How to Draw Hair (+Free Download)

Are your illustrated characters balding rapidly? We have the perfect free downloadable tutorial on how to draw hair! It will look good as new!

Hairstyle is a key point in character design. How would you like us to perceive your fellow cartoons? If you take proper care of their appearance they could become iconic, but if your illustrations only have three long greasy hairs (because you got lazy drawing the fourth) we will think your characters are institutionalized in a mental hospital, at best... Or at worst, that they are all Homer Simpson's relatives... Is that what you were looking for?

Iconic Cartoon Hairdos

Now that manga fans are mourning the untimely death of Akira Toriyama, creator of Dragon Ball and Dr. Slump, let's delve into his mastery of hairstyle as a means of character expression.

As some of you might already know, in the Dragon Ball series, the hairstyle of Son Goku (who came from a lineage of alien warriors called "Saiyajin"... This is important to understand the point I'm making, hold on!), indicated the amount of strength that he garnered at any given moment. And as his strength increased or decreased also changed the color and style of his hairdo accordingly (I love that I'm explaining Dragon Ball in such a serious manner!), even changing in length, going from a short and rawly emo style to a long blond mane that could perfectly fit in at a Metallica concert.

This is a prime and rare example of a cartoon placing an unprecedented importance to hairstyle for what is basically a combat based manga.

Then there are other approaches like Celia from Monsters, Inc. who had snakes as dreadlocks, like any modern Medusa would. And yes, Marge Simpson with her blue topiary looking hairstyle, of course... I really just wanted to talk about Dragon Ball, though...!

Free Download

I know my nerdy talk was of much interest to you all, and you would like me to continue endlessly... The point of this article is not for you to enjoy my factoids, unfortunately... but rather for you to get down to work and learn how to draw hair properly for which we happen to have a detailed PDF and video tutorial to help you.

I'm sorry, you'll have to visit Wikipedia for more trivial facts... For the actual useful information the downloadable .zip down below will do the job best (well, you will!):

As a last reminder: This tutorial is meant for illustration on paper or any digital device of your choice, don't expect to draw some lines strategically on your bald spots and suddenly appear abundantly hairy, again...

Domestika can help you: Illustrate hair, heads for the hairs to rest on, bodies to be attached to the heads, and even sceneries for your attached bodies, heads and hairs to linger at... But the Domestika Balding Cream release date is still undisclosed, unfortunately...!

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