Oh hair, why do you do this?

[LexehAnn]

Hey everyone :D I know there are threads here about hair, but nothing is really helping me XD; I need some personal critique I think.

Anyway, I'm having trouble with hair. hair hair hair. No matter what I do, the shading blends together all choppy, and it just looks like scribbles.

I did this recently; can someone maybe look at it and see if there's something obvious I'm messing up? (sorry about the cell phone picture, my scanner will not work for some reason D:)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v213/lexehann/hair1.jpg

And one I did before that one with Zindy's tutorial... (i think its better than my recent one x__x)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v213/lexehann/hair2.jpg


I'm a pretty visual learner, so if anyone has any picture tutorials with words or videos with narration I'd appreciate it a lot, or just any advice would be great :D

Thanks <3

[CFWhitman]

One quick piece of advice I can lend is not to reverse your strokes -- that is, don't draw a line in one direction and then back in the opposite direction without lifting pencil from the paper. that will always give a scribbly look.

[sinzi]

I agree. All your strokes should be in the same direction even if it takes longer and always keep your pencils sharp. Hair is one of the things that requires the most patience so don't get discouraged. :)

[Cold Shiva]

The main point is to define your main strokes. Contrast those strokes as they cross each other. Try to start with hair areas that are most obvious to you; which you can easely can associate with a figure or something. Draw in areas, but do the areas in strokes in the direction the hair seems to go. Then when you have maintained the main strokes and give them depth, then subdivide then mains into more smaller strokes and details. Observation and feeling is important in this stage.