[Icarus]

Hi People,

Help! How do you draw hair that doesn't look really bad, without taking a million years to finish the pic (taken about 10 hours so far)?!

Take a look at this pic, which is based on a photo. It's not a retouch, it's a redraw.



Nick...
--- http://www.nickgilbert.com/

[ May 30, 2002: Message edited by: Icarus ]

[DeathGrip]

You son of a bitch, thats fantastic!

[Fallen]

I usually do all hair strand by strand.
unfortunately it does take a while...but it's worth it in the end.

Nice pic btw.

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Transcend.

www.giveintosin.com

[eclipse]

I agree with Fallen. If you've spent that long (on an awesome picture) I think spending the extra time on the hair to make the way you want would only be the right thing to do.

[Zor]

Im amazed!! Fantasic.....!!!!!!!!

[kos.mandis]

I wonder what Synj would say...

[g:tech]

holy phucking sheeit!

Dude... that's so photorealistic... true, the hair could use some touch-up, but damn if that face isn't PERFECT.

By the way, who gave you permission to use a picture of my girlfriend????

*SLUURRRRP!*




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-g:tech

[CapnPyro]

That looks fan-freakin-tastic! I was wondering how you guys who do photo real portraits work, do you paint over the actual photograph? Or just use like a magazine as reference? I dunno man, looks amazing though

-CapnPyro-

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http://home1.gte.net/capnpyro

[dr . bang]

This is f*******************cking nice and best of all, it took you only 10 hours. I usually spend more than that to produce a crappier work. I like the hair, it looks fine to me, the hair look like it just been out of the water if that was what you aim for. Again, it looks super fantastic! I can't wait to see more stuff from you.....

[Frost]

That is very impressive Icarus! Congrats. =)
Fallen is very good at that stuff, I think his suggestion would be good to follow. There's no easy way out of it. =)

[Mozeman]

You could have picked a better lookin' model. Did you have the same problem I do when Natalie poses, she just jumps on top of you and starts kissing your neck? It's quite distracting.

Very, very nice. I have to say, however, that the hair brings it down. It looks a little like spaghetti. My understanding was that hair should be delt with as a mass, not individual strands. ???

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Mozeman
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[email protected]
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"I like it rough..."

[Drorak]

Wow that's really good. You should send it to her, then maybe the next time, she may actually pose for you.

[Jeff The King]

I hate to do this but is it just me or does the hair look like it was cut from the background of a lighter colour. Im not saying anything dont worry everyone, dont read into this. I think this is am awsome work and in no way am i suspicous.http://www.sijun.com/dhabih/ubb/icons/icon2.gif

[ElectroTechno]

OMG !
I don't give a sh*t if you used photo, magazine or live person as reference, that is AWESOME !
Ahhhhh... those eyes, smooth skin, perfect.
/me gazes her eyes for 2 hours
eh, it's hard to look somewhere else in picture but like many times, hair is weakest point. I think we have some good artist in here who can help making hair better.
Summary:
Best picture I've seen in this forum.

E/T

[sydneyshan]

*shocked* wwwwoooowwwww

That image is positively fantastic! The skin, the eyes, even the little moles- it's perfect! =)

Looking forward to more paintings Icarus!

wow.

*ten minutes later* wow.

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Shannon Murdoch
www.bounce.to/shan
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[Oscar Alexander]

Hi Nick, nice to see you around here!
I've seen this pic a long time ago already, on some NP fansite... Really good! Although I did think it was heavily threnodized (traced) Great work, keep it up!

I'm finishing my Natalie Portman pic today (hopefully)

[Icarus]

Thanks for your compliments guys! I thought I was going to get a stream of critisism for the hair being so bad. It's one of those things that, in the drawing it doesn't look to good, yet it isn't really any different to how it was in the photo... It just doesn't translate well to a drawing.

And yeah, it is strongly based on a photo - that was the whole point of the exercise; I was trying to do something that had a photorealistic type look - preferably without taking an age to do it, since I don't have a lot of time. But for those that were wondering, it's not a retouch of the original photo. If you saw the photo - you'd see why

I might try and fix it on the weekend and post back a better version.

Thanks,

Nick...


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Icarus
http://nick.gilbert.net/

[JaffaCAke]

FRECKIN EL! thats just, wowee. I see what you mean about the hair tho it looks a bit wet and thick, have ago at doing each strand of hair (that scares me). also the ear looks a bit smudgy to the rest of the super crisp face. Over all tho, I would kill to be able to draw that good.

[Icarus]

Yeah I know... put that down to, 'I got bored of drawing' syndrome. The ear, hair and a few other bits need touching up and detailing to keep inline with the photorealistic look. Now it looks a bit too impressionistic for my liking. Probably why the hair looks odd since I improved the detail in the eyes (most important bit of a portrait) mouth and nose; the hair's it's in a different style.

I only started the friggin thing to test my new Wacom PenPartner (which BTW, is totally excellent and is an absolute MUST for anyone that draws anything on a PC). Everyone go buy one if you're still drawing with a mouse (which you can barely class as drawing!).

Oh and I could plug Photoshop 5.0 as well. (*NOT* 5.5 which seems way slower to me, for no good reason).

Nick...

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Icarus
http://nick.gilbert.net/

[Frost]

For the hair, I suggest getting the volumes, shading and highlights first, then adding very fine (1-pixel?) brush to define the strands, especially on the edges -- defining layers of hair and adding volume. The detail overdraw should be nicely contrasted and add depth, but yet not overly so because you'll end up with a big mess. Draw the strand details on another layer and when you've done the bulk, change the opacity of it until it defines nicely without disrupting the visual.

Anyway, that's probably how I would do it. =)

[lotor]

Strand by strand is not the way to paint hair!!!
...I painted a lot in oils before going digital and I looked real close at artists that did very good hair like Norman Rockwell and NC Wyeth and Howard Pyle. All guys that could paint hair in oils that you'd think you could comb right on the canvas. I even went to the Rockwell Museum to get a up close perspective of how to paint hair.
....What I found was that you paint JUST the shadows and highlights when painting hair. It takes some practice to just see the light and dark shapes and NOT strands of hair.

...When you step away from someone the hair strands form shapes of highlights and shadows.

...This is the way to paint hair.
Its no secret you just have to observe things more closely and try to let your eyes to the painting and not so much your brain.( I don't mean put a brush in your eye, I mean who could do such a thing). Just observe!!!

[Arachnoid]

Here's the original. Dare to compare :-)

[Icarus]

Lotor,

OK, but as you can see, my drawing is very detailed in places. Around the eyes I was practically manually setting the colour of each pixel! Or at least, being very pedantic with a very fine brush.

The way you describe sounds a bit impressionistic - I mean, you're describing almost exactly what I did, which is kind of why the hair looks more impressionistic.

Ahh! Helpfully someone's just posted the original! Now you can see what I mean... The hair needs to be more stranded like it is in the photo, in order to keep in line with the style of the rest of the drawing.

Thanks for your comments!

Nick...




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http://nick.gilbert.net/

[Chapel]

Ok, here is something you could try. In Photoshop create about 3 different brushes of just random dots. The dots should all be around the same size, because they will be your hair thickness. It should look like a little speckled square. Create a new layer over your image. Take the lasso tool and set it to feather around 10 or 15. Make a selection around the scalp of where you think the hairline is. Then take your brush with the darkest shade first and start stroking. You might want to create a couple of layers to do the hair. To add highlights just set one of the layers "preserve transparency" and go back in with the brush using a lighter shade.

That might work.

[IKhelix]

I could be different and say this piece sucks... but I won't. 'Cos it is very impressive. Congratulations dude, in ten hours you have done what would take me about six months. 'Cos I suck. But they...

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"I don't suffer insanity, I enjoy every moment of it..."
www.skittish.com

[HumanClay]

Would I be wrong in thinking that this is another "Threnody" :/ .. just a thought:



I dunno, it seems to fit exactly over the original, including the hair (minus some detail) :/

Just an observation..

HumanClay

[Icarus]

Hopefully it should *exactly* fit in most places (if you were to fix the scale). That was the idea... The scale will be wrong because my image is based on a pencil tracing of a print out of the photo above, and I made no attempt to make them the same size. I just scanned it in and started filling in the details. The hair should be fairly different - since I didn't have the hair on the pencil sketch - I was just drawing it in from eye. It's several generations away from that photo, so if it fits exactly, then it's just chance

I'm not trying to con anyone; I never said I made it up - I said it was based on a photo in the very first post. I was just trying to get used to my new tablet - not create some amazing work that I'm going to put in my portfolio and call my own.

Why do people completely miss the point of the posts on these forums? Maybe they don't read the thread?

Nick...

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http://nick.gilbert.net/

[Icarus]

By the way, what is a "Threnody"?

[HumanClay]

Okay.. it just happens a lot around here.

Threnody was a guy that posted a few pics similar in quality to yours and passionately argued that they were freehand, when in reality, they were simply overpaints.. original photos smudged around and blured to make it look airbrushed. In any case, great pic.. just being .. an asshole :P

HumanClay

[spooge demon]

The contrasts in the shaded side of the hair is too high, no shadow feeling. Lit side is also "popping" too much contrast.

Take the phot and blur it somewhat. No more strands. What do you see? paint that!