Beautiful hair studies!

Nice! - The features feel quite 3D to me, but the head feels a little flat. I think it would help to show that the face has a front and a side plane more clearly. It might help to first draw the construction of the head lightly, before rendering. - Richard Schmid mentioned something interesting in his book Alla Prima II. In chapter 5, on values, there is an image of a painting of some dolls. Schimd mentions how the hair was human like, and that he could see every strand of hair if he kept his eyes wide open. But if he squinted, the hair grouped into a single shape, with specific edges. That's what he painted, since it's much more manageable then thousands of hair strands. And since he put down the correct shape with correct edges, it looked like hair. This might be a topic that would be interesting for you to explore. In your drawing you seem to be showing the hair by drawing indivudal strands of hair, and it looks like hair to me, but it could be good to widen your toolkit of how you can portray hair by studying hair thinking more like Schmid, maybe by first doing a value studie; grouping the hair into a few values and shapes, then modify the edges of the shapes to give it a hair like feel. I did an attempt at this (though I used my imagination since I don't know what reference you used). If you're new to value studies, feel free to reach out if you need some tips. (or maybe this post suffices https://www.proko.com/s/PX9q ) Hope this helps :)

this looks really good!

I really like it but I feel that the hair isn't as curly as the reference, but amazing drawing

wow Daniel ! these look really impressive. I think the next step would be able to master different hair textures. Right now everyone seems to have silky, glossy hair; but I notice that for some of the more dramatic lighting you prioritise the hair detail / gloss over the shadows. (c.f. the upper black and white ones on photo 3). It's ok if it's a conscious choice or if you are selling shampoo, but make sure it doesn't limit your range as an artist. Ditto for the guy with the beard on fifth photo - I wonder, now that you have mastered dimensionality + gloss in hair, how you can create the hair texture in his beard. Anyone have good ideas on how this might be achieved ?

Excellent Camellito!Yes these studies of ribbon and hair are very good.You nailed how the hair wrapped around with the Gibson girls (also the value too) Now I suggest applying all you learn from this excercise to your own reference and trying to make your own personal art. Anyway solid job all around,please keep going,we want to see your progress,Camellito (Also thank you for doing the exercise I recommend.)

Hey Camellito,I can definelty see you improve,your added of highlight made the plane of the hair more obvious and easier to read. My biggest critism is that on your third drawing.It seemed you are not familliar enough with the plains of the hair on a curly model. For example,judging from only your lines ,some part the hair seemed to stop and start and randomn point.The ideal way is to make it so the hair is wrapping around the head.Here's an example I did I hope will help. [There's also 2 blog post by James Gurney talking about this problem if you want to read it http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2008/04/hair-string-mop.html http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2008/04/hair-ribbon-secret.html) I would suggest trying to copy the drawings of Charles Dana Gibson and Alphonse Mucha.But not be too concern of the value,instead just try to copy how their lines wrap around the hair. Well hopefully that was somewhat useful(if not best regards anyway)

Hello Camellito,I think you did pretty good in separating the big shapes of the hair.I also think you design the half tone and dark shape pretty well. If I were to give a critique (and actually it may be more of a suggestion)I think you can make the hair more interesting by adding in highlight shapes.(For example,here's a drawing by Adolph Menzel adding in strand of highlight in the hair.) in the reference photo Specifically I can see some subtle highlight in the top right part (here's something I did real quick on my ipad) When adding the highlight try to not copy the exact shape of the highlight,but design it so it looks better than the reference(2 Example from Leyendecker) Well that's all I got,hopefully this is was all somewhat useful.If not I apologize (best regard anyway)

Really nice studies! I think you're at the level where you can start thinking about different edges. This video makes a good introduction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnhj5efzN_w&t=1s When you vary up your edges, your drawings will feel more natural (in photos there are usually only hard edges). I did a paintover where I tried adding some soft edges to your 3rd study. I'm not that good at edges yet, but hopefully it gives an idea of their use. I hope this was helpful :)

Nice work, Chris The forms are reading well, but I do think that you're struggling with the half tones in the light. It may be because you're pressing the pencil too hard, and if you're doing that it's really hard too achieve subtlety. When shading try grabbing further back the pencil than you'd normally grab if you were writing, and hold it like you'd hold chalk. Doing value scales would help also as you understand better the range of your pencil, chalk, pastel... One last unrelated tip. I don't know if you're using toned paper or if you have a warmer bulb and the camera is picking some warm light from the environment. If it's the latter case, beware when you're painting because that would alter your perception of color. Keep Drawing and best regards

Try to think of the hair as a simple 3D form of its own that just drapes on top of the shape of the head. Because the head is like a sphere at the top, the hair form follows that sphere. Because the head is flat on the sides, the hair falls straight down. Here's an example for you. You can think about her hair as an archway/cave/hollow mailbox that sits on top of her head. That's what her hair is, except the cave/mailbox shape isn't just a half cylinder. From the side, it angles down, which you show in your drawing too. I think the biggest thing for you to improve would be to use cleaner lines and focus on the simple forms. Your shading isn't 'wrong' for the hair that you drew, all the highlights and shadows are in the right place. It's just that the hair you drew isn't well defined and doesn't have much 3D form of its own. Sharp, clean lines will improve your drawing a lot. Hope that helps.

Looks good to me! The highlights and shadows on the hair make the texture look very realistic.

Hi @DuDung Tak Nice drawings! I´m not sure if I understand what you´re confused about, but I´ll give answering a try: "I think you need a strong spacial awareness to plan and map out strands so the shadows and texture makes sense in form" Yes, when drawing hair, or anything 3D it´s helpful to think of space and structure. You seem to be aware of this; in your 2nd drawing for example the strands are wrapping around the cylindrical form at the forehead. Great! "plan and map out strands so the shadows and texture  makes sense in form" Remember that you´re free to design the strands as much as you want. You don´t have to copy each strand exactly. Compare Stan´s drawing to the photo reference and you´ll notice that he didn´t copy all the strands. As long has he draw lines mimicking hair, wrapped around the major form, it works. Also pay attention to how he groups the strands into to larger groups. Hopefully this was helpful :)

Those are very nice and they show a lot of form! The only thing I would advise you is to be more judicious with your lines in the lighter values. Sometimes too many lines can dirty the lights and break the 3-d illusion. Try working mainly in value and use the lines to show the texture in the half tones. It will strengthen your designs even more. Keep drawing and best regards

Hi, Richard. Well, I think the curlier the hair the more opinionated you have to be. Drawing every single curl, in my opinion makes the hair look too busy, so you have to simplify as much as possible. Probably everyone has a different opinion on this. I'll share with you my thought process and I hope it helps. First I would draw the volume of the head and draw a general outline of the hair. I find that drawing curls free hand makes me often deform the head or drawing the hair too big. Then I block in the curls. I try to find overlaps that show perspective and I establish an hierarchy of curls in terms of foreground, middle ground and background. The closer to front they are, the more detailed they become. The ones in the background are basically simple shapes implying form. Finally I separate the light from the dark and render. Since I do the lay-in very tight, normally I don't use the eraser very much. But If I feel that I lost the form I'll use it to sculpt the hair better. Keep drawing and best regards