Now why didn't I think of that?

:P

[billyskank]

9. There's not much wrong with it.

I don't really see anything wrong with how you drew the hair, as it seems to fit the level of detail of the rest of the drawing, which is basically line art with a certain amount of shading. On the top of the animal's head it looks absolutely fine, I think the only fault is that the mane is a bit crude. This is the key to drawing hair well: it's awfully painstaking if you are determined not to cop out. But if you do make the effort and don't cop out, the result is especially rewarding.

Best advice I can see in this thread is the examples MrScorpio posted; you might get some inspiration from those for stuff that you could try.

I like your picture very much, I can see that you've got a good hand and eye. I would like to see you develop this as much as you can.

[Lyric]

10. ...

:loveya:

Thank you.

[rug]

11. Hair is a piece of cake.