TRSE: How To Draw Tutorials:
All about the Hairstyles in Animanga
How the concept of patterns can
be used to draw the hairstyles of the characters.
(My Pencil sketches are always messy, please
excuse me for that)
Tohru of Fruit Baskets with her very simple hairstyle.
Tohru's hairstyle is very simple despite many lines
that make up her hair. A tip is to draw the hair bangs in groups before
adding more lines to make her hair seem very detailed. Because of the way
the hair are parted when combed, the hair should not follow along outline
of the head. Unless the hair is tightly braided into ponytails. the
hair should be drawn just above the head to make it look bit loose and
thick.
Seiya of BSSailorMoon Stars
Seiya's hair is bit messy but it is made up of simple
patterns. A tip is to just draw a smooth outline of hair before adding
the hair "spikes" to give Seiya's hair a messy look. Notice that the parting
of the hair is off-centered on Seiya's forehead, but that parting follows
to the center of the head, and the hair should be drawn to reflect that.
Naruto of Naruto
The bandanna or headbands tend to push the hair bangs
back or leave them hanging over the bandanna. Drawing the spiky hair of
Naruto may be bit easier than you might expect, and all you do is draw
a circle/dome to outline his head before "planting" the spikey hair on
the head (like grass). Some artists draw the lines from the center to give
an impression of spiky hair following the domed top of the head. I really
like how I did his face! ^_^
Edward of FullMetal Alchemists
Some artists drew the hair in folded paper-like forms, and
the patterns of Edward's bangs seems quite paper-like. You can draw the
paper-like patterns to get various types of hairstyles before adding any
hairspikes or lines" to make the hair more detailed.
InuYasha of InuYasha
I noticed that many characters in several mangas seem
to have "fluffy"(couldn't think of better word) hair bangs and InuYasha's
hairstyle is a good example. A tip is to mark a point where the hair bangs
are to "spray" from to give them a "fluffy" look. Don't forget to take
in accord of gravity and 3D.
Sailor Moon of BSSailorMoon
When the hair is bundled into ponytails or buns, the
hair tend to be tight against the head so it is safe to draw the hair along
the outline of a head, but it never hurts to give some some thickness on
each side of the head. Some characters have the hair bangs that are sort
of hanging from the forehead as if something is holding them up, and the
crescent-like and "fluffy" bangs of Sailor Moon is a good example. A tip
is that the bangs can be drawn like a can that has been cut in half lengthwise.
If the ponytails are thick and twisted, the swirling (almost flat
'S') lines should be drawn on the ponytails to give them a 3D look, and
some swirly ponytails can be drawn in a pattern resembling a loose stack
of cans.
It's just a matter of reading the patterns with your
imagination, and understanding how to use them to draw the fanarts of your
favorite Animanga characters or create your own hairstyles for your own
characters. A very important tip is you don't try to draw the whole hairstyle
at once, but instead, draw them in steps.
I mentioned about how anyone can vary the horizontal
lines to get different face porportions. Just take a look at the pictures
above and you can see how I varied the horizontal lines to get somewhat
correct face porportions for each character shown above. ^_^
Let's show how I take on the complex hairstyle of
Skinku of Rozen Maiden and Mituski of FullMoon O Sagashite.
