Another of Graydon Parrish’s teaching aides, which we made last time I was down for study, but we didn’t really have time to get to. I was complaining about my difficulties drawing hair. He said that hair can be simplified to ribbons in drawing and painting, and that a good way to practice drawing hair is to practice drawing ribbons.
Hair simplified to ribbons can do basically two things (besides lie more or less straight): wave, or twist.
I went down to the local crafts store and picked up a $3 glue gun and some cheap spools of ribbon in various hair-like colors, painted a board a neutral gray, and set them up. A coat or two of spray damar varnish helps them to hold their shape. Very easy to make, and I left some room for additional ones if I get any other ideas.
What is NOT easy is drawing them. I just tried to draw the first one on the left in plain charcoal, and boy did it turn out poorly. Toothy paper is one problem, if you’re trying to get that sheen (as I am), so I’m either going to have to blend or switch to a smoother paper. I’m not even sure, truthfully, what the best way to go about this is. My instinct has always been to pull the pencil/charcoal along the paper in the direction of the hair, but of course if you don’t vary the pressure, you get lines of a consistent value, which is the exact opposite of what you want. Drawing lines perpendicular to the direction of the hair would allow you to make consistent-value lines, but if any of the strokes are visible, it won’t look like hair because it’s drawing ACROSS the hair instead of down. It seems like either you need to be pulling the implement along the direction of the hair, varying the pressure carefully to achieve different values during the same stroke, or do a lot of hatching and blending. Since pressure-to-value doesn’t (really) work in painting, learning that way as preparation for painting probably isn’t the best plan. So, hatching and blending? I don’t know. Guess there’s only one way to find out.