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Description

I made this step-by-step tut to show you how I paint semi-realistic hair. Some artists who do something like this...never tell you how...just show the hair, the detailing, etc....that's not really a tut. Its just showing off to people who don't know what methods you're using to complete the process.

All over my IG (Instagram) page (DMs mostly)~ and even on dA...I've been asked how I paint my semi-realistic hair for the Ashrah pic... I remembered the days I first struggled with painting or coloring hair two years ago because I was used to shading with pencils in my drawings but not digitally. Then it hit me...I adapted the same techniques I used for drawing traditionally and applied them to my art. Mostly I make anime-style coloring hair, it takes less effort, but I still manage doing a nice job. I look at helpful tutorials that have helped me indefinitely. But like Reiq said: "Take bits and pieces from a tutorial, like 50%, not the whole thing."

When it comes to semi-realism or full on realism....lighting is key! No matter how small or big an object is, there will always be a source of light!

I do have specific brush settings on how I do this, but they're not overly complicated like some artists tend to make it sound. This is for all who wants to know how I do it. There is no "one way". There are numerous ways to get the same result. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise...

Brush settings (SAI)

I use Water Color brush or regular Brush (I don't use airbrush because I'm wonky like that...)
Tip used: Square tip only (Its the last block in the tip settings. Can't miss it. Sometimes I say fuck it with certain pieces. Don't judge me!)
For Water Color brush-Blending, Dilution, Persistence: 20, 20, 22 (seems like normal settings, but I get great results otherwise) Density is varied, but I never work at 100% on semi-realism stuff.
For regular Brush-Blending, Dilution, Persistence: 69, 0, 80 (Sometimes I mess with the advanced settings, but don't mess with that drop-down menu UNLESS you know what you're doing. Even though I mostly work on default settings, if something needs tweaking, I'll do my own setup in that little menu to get my desired result.) Density is set at 95%
For highlights, its quite simple and easy as hell to do instead of doing constant hair strands that can take hours to do! DON'T DO THAT SHIZ! D:<

Highlights: Like mentioned in the tutorial above, detect the light source first, this is very important brah!

The brush I used is called Boards. Its kinda like the bristle brush, but much firmer and softer. When painting, I pay attention to the strokes I do, they vary from soft to hard pressure strokes. In the picture I did for ashrah, its a combo of both. You'll notice that the hair isn't completely filled in. That's okay. I did that to do bits of faint lighting...or it was just laziness...maybe the latter. Anywho~...The Boards brush is my favorite brush to use and it is tweaked to the gawds whenever I paint hair...I don't ever have "set" settings for my brushes. Some artists do, but that's not my thing because shit changes with me constantly. I blame my short attention span.

Bristle brush is cool too for highlights and even painting and drawing strands. But before I go hard in the paint, you have to DL these brushes because SAI might have some default brushes you might not like. Remember I used two brushes for things like this tutorial, but I mainly used the Water Color brush to paint Ashrah's hair. When you choose the brush, hit the drop-down menu entitled: (simple circle). There should be some brush types already there, and you can install brushes and stuff like that from various places like dA and Tumblr (Tumblr mostly). But That's a whole 'other story and its quite complicated and confusing for some who want to install them because its not simple like installing PS brushes...

Hope this helps...I'm not good at teaching but sometimes I wish I was. Need any help? Leave a comment below. I will not respond to notes since I get them on the daily anyway... Sorry won't make a PS tut because PS is not my cup of tea even though ironically, it was the first program I used to draw digitally...anyway, sorry.

Thanks for taking the time to read all this shiz and I hope this helps ya even if you don't want to paint hair realistically.

Hair painted with the Water Color/Boards brush

Remember, this is how I do it, like I said there is no one way to do this but practice daily or whenever you have free time and try out new things that will help expand your artwork. Good luck!

DL FOR FULL AWESUMNESS!

Description

I made this step-by-step tut to show you how I paint semi-realistic hair. Some artists who do something like this...never tell you how...just show the hair, the detailing, etc....that's not really a tut. Its just showing off to people who don't know what methods you're using to complete the process.

All over my IG (Instagram) page (DMs mostly)~ and even on dA...I've been asked how I paint my semi-realistic hair for the Ashrah pic... I remembered the days I first struggled with painting or coloring hair two years ago because I was used to shading with pencils in my drawings but not digitally. Then it hit me...I adapted the same techniques I used for drawing traditionally and applied them to my art. Mostly I make anime-style coloring hair, it takes less effort, but I still manage doing a nice job. I look at helpful tutorials that have helped me indefinitely. But like Reiq said: "Take bits and pieces from a tutorial, like 50%, not the whole thing."

When it comes to semi-realism or full on realism....lighting is key! No matter how small or big an object is, there will always be a source of light!

I do have specific brush settings on how I do this, but they're not overly complicated like some artists tend to make it sound. This is for all who wants to know how I do it. There is no "one way". There are numerous ways to get the same result. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise...

Brush settings (SAI)

I use Water Color brush or regular Brush (I don't use airbrush because I'm wonky like that...)
Tip used: Square tip only (Its the last block in the tip settings. Can't miss it. Sometimes I say fuck it with certain pieces. Don't judge me!)
For Water Color brush-Blending, Dilution, Persistence: 20, 20, 22 (seems like normal settings, but I get great results otherwise) Density is varied, but I never work at 100% on semi-realism stuff.
For regular Brush-Blending, Dilution, Persistence: 69, 0, 80 (Sometimes I mess with the advanced settings, but don't mess with that drop-down menu UNLESS you know what you're doing. Even though I mostly work on default settings, if something needs tweaking, I'll do my own setup in that little menu to get my desired result.) Density is set at 95%
For highlights, its quite simple and easy as hell to do instead of doing constant hair strands that can take hours to do! DON'T DO THAT SHIZ! D:<

Highlights: Like mentioned in the tutorial above, detect the light source first, this is very important brah!

The brush I used is called Boards. Its kinda like the bristle brush, but much firmer and softer. When painting, I pay attention to the strokes I do, they vary from soft to hard pressure strokes. In the picture I did for ashrah, its a combo of both. You'll notice that the hair isn't completely filled in. That's okay. I did that to do bits of faint lighting...or it was just laziness...maybe the latter. Anywho~...The Boards brush is my favorite brush to use and it is tweaked to the gawds whenever I paint hair...I don't ever have "set" settings for my brushes. Some artists do, but that's not my thing because shit changes with me constantly. I blame my short attention span.

Bristle brush is cool too for highlights and even painting and drawing strands. But before I go hard in the paint, you have to DL these brushes because SAI might have some default brushes you might not like. Remember I used two brushes for things like this tutorial, but I mainly used the Water Color brush to paint Ashrah's hair. When you choose the brush, hit the drop-down menu entitled: (simple circle). There should be some brush types already there, and you can install brushes and stuff like that from various places like dA and Tumblr (Tumblr mostly). But That's a whole 'other story and its quite complicated and confusing for some who want to install them because its not simple like installing PS brushes...

Hope this helps...I'm not good at teaching but sometimes I wish I was. Need any help? Leave a comment below. I will not respond to notes since I get them on the daily anyway... Sorry won't make a PS tut because PS is not my cup of tea even though ironically, it was the first program I used to draw digitally...anyway, sorry.

Thanks for taking the time to read all this shiz and I hope this helps ya even if you don't want to paint hair realistically.

Hair painted with the Water Color/Boards brush

Remember, this is how I do it, like I said there is no one way to do this but practice daily or whenever you have free time and try out new things that will help expand your artwork. Good luck!

DL FOR FULL AWESUMNESS!