This will be an introduction on how i draw hair and the tools that i use. I will split this tutorial into sections because i want you to have time to practice and for you to understand the technique. In this tutorial i will explain how understanding hair and fur will help in developing realistic textures and hair. After you understand it, you will see how easy it becomes to draw hair. I don’t want to rush this topic and i want to make sure i explain it well so you can understand it and so you can start to see improvement in your drawings. Most people have a difficult time drawing animal hair. In my opinion its much more difficult than drawing a persons hair. The simple reason for this is that with an animal they are covered in hair. Animals have bone and muscle structure and the hair over these muscles and bones look different depending on angle. So it makes it much more difficult to to make the drawing more realistic.
Like ive mentioned before drawing hair/fur is not about actually drawing each and every hair. Its about fooling the eye into thinking its hair. How do we do this? Well the main things that jump out at you when you look at hair are the highlights and shadows. These 2 things combined make up hair. If you look at a up close photograph of some hair/fur you will see hair strands, but you will also notice that they are not all visible as single strands. Strands of hair clump up, these clumps depending where the light is hitting will cause shadows. Understanding light and shadows in hair will improve drawing hair dramatically.
Something else that you will notice is that hair is not all pointing in the same direction. Hair flows in different directions, even with short hair. Most people when they draw hair straight down which ends up looking like spaghetti, it has no flow.
So how do i draw hair. Well, the idea of giving the illusion of hair with lights and shadows hasn’t changed from when i started drawing. What has changed are the tools that i use to get that effect. I’m always looking for ways to fool the eye into seeing realism. The process that i take to draw hair is to first look at the type of hair that ill be drawing. Drawing short hair is totally different from the steps taken to draw long hair.
Negative Drawing is a big part of drawing hair and i recommend that you first understand what im talking about before going on. You can read the article here. The way i draw hair is a combination of negative drawing and scratch board. Scratchboard or scraperboard is a technique where drawings are created using sharp knives and tools for etching into a thin layer of white China clay that is coated with black India ink. Instead of a board i use paper and instead of knives i use an empty pen and needle. It sounds simple but its not just about scratching/indenting on paper. That’s why i said it is important to understand hair or else you’ll end up with realistic looking spaghetti hair with this technique 
The tools that use are a pen with no ink and a pen with a needle inserted on the tip. You can see them here . Make sure that the pen has absolutely no ink, you don’t want to be halfway through your drawing and accidentally make a pen mark, trust me its not a good feeling . Also, make sure that the needle that you use on your other pen should not be too pointy. You can file it down using some sandpaper, but don’t make it flat or it will make a sharp edge. If its too pointy it will eat through the paper. The needle is a bit more dangerous to use because if you use too often on a single area it can start to shred the paper. I use the needle mostly for fine hair specially around the tips.
Ok, you now have your pen and your needle, now were ready to test it out. I recommend using a thicker drawing paper such a bristol. Not only because they work well with pencil but because the indenting stylus works great on it. I use bristol vellum and bristol smooth for my drawings. Vellum has a bit of texture to it. Ok, take your pen and draw three parallel lines, youwont be able to see them but they’re there. Now take some pencil and run over the lines. When revealing lines don’t use a mechanical pencil because the lead tip is real thin and will be able to go between the lines. I use a progresso pencil which is ticker and will easily go over the lines without going in them, just don’t press too hard. Voila, magically the lines appear.
Now take the pen and do the same but this time cross hatch them. Make lots of lines. Now run the pencil only over the top. This will outline the tips of the lines. These lines could easily be the top of some fine hairs. If you read the negative space article you will clearly notice that these lines are done using negative drawing.
Now what else can we do for more realism, well we can shade them to give the much more depth and give the effect of shadows covering some hairs. Taking your color blender, blend from the top down. This will pull the graphite from the dark area down. After you have done this, lightly run some pencil over some parts of the bottom area with your progesso pencil. This will outline some the indented lines The areas that are covered with pencil could represent space behind the the hair or darker hair that is below the lighter ones. Youre beginning to see what can be done with this technique.
Remember i mentioned that hair clumps up. Well we can get that effect by just erasing some dark lines between two strands using your kneaded eraser. This will give the effect of more than one hair together. Small details like these will give your pencil drawing much more realism. I suggest you play around and see what you can come up with.
Well this should be a good introduction and the basics on how i draw hair and fur. Next tutorial i will give an example on how you can use it on different types of hairs. We will draw the area around the nose of a cat,including whiskers. If you have any questions please contact me or leave a comment. I don’t want to continue on because i want to take my time with this topic since it can be pretty long and i want you to understand it really well. Ill leave you with a little homework 
Look at the image below and draw it using what i just showed you. There is no better way to improve than to practice and this should be a good start. Part 2
(26 votes, average: 4.42 out of 5)
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Permalink11 Pings to “Drawing Realistic Hair with Pencil Part One”
47 Responses to “Drawing Realistic Hair with Pencil Part One”
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1. Kachina Herbs Says:
December 4th, 2007 at 11:01 pmThis is SO cool…I draw for fun and I suck so this is really meaningful for me PLUS I can incorporate into my homeschool program for my daughter who loves to draw! Thanks for being you!
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2. Kachina Herbs Says:
December 4th, 2007 at 11:01 pmThis is SO cool…I draw for fun and I suck so this is really meaningful for me PLUS I can incorporate into my homeschool program for my daughter who loves to draw! Thanks for being you!
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3. AnnRan Says:
December 5th, 2007 at 2:42 amVery interesting to read about how you get such wonderful effects. The detail in your work is stunning. Thanks for sharing!!
-Ann (drawdog5 on eBay)
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4. AnnRan Says:
December 5th, 2007 at 2:42 amVery interesting to read about how you get such wonderful effects. The detail in your work is stunning. Thanks for sharing!!
-Ann (drawdog5 on eBay)
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5. onlypencil Says:
December 5th, 2007 at 2:09 pmthank you so much. Its something that can give your drawings more realism and its unique.
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6. onlypencil Says:
December 5th, 2007 at 2:09 pmthank you so much. Its something that can give your drawings more realism and its unique.
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7. Stephie Says:
December 8th, 2007 at 12:17 amThis is an amazin tutorial. You’re incredibly talented and a fabulous teacher. I’ve been learning to draw for all of two weeks and its brilliantly explained tutorials like yours which makes me thing I’ll be able to learn (after 30 years of thinking I could never learn to draw!)
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8. Jeanne (Jeanze*ArT) Says:
December 8th, 2007 at 11:44 amI am such a HUGE fan of yours, and I love your tutorials! Thank you for sharing your knowledge and talent with the rest of the world!
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9. Jeanne (Jeanze*ArT) Says:
December 8th, 2007 at 11:44 amI am such a HUGE fan of yours, and I love your tutorials! Thank you for sharing your knowledge and talent with the rest of the world!
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10. onlypencil Says:
December 8th, 2007 at 1:10 pmthank you so much,im glad you are enjoying the tutorials and hopefully they can help you. Drawing should be fun and can be done by anyone at any age.
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11. onlypencil Says:
December 8th, 2007 at 1:10 pmthank you so much,im glad you are enjoying the tutorials and hopefully they can help you. Drawing should be fun and can be done by anyone at any age.
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12. Robin Says:
December 9th, 2007 at 9:52 pmI love drawing hair and I’m not half bad at it. But there’s always room for improvement no matter how good we think we are! I have always appreciated fresh perspective as well as the person’s willingness to offer it. Good job. I’ve learned a thing or two this evening! Thanks…………Robin
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13. Sid Says:
March 9th, 2008 at 4:27 pmThe information that have read here has greatly helped me make some progress with my dawings. I have struggled with detail like hair. Thanks or this tutorial, It has heled me a ton.
Sidney S. -
14. Sid Says:
March 11th, 2008 at 10:30 amHey, I’m needing some help with the empty pen and the needle in the pen you made. I get pretty good results using the empty pen if I press hard enough, but the needle point (dulled point) does not come out as well.
Thanks for any help.
Sid -
15. ayu Says:
March 20th, 2008 at 8:56 ami luv the way u explain the step to make the drawing more realistic..thanks a lot…but, could u please list down how to draw human hair in details…i still dont get it clearly..really appreciate that…tq
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16. ayu Says:
March 20th, 2008 at 9:56 ami luv the way u explain the step to make the drawing more realistic..thanks a lot…but, could u please list down how to draw human hair in details…i still dont get it clearly..really appreciate that…tq
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17. onlypencil Says:
March 21st, 2008 at 1:17 pmthank you so much. Im glad to hear that it has been helpful. For human hair its almost the same technique except that you’re making the lines longer and straighter. Ill be making a tutorial for human hair to show the whole process. well take care.
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18. guy that dosnt know what your talking about Says:
May 2nd, 2008 at 7:49 pmi have no idea what your talking about!!!
plz explain better
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19. guy that dosnt know what your talking about Says:
May 2nd, 2008 at 8:09 pmP.S
ur a really good drawer thoughXD
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20. guy that dosnt know what your Says:
May 2nd, 2008 at 8:49 pmi have no idea what your talking about!!!
plz explain better
XD -
21. guy that dosnt know what your Says:
May 2nd, 2008 at 9:09 pmP.S
ur a really good drawer thoughXD
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22. Shaimee Says:
July 14th, 2008 at 9:56 amHoo! It is very useful, clear and just amazing tutorial! I find it really helpful.
I love to draw wolves and I had very big problems with realistic animals, but with this tutorial I learned some new ways to do the fur – I guess it will help me with that realism problem very much. Thank you for this great tutoria – now I just have to start practicing more and read the part two. 
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23. Shaimee Says:
July 14th, 2008 at 2:56 pmHoo! It is very useful, clear and just amazing tutorial! I find it really helpful.
I love to draw wolves and I had very big problems with realistic animals, but with this tutorial I learned some new ways to do the fur – I guess it will help me with that realism problem very much. Thank you for this great tutoria – now I just have to start practicing more and read the part two. -
24. MidnightMystery Says:
August 18th, 2008 at 2:20 amThis should hopefuly help me out. Thnx for showing this^^
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25. onlypencil Says:
August 18th, 2008 at 11:00 amits a different technique from any other, but it sure does help with achieving realistic hair. Practice and understand what you are drawing and you will see results. But the most important thing i can suggest is to be creative. Well take care and if you have any other questions, leave a comment.
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26. Dave Butcher Says:
August 22nd, 2008 at 2:10 pmThis is just what I have been looking for. All other tutorials seem to start somewhere in the middle. Many thanks for this excellent tutorial.
Kind Regards
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27. onlypencil Says:
August 23rd, 2008 at 3:26 pmYoure welcome. Things are always understood better when the process is explained not just the results. Well i hope you keep coming back and hopefully they all help you improve.
Lisandro
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28. J Says:
September 3rd, 2008 at 12:21 amAny chance you got a video on this floating around somewhere? I really want to learn this technique, but it's hard for me to understand without seeing it done. Thanks for the tutorial
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29. onlypencil Says:
September 4th, 2008 at 1:30 amShort Clip on hair technique
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30. J Says:
September 4th, 2008 at 7:15 pmThanks, man. That really helps.
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31. Rodriquez Says:
November 26th, 2008 at 12:48 pmHello I would like to know how to do the various techniques to shading
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32. Nolyca Kobayashi Says:
November 29th, 2008 at 3:45 pmhi im new here and i would just like to say…….i still dont get what exactly you do in order to get the results on page 2 of this tutorial. i have tried many different times, but in the end it always ends up too dark and not white like yours. can you make it (the article) even MORE detailed and please tell me what the results should look like. thanks you
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33. onlypencil Says:
November 29th, 2008 at 4:57 pmhello and welcome. Well what you can do is email me the drawing that you have and i can give you some tips on what you need to do. This technique needs to be used with an understanding of hair. I recommend that you first study some images of hair so you have an idea of how hair flows and how it behaves. Each indentation that you make would represent a hair or clumps of hair. So if you know where to add these indentations you will have better results. You can send the image to onlypencil@hotmail.com and will do my best to help you. Take Care.
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34. Nolyca Kobayashi Says:
December 1st, 2008 at 8:05 pmthank you
i dont have all of the materials you suggested but i think the other tools work for me just as well. though i think i am better off drawing by hand rather than this technique, i want to draw even better! i still have a lot of years ahead of me so i may need to work on this a lot longerthanks again
nolyca -
35. ssssstep Says:
March 21st, 2009 at 3:24 pmI really love this and your other tutorials. It's a very interesting concept and I find it fun. One reason you can tell right away how your drawing will look. It slowly gets better. I never really thought about layering. I always tried drawing exactly what I see, only I never thought about the process to achieve it. Thanks for sharing this with us!
I hope that you make a tutorial on human hair.
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36. ragtagmouse Says:
April 29th, 2009 at 10:13 pmHello one, im new hear and to drawing. thank you very much for the tutorial, i get the general idea in part one but the second part is alittle harder to understand, for me anyway. but that is prob because i was trying to get the ink out of this pen v_v. any who i alredy see how it will work, i have been looking at fur and hair and trying to figure out how to draw them. but with this i never thought of this, well anyway thatn you.
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37. thisisme272 Says:
May 6th, 2009 at 8:42 pmI've found these tutorials very helpful, but I was just wondering how do you make the individual strands of hair look thick, cos I've tried using the empty pen but I can only make the hairs really thin. Is there anything else I could use to make thick hairs?
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38. onlypencil Says:
May 6th, 2009 at 8:58 pmWell it depends on how thick you want to go. There is a limit on how thick you can go with these tools. The thickest i usually go with these tools are the whiskers on a cat. You can always try something that is dull and try using that to get thicker lines. Experimenting should always be part of drawing and it will make drawing much more interesting.
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39. Diane Says:
June 6th, 2009 at 7:54 pmThanks for sharing your knowledge. You have no idea how helpful this is! One little tip can help an artist past a stumbling block. Keep sharing!
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40. hwillm1977 Says:
July 23rd, 2009 at 7:30 amThis is a fantastic idea… I've never used negative drawing. The whiskers on this dog are a result of your tutorial, where I used to spend tons of time outlining each whisker and then filling in I can now use the needle…
why didn't I think of this sooner? THANKS!
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41. priceless Says:
July 31st, 2009 at 10:05 pmi draw on 60 lb paper what do recomend for us or what kind of paper do you use yourself
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42. yushirou matsumoto Says:
September 21st, 2009 at 1:50 amur awesome ur the best artist i've ever seen
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43. smofe Says:
December 25th, 2009 at 11:31 pmHi, i LOVE how you've put together this and showed what hair really looks like when you go close up!!!! I'm only 12 and im thinking of taking ART when im older, apparently i'm really good at drawing animals according to my Mum and Dad and everyone else in my family because of what i've got in my portfolio already! I absolutely LOVE animals especially taking pics and them drawing from them! Thanks again!!!
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44. toadflax Says:
December 29th, 2009 at 5:54 pmis the technique the same for broad areas of short, darker hair, like a greyhound's coat?
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45. Avinash Says:
April 19th, 2010 at 8:25 amWoooooooooooowwww….Awesome. Thank you so much for this article
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46. blake Says:
January 1st, 2011 at 7:42 pmi would like to know how to draw hair without a stylus or pen
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47. amol Says:
July 17th, 2011 at 1:01 amgood skatching
December 22nd, 2007 at 12:47 am
[...] it using the techniques. You can read these tutorials on the techniques that i use to draw hair, drawing hair part one and drawing hair part two. These are an introduction to understanding the techniques that i use. In [...]
May 9th, 2008 at 3:05 am
[...] This will be an introduction on how i draw hair and the tools that i use. I will split this tutorial into sections because i want you to have time to practice and for you to understand the technique. In this tutorial i will explain how understanding hair and fur will help in developing realistic textures and hair. After you understand it, you will see how easy it becomes to draw hair. I don’t want to rush this topic and i want to make sure i explain it well so you can understand it and so you can start to see improvement in your drawings. Most people have a difficult time drawing animal hair. In my opinion its much more difficult than drawing a persons hair. The simple reason for this is that with an animal they are covered in hair. Animals have bone and muscle structure and the hair over these muscles and bones look different depending on angle. So it makes it much more difficult to to make the drawing more realistic. (more…) [...]
May 9th, 2008 at 3:06 am
[...] in this tutorial we will work on a sample drawing using the technique that was introduced here. I explain what steps to take when drawing whiskers and cat hair. Cat hair is short hair so we will [...]
June 28th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
[...] took me long is because of the hair detail. I have used the same technique that i explained in the Drawing Realistic Hair tutorial. I’m a big fan of textures, i love the look and the feeling that this technique [...]
August 18th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
[...] Drawing Realistic Hair with Pencil Part One [...]
November 4th, 2008 at 1:38 am
[...] learned.
November 4th, 2008 at 1:45 am
[...] on. The
November 4th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
[...] its a technique that has helped improving adding realism to my drawings.
November 24th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
[...] don’t know what im talking about you can check out my tutorial on how to use this technique here. I have been developing this technique for quite some time now and it has helped be add a level [...]
December 16th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
[...] is about 2.5″x3″, so its just a small section from the whole drawing. Im using the same technique that i have used in other drawings. This one will take me a while and i don’t want to rush [...]
August 7th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
[...] using is working beautifully for the texture that i’m looking to get. It works great with the hair technique that i use. Its thick enough for the indentations to look great. I’ve been working on t his [...]