Blog

I was asked to write about painting hair. I'm not referring to the technique that a hair stylist might use for the current hair painting trends (I was clueless until I googled it - I had no idea!), but my watercolor-on-paper technique for portraits.

Painting hair can be challenging for an artist. There are so many ... hairs! (Honestly, I never know how these newsletters are going to go until I begin typing followed by searching the internet for related information.) Today I learned that "the average person has between 90,000 and 150,000 hairs on their head."*

Don't Paint Spaghetti.

When I began taking watercolor lessons, I was told not to paint every hair, every feather, every brick, every blade of grass, etc., but instead to suggest a few and let the viewer fill in the rest.

Study your subject.

Look at the variety of shapes, values, and edges in the above photo of my niece Sabrina. I felt it was important to accurately render the sunlight and shadow contrasts on both her face and her hair to achieve a fresh likeness.

Start by playing.

As always when beginning a portrait, I lightly glazed the flesh areas in a variety of colors. In this case I started with Quinacridone Gold, Quinacridone Coral and Hooker's Green.

I established the features next, followed by placing a couple of random colors here and there. I also blocked in the eyebrows and painted a few strands of hair. Color choice is not important at this point.

Paint shapes, not spaghetti!

Notice that, although Sabrina's hair is dark, I started with a watery paint mixture to establish the main shapes in the hair. I like to build up my darks with layers - I think it's safer and it leaves my options open.

To avoid the look of spaghetti noodles, I've varied the color, thickness, and value (lightness or darkness) of those individual strands. I like to have a second brush at the ready for softening areas with a clean, damp brush or for dropping in random colors here and there.

Continue layering color.

Cooler colors are applied in the shadow areas of her hair and warmer colors in the sunlit spots. I continue to build up the values in layers, working around the page.

Once the painting is complete, I often use my brush as a chisel to lift off paint in the darkest areas in order to suggest fine hairs.

Sunshine Smile final

I'm constantly striving to say more with less.

"If you put very few things on the page, you leave lots of room for the imagination."

~Dick Bruna

Paint Love. Repeat.

*Scientific American