Transcripts
1. Introduction: Digital illustration is
everywhere these days. It makes drawing
so much more fun and a lot more accessible. My name is Destiny Darcel, and I'm a digital illustrator. I picked up my digital pen about
two years ago and I've been posting my
illustrations weekly ever since. I've garnered a following
of 57,000 followers, and it's so crazy. I've gained an audience
by drawing one of the things that
I'm most inspired by, and that is black women in
our endless hairstyles. I live in Atlanta,
Georgia, a southern city. It's rich in history
and culture. Atlanta is known for many
things including music, film, beauty, fashion, and everything in-between, especially for black Americans. I love showcasing all of
our different forms of beauty, especially our hair. In this class, I'll be
teaching techniques to four different hairstyles that are most notable
in our community, including afros, curls, braids, and of
course baby hairs. We'll go over
sketching the hair, techniques for adding details, and the individual approaches to capturing the uniqueness
of all of these styles. Hair is a centerpiece
for black communities worldwide and has always been considered an art form
in and of itself. Learning how to translate
the art of hair into a digital art form is a super
wonderful skill to learn. That's why this
class is great for beginners and experienced
illustrators alike. There are a few
resources when it comes to drawing black people, so I'm so excited
to help you all draw us in a more glorious way. If you yourself are
a black person; to learn how to draw yourself. If you're ready to make
a hair appointment, let's get started.
2. Class Project: Your class project is
going to be to create an illustration
using one or more of the hairstyles that you
learn in this class today, bonus points for
using baby hairs. You're going to need your iPad, your Apple pencil or stylus, Adobe Fresco or Procreate. But today we're going to
be using Adobe Fresco. The class we'll begin with a little history and
the importance of hair for black people and
in particular, black women. We will then move on to Afros, curls, braids, and baby hairs. It is important that
we start out with the techniques for
Afros and curls because they are simpler techniques
and it'll be a leeway to more complicated techniques for the braids and the baby hairs. This class is ultimately about how to draw and
celebrate black hair. Don't worry about precision. Like everything,
it'll come with time. Let's get right
into it. I'll see you in the first lesson.
3. The Importance of Hair: Before we get into drawing the
different hairstyles, it is important
that we talk about the significance of hair
in the black community. Black women place a lot of
importance on our hair. As a black woman in Atlanta, it is literally a
part of our culture. It's a multimillion-dollar
industry in this city alone. It is part of what helped create the first black
woman millionaire in the late 1800s, Madam CJ Walker. The relaxer was a game changer. It was a pivotal point in the evolution of black
women and our hair. It eventually evolved into a natural hair movement,
including Afros. Afros represented soul,
individuality, and rebellion. The many hairstyles we spot, have roots in the
black diaspora and they have been passed on from
generation to generation. Hair is the most important
part of any illustration that I create because it's a matter of connecting with my community. It's something that we
all have in common, every hairstyle at
some point in time. We'll be drawing people, but put most of your focus and attention on the
detail of the hair. Remember, the hair is our crowning glory
in the illustration. Don't be afraid to
add some flair, add some different shapes, or add some hairstyles that
you want to spot yourself. Now that we've got a little
history and understand why these styles are so
important, let's draw.
4. Working With Your Reference Photo: Before we get started, we have to figure out
who we're going to draw. You can use a subject, a model, or even yourself. Inspiration is all around us. Sometimes I'll see something
when I'm out and I'll take a picture of it and come back and illustrate it later. I always use a reference photo. Remember, there's nothing wrong with using a photo
for reference. You can trace over it
or you can freehand it. Either way is fine. As a beginner, it's much
easier to trace over a photo until you're comfortable
with your own art style. We're going to go into
our Adobe Fresco app. We're going to
choose a custom size just to have dimensions
in our control. I like to have mine,
3000 by 3000 because those are the art
requirements that Apple uses for podcasts. I think that's a good idea
and it's a good size. Then we're going to
choose print size. I also like to have
it at 300 PPI, which is the resolution
of your illustration. We want that to be
as high as possible because you never know what
you're going to do with it. This white area is
called our artboard. Anything outside
of the white area, any drawing that you do, will not be included
in your final piece. Feel free to draw
outside of the lines. We're going to use
this picture of me. You can use these little
tools on the edges of the pictures to
zoom in and out. To make the picture
bigger and smaller. I only want to do
the shoulder up. We're going to make it big
enough on the artboard. It's just like our chest up. It's just enough to have
the chest up, hit done. We're going to go to the settings and
we're going to adjust the opacity which makes the
photo darker or lighter. Since we're just using
it as a reference, we're going to make it light. We're just going to use it
as a guide to keep us going. First, I'd like to do the
demarcation lines which separate my jaw from my neck
and it separates my arms. Or if I have any cleavage,
it'll define that. Then I like to go
in and do the lips, followed by the eyebrows, followed by coloring
in my skin tone. First, we're going
to choose a color. This tool over here,
the color wheel. It's where you choose the
hue of color you want. Over here is where
you choose how dark, how light, or how saturated
you want your color to be. We're going to choose this
color for my skin tone. If you hit this plus sign, it'll add it to your colors so you'll always have
it to go back to. We're going to take this eyedrop tool and we're going to slide it down slightly so it's a darker version of
the original color. That is where we're
going to use for our demarcation lines. It's going to separate my jaw, my arms, or if I I any cleavage. We're going to use this
same color wheel tool to adjust it a little
and go into the red which we will
use for lip colors. By using the brown, if you go into the red a little bit using
the color wheel, the surrounding reds, the lip colors are more
complementary on your skin tone. I like to make the top lip
darker than the bottom lip. I'm going to slide the eyedrop
tool down a little bit again and add that to
my color wheel as well. These are the four colors
we're going to use, excluding black
for the eyebrows. I'm going to start
my demarcation line. This is the paintbrush
tool we will use. I've not used any other
tools because I am a 2D vector artist and it's easier and it's a much
better experience. Here, you can control
the pressure dynamics. You can control the
pressure dynamics, so the harder I press my paint, the thicker the line will be, the lighter I press it, the
lighter the line will be. I usually keep those
on just so I can have dynamics in the
illustration altogether. Here, you can choose the size
you want your brush to be. I usually like to have it at a two so I can
have more control. But you will see that I'll
probably adjust that as I go. We're going to
start with the jaw. I don't like that.
We're going to go hit undo and we're going to hit undo as many
times as we need to, to get things to look exactly
how we want them to look. I like that one better. You will also see that
my arms meet here. I will make another line here. Maybe I want a little
bit of cleavage, will just add a little
bit, just a little rattle dazzle, you never know. We'll add some cleavage there. Then we'll go back
in and we'll use the two lip colors
that we chose earlier. We're going to choose
the lighter lip color for the bottom lip. I always like to put the lips on a new layer because I find
myself editing those a lot. If they are alone on a layer, it's much easier to edit them, to move them, and adjust them as I see fit. Then we're going
to go in and use our paint bucket tool and
fill in the bottom lip. We're going to hit
our paintbrush tool again and choose the darker of the two colors
that we chose earlier. Once again, hit the Undo button as many times as you need to. Make sure that everything
is fully connected. If there are any spaces or gaps, the paint bucket
tool will fill in the entire page instead of the area that you
want to fill in. I think I liked those lips. I'm just going to
keep them as is. You'll notice that there is a small line going through it. That's because we fill
it in on the same layer. If you go to the layer
and hit duplicate, it'll make it go away
and you can hit merge down for it to be
one layer again. Now we're going to get
into the eyebrows. The eyebrows are also best
done on a separate layer. You can make them as dramatic, as pointy, as straight
as you want to. Whatever you see on yourself. Don't forget to hit
the paintbrush tool. They don't have to be exactly
like your reference photo. Make them look how you
want them to look. I really liked that eyebrow, but I think I wanted to
rotate it a little bit. I'm going to choose a
transformation tool. This top knot knot
is what rotates. We're going to rotate
and place it here. There's no way I'm going
to be able to draw that exact same eyebrow again. I'm going to hit the layer
again and hit Duplicate. We're then going to hit
the transform tool again. We're going to move that layer over to the other side and
we're going to flip it. That's similar to
the other eyebrow and use our rotating tool again. I think they're
pretty symmetrical. I think I like them. Don't worry about eyebrows
coming off of the face, off the skin right now. When we put hair later,
it'll cover it up. We're going to click on the photo layer and we're going to add a layer
on top of that layer. That layer is underneath
the eyebrows, the lips, and the
demarcation line. It will be the defining factor
while we fill in the skin. We're going to choose
the lighter of the two skin colors
that we chose earlier. We're just going to do
the shape of the face. Don't worry about getting
it perfect because later when you are
adding in the hair, it will likely cover most of the face or most of
the edges of the face, which is probably the
points of the face where you have the most
pause because it's where I have the most
pause typically. You see how I clicked in it and it filled up the entire page. It's because my face is
not fully connected. I left out a little
spot right here. Like I said earlier, if all the spots aren't
fully connected, it will fill in
your entire page. After drawing the skin tone, I realize I want my lips
to be a little bigger, which is why we put them
on a separate layer. We're going to go to
the Transform tool. We're going to make them
a little bit bigger, a little more lashes. Now for the rest of our body, I notice I have a tank top on. We're going to click
the photo layer again and we're going
to add a new layer. Once again, we're going
to choose a color. I think I want to choose pink. We're going to add
that to our colors. Then we're going to
bring the eyedrop tool down a little bit again, and we're going to
add that as well. The darker color pink is
where we're going to use to exemplify the
wrinkles on our shirt. We're going to use that. Click on your brush tool. I forget often. We're just going to
add the wrinkles. Add wrinkles wherever you
feel like they should be. Add lines wherever you feel
like it should be on a shirt. Whatever makes it
more realistic for you or makes you feel it more. We're going to go
and we're going to choose the lighter pink. I'm going to click the
photo layer again, add a new layer. We're just going to
form the tank top. Like I said, anything outside of the white artboard,
you will not see. So I definitely encourage
drawing outside of the lines. Gives you a little more freedom. Don't worry about having the
lines straight or perfect. Because you can always
go in and adjust them later and you might even find
that you liked them as is. We have tank top action. We are then going to choose
our skin tone again. We're going to choose
the photo layer again, add another layer. We're going to just
continue the phase. Choose your paintbrush tool. We're just going to
continue the face. Just going to draw the arms, here paint bucket tool. It's not fully connected. We're just going to go there and make sure it is
connected. There we go. You notice I had on a necklace. We're going to go
choose the like a gold, yellow color family. I like that gold. So I'm just going to add it
to this same layer. Use your paintbrush tool. I'm going to make it
a little thicker. I want my necklace to
be a little thicker, so I'm going to make the
size of my paintbrush four. That's how I want my
necklace to look. I also have a nose ring, so I'm just going
to add a nose ring. But you notice how the nose ring is not showing on this layer, it's because the face
layer is up here. We can just click that
and add a nose ring. Then what I like to do at this point is I
like to go through and merge down the layers so
that we're one happy family. This is totally optional. You don't have to do this. Visually, I just like
the way it looks to not have so many
layers on this side. But it's totally up to you. We're going to go in here. We're going to
delete this layer. There we have the basis of what we're going to
put our hair on. Now that we know
who we're going to draw. Let's get started.
5. Afros: The first style we're going
to get into is afros. I like to start out with
afros because it's what a lot of our hair looks
like in its natural state. From a technical standpoint, afros are the easiest
place to start. Afros aren't just one
thing or one style. You can have a single huge afro, you can have a single puff, you can have a teeny-weeny afro, or you can even have two puffs like Bumblebee in Teen Titans. The possibilities are endless. It's whatever you feel. Remember when drawing afros that the techniques
are always the same. It's just a matter
of positioning the afro in the
placement that you want. Don't be afraid to add some
flair, add some accessories, or even some flyaways, because we always have flyaways. In the previous illustration, we learn how to draw our
model for our hair in our illustration and how
to start things off. Now we're going to get into
the actual hairstyles. We're going to start
off with afros. You notice our model, she's on one layer because we merged all the layers down
in the lesson before this. But it's always plausible
for you to keep the layers separate and just add an afro or hair layer
on top of all of those. But to make it easier and
more visually appealing, we're just going to add
a layer on top of her. Here's our draw layer. We're just going to drag it
and it's going to be on top. That way we can draw our
afro and we can have [inaudible] We're going
to make our afro black. We're going to choose black. I like to start in the middle, the top middle of her head, because the higher you go, the bigger the afro will be, the lower you go, the
smaller the afro will be. You also have to consider how
long do you want the afro. Do you just want
it tall in the top and be an upside-down
triangle shape. Do you want a heart shape? Do you want it just a round? Do you want it a square? Those are things that
you have to consider when you're making the afro. But I'm a huge fan
of the heart shape. That's where we're
going to start. I'm going to start here. For afros, I have learned that, just like the vibe. If you want an afro that
has a tighter curl pattern, you're just going to make it so. I just vibe and I make
squiggles if you will. You see how I made a loop there? A lot of the time in our hair, there are pieces that are
pretty much not see-through, but there are pieces that you can see through on the afro. You pretty much just
vibe when you get down to the bottom of her shoulder. You're going to come back up. I like to draw a line a little
bit outside of her face. It gives me freedom to either add bangs
or add baby hairs, especially if I haven't
decided up until this point what I'm going
to do with those things. Then I'm going to take
my paint bucket tool. I'm going to fill in that half. I think I love it. I'm going to do the other
side the exact same way. Starting in the middle. There are many different
types of afros. You can do afros that
are completely round. But there's no one
definition for an afro. There is no one definition
for how things should look. Whatever you feel, whenever you see an afro and you
think that is popping, that is what you draw. But these are the
afros that I love. I'm pretty sure they come from having twist-outs, honestly. I've seen them many times
[inaudible] I think I love it. We're going to go in
with the paint bucket tool, fill it in. That came out, so
cute, you go girl. Period. In order to
show you other styles, we're also going to do a single puff and we're
also going to do two puffs. We're just going to
click this layer and we are going to hide it. We're not going to delete it, we're just going to hide it. It gives us a fresh canvas. Go ahead and try another
style because you might have decided that you actually
don't like this afro. You might decide, I want my
girl to have a single puff. We're going to add
another layer. We're going to continue to use black because that's
what we're using. Now, we're going to
first frame the face in the way that a high
ponytail should go. We're going to do like so. Because this is the
base of our hair. You know hairlines can be a
little finicky sometimes, especially if you're like
not having baby hairs. But women's hairlines are
typically not super straight so I definitely always
add waves to it, just to be more realistic
and more appealing. We're going to choose the
paintbrush tool again. I love a good top knot puff. This is my favorite
way to draw it. I draw it loosely. But it is literally my favorite. You'll see a lot of my puffs on my page with this exact shape because it's just so dynamic. I love it. It's
literally my favorite. So dynamic. So cute. That's a look. Sure, it is. Now we have the single puff. Now let's go to this layer. Again we're going to hide it. We're not going to get
rid of it altogether. Now we're going to draw
our two afro puffs. I used to love this
hairstyle when I was little. My mom never wanted to
give me my two afro puffs. But I loved them. This is where we have, it's important to have
our parting space. We're going to go in. When an illustration
is facing head-on, remember that the parting space is not exceptionally long. It's pretty short because
it's not an aerial view. You want to keep it short
to keep it more realistic. Of course, like I said earlier, I like to go in on the
hairline and make it a little wavy because that's typically how our hairlines are operating. Like our previous single puff, we're going to go in
and we're going to make this little dome
on the head again. Make it as thick as you need, as round as you need
whatever you feel. We're going to go in with
the paint bucket tool and fill that in. We are drawing the afros. When you have ponytails,
it's not a full, it doesn't start here, it starts here in the
middle because there needs to be a point of
where it's starting. Afro hairstyles are my
favorite to draw. I love them. It's totally okay if these
are not symmetrical. I don't think I've ever seen anybody with
symmetrical afro puffs. We're going to hit our paint
bucket tool, fill it in. I think I want to
make them bigger. I think I want bigger. You'll see how drawing afros is all about drawing the
waves of the lines. With all afro hairstyles, that's what it's about. It just depends on how tight
you want the curls to be. It depends on, do you want it to be an afro as
a result of a bright out? Do you want it to be an afro as a result of a wash and go? What do you want your
afro to look like? Because each afro is different. But the drawing technique
is all the same. It is just about going
with your feeling. You notice that we have this
little white area here. I like to go in on the original girl layer and just fill that part in
and just add it in it. Should we ever have
to erase it later, it's a super simple fix. We're going to go to
the eyedrop tool and go back to our paintbrush
and just fill that layer in. Boom, we got two afro puffs. She's so cute. There we go. These are our three hairstyles. We have our two afro puffs. We have our single afro puff, and then we have
our single afro. Our girl is so cute. But I think the big
afro was my favorite. Looks good. Now that
you have afros down, I'll see you in the next lesson where we learn to draw curls.
6. Curls: In this lesson, we'll be
learning how to draw curls. Curls can be so many things in so many different patterns, even Afros are a form of curl. Today, we'll be learning how to draw three different
curl patterns, tight coils, big ringlets,
and loose waves. Remember when drawing curls, there is no right or wrong way. Most of us have three
different curl patterns in our head anyway. Don't be afraid to
highlight that. In our previous lesson, we learned how to do Afros, which you can see on this slide. I kept those hairstyles. We're going to add a new layer. In this lesson, we're going
to learn how to do curls. Now, curls come in
all different sizes, shapes, but we're going to
do a tight coil right now. When you're just doing
curls instead of afros, the parting spaces
are a little bit more important and a little more pressing as far as details go, because when you do a side part, this side with the
most amount of hair obviously has to have
the most volume. It's sometimes hard to hit that mark because the
other side does not. You have to decide,
do you want bangs, do you want baby hairs, and all of that, and those
details are a little more pressing in drawing curls. We're going to do tight curls. We're going to do big ringlets, and then we're going
to do the loose wave. For the tight curls, I think I'm going to do a side part because
that's what I feel today. Do whatever you feel. We have our black here
and we're going to bring a four to draw the curls. Whatever makes you most
comfortable as far as the sizing of your paintbrush
goes or the color, do what feels right to you. We're going to do the side part. I always do a little curve in my side parts only because I wish that the curved side part looked great on me,
but it doesn't. So I'm going to live
through my illustrations. For the tight curls, obviously, it has to
be tighter ringlets. You want to also consider how long you want the hair to be. That would determine how
far out you go this way. How long do you want
the hair to be. You see how I'm doing
loops and whatnot, because no two curls are alike and they're
going to be flyaways, they're are going
to be knots, it's just the nature of the beast. I've decided I want to
do a cute little bob. When you're doing bobs, the ending of the hairs matter. You see how I'm doing
little swirls and loops. That matters because that's
what the end of hair looks like when you
have curly hair. It looks like our
girl just got a trim. I think we love it. You see how there's more
volume on this side. We have to make sure we have
significantly less volume on this side because there's
significantly less hair. But that goes for everything
except for the middle part. Obviously, the middle
part would have equal amounts of
hair on each side, if it's the actual middle part. Everything is
definitely not going to be perfect the first round, that is why we have
finishing touches, and we zoom in and we
see what we can fix. You still notice the
parting space here, it's white but we want that
to be brown like her skin, so we're going to
click on our girl, click on the Eyedrop tool and we're going to fill
this little area in. Our girl has tight curls. She turned out cute. Where is she going?
I don't know. Now that we have our
tight coils learned, we're going to hide this layer because we want to keep
all of our layers because later we're going to
add our razzle-dazzle. We're going to add baby hairs. We're going to add accessories. We're going to really make
it unique to ourselves, and what we visualize
for ourselves. We're going to add a new layer. In this layer, we're going
to have big ringlets. Now, when I typically
do big ringlets, I don't like to have
any parting space. I like to have the illusion
of a parting space as like a flip-over or whatever. But I don't like to have an
exact parting space because big ringlets feel like more
of a beach vibe to me, but there's a lot
more spacing in the big ringlets than it would
be in the tighter curls. So we have to make
sure we add those in. Those are very important. When I do big ringlets and I don't have any parting space, I start on the side that is going to have the
least amount of hair, which is going to be her
left side in this instance. It's also going to
be the side where the hair is tucked
in to her ear. I love a good tuck. You see how we're
doing this here. We're going to go in, and we're going to
loosely follow that line. We're going to make additional
lines like this because usually when you
have big ringlets, there are a lot of
spaces in the hair, and we want to make sure
that those are included. We're going to go
around her face because this is where
the hair is going away, and we're going to have
it behind her back because the other portion
will be on her shoulder. That's totally up to your
personal preference. But the ringlets, the difference is the
spacing and adding in those extra lines and spaces
to make it more realistic. Then we're going to
start right here, and we're going to make
the ringlets again. When you're doing like a
side swoop over like this, it's important to make this little section
a little bigger, just to emphasize that
that's what we're doing. Once again, we're going
to follow these lines. I even like to add flyaways, especially over here because we're doing ringlets
and not waves. There are so many flyaways that come with having ringlets. We're going to add a little
razzle-dazzle to the face. We're going to add
swirls at the bottom. Make sure everything connects, but it's pretty much whatever you feel the curl
should look like. I love the bottom of those. I'm going to also go in here. We're going to add
our shapes as well. It might not all be
connected. Let's see. To make sure, we're going to take our paint bucket tool, and we're going to fill it in. It fills in. We're going to go back
to our paintbrush tool. Now, we're going to fill in any extra areas that we
want to be filled in, and even take our paint
bucket tool and go through and fill in some areas we feel like maybe should be filled in. No, I don't like
that. Here's a trick. Sometimes when I feel like
the hair is not big enough, I will take the
layer and duplicate it and take the bottom layer and transform it to make it bigger. Then I will take my eraser tool, make it big, and it's
still on the bottom layer. Erase the extra that came
along from me doing that. I went too far. There we go. It just makes it a little
bit bigger and it gives it a little more volume
for your ringlets. Then you take your layer, and you merge down. Now, we have our big ringlets, which has to be one of
my favorite styles. We're going to hide this layer. Finally, we're going
to do our loose waves. Our loose waves has to be the
easiest thing for me to do. So when I'm in a pinch
making an illustration, trying to get one
done by the deadline, waves are always my go-to
in the middle part at that. We're going to do our
middle part first because we're going
to go off of that. We're going to create
our middle part first. We can always go back
and make it bigger or smaller whenever you feel. In loose waves, we
usually frame your face. I usually make my loose
waves super long, super luxurious,
because once again, I usually do them
if I'm in a pinch. It's easier to make them super long than it is
to make them short. We're going to go to
our paint bucket tool. There's a connection
missing somewhere. It's right there. Then we're going to take our
paint bucket tool, and we're going to fill that in. Take this tool. You
also have to fill in the shoulder as well because it doesn't make sense for the anatomy
here, I think. We're going to take
the other side and do the exact same thing. There's no need for symmetry, just a quick wave really. We're going to go over the skin. For the purposes of this video, I'm not switching through multiple layers like
I usually would. I usually switch between four
and five different layers when making the hair, but just for the
purposes of this video, we're just going to do one
layer and call it a day. Then where the part is, you don't want it
to look so strange. So I just level that a little bit and add a
little extra cushion. That's why we'll
call it cushion. Looks like our girl got to swim. Then we're going to go here. We're going to use
our Eyedrop tool so that we can
color in the part. There you have it. We have
our three different curls. We have our super loose waves, then we have our ringlets.
I love the ringlets. It's so pretty. Then we have our tight curls. Obviously, I've changed
the part multiple times, but you guys get the gist of it. Now, that we've
gotten curls down, let's get into braids.
7. Braids: Braids are a huge staple in the black hair community. They're low maintenance,
versatile and super cute. Braids are the most
time-consuming hairstyle to draw because of the intricacies and
the details in the braids. We've learned some
of these techniques in our previous lessons, but don't worry, I got you. As always feel free to
make them your own. Remember when drawing braids try to add some
spacing in-between the braids because it's
more realistic when you can see through the braids like
you would in real life. If you want to add
some flair don't be afraid to add in
some color braids, some gold clamps or
even some shells. Whatever feels right to you. As you see we have off our
previous hairstyles over here. We're going to add another layer and we're going to get
started with the braids. We're not going to use
black because black is what we're going to use
for all of our details. We're going to slide the color up and we're going to
use a grayish color. We can always come back
and adjust that color to make it darker or lighter,
whatever we're feeling. We're going to start. We're going to go through and
we're making square part. Other parts do not have
to be equidistant. Everything does not have
to be exactly the same. Symmetry is just not
incredibly important. It's all about the vibe. I'm going to take our
paint bucket tool and we're just going
to go through and fill all of those in. I love Adobe Fresco because
of the filling part. You literally just have
to tap and it goes. Then we're going to
use black again. We're going to have
a new layer because this layer is where we're
going to put our details. We want to be able to
separate those from the bottom layer because
just in case you want to change the
color of the braids or anything like that it's so much easier to do it if
the layers are separated. We're going to start drawing how we want the braids to be formed. I want all of her braids to be coming over to one side
because I love that look. The smaller the braids
are the longer it takes. When I do illustrations with smaller braids it takes hours, but they always
come out so pretty, but it's super time-consuming, and you really have
to sit down and really be dedicated to it. Turn on your favorite song, girl, because you're going to be sitting there for a while. The most important braids, as far as landing
directly on the parts, are the furthest one to the left and the
furthest ones to the right. We want the braids to land
on those parts specifically. The other parts in between the braids will fall on those, so you don't have to
worry about a braid exactly coming out of a specific part or
anything like that. We're not going to worry
about anything minor like that because it'll add the labor to the printer
at the end of the day. Remember that some braids
hide behind others. Remember that some braids
are further from others. The most important thing, that I emphasize
when drawing braids, is making sure that you add spacing in-between the braids. Not all of this will be spacing, but spacing makes it more realistic because there
aren't many times where I see people with braids and
there's no spacing at all. It's really important
to add that in there just for
realistic purposes. We have the outline of what we want the brace to look like. Now we're going to add
the tiniest details. I like to make my details like, look like a cross hatching. You can do whatever
feels right to you. If you are feeling like
this is too time consuming, you don't like the feeling of this you can always do zigzags, you can do straight lines, you can make your
braids super huge so you don't have to draw
small lines like this. Whatever feels right to you and whatever you have
the time to do, quite frankly, because the braids can be
really time-consuming. Don't worry about each
one being perfect. Don't worry about
each one hitting the outside of the
braid because, like I said, it'll add flavor to it at the
end of the day. Now when I hand
braids like this for some reason I have
to work upside down. I'm not sure why because it's not like I can't do this exact same
design right side-up. It is does not sit well. My pen doesn't move the same. I like to do it like so, but this is how I love to
do mine because when we get to the inside
there are going to be some points that
have darker lines, some points that don't, and it really doesn't
make a difference. Once you get on the inside
I just like to emphasize that for the outside. It's also important to make sure periodically you're looking over to your right to make sure that you're drawing
on the correct layer. It's so easy to draw on the
wrong layer on accident. Notice how we are
doing the details outside of the actual
lines that we made on the top that's because there are no demarcation lines or detail
right on the top braid. It's important for
my illustrations. It does not have to be
important for yours. You can always keep the braid
on top with a darker line. That's totally fine. Whatever feels right to you. Now we have the outlines, we have all the
intricacies of the braid. Our final thing we have to do to finish the braids is to take our eyedropper
tool and make sure we have this grayish color
that we chose earlier. We're going to create
a layer under both of the detail layers because we're going to be
coloring in the braids. We're going to do it like so. I love it. There we have it, some braids. Braids are a little
bit difficult and they can take some practice, but once you get it
they are fabulous. All the time that you
put in always pays off when you're sharing
it with people. Now that we have
braids down it's time to get into
some baby hairs.
8. Baby Hairs: Baby hairs or edges are thin, wispy hairs that sometimes
grow along your hairline. They became popular
in the 1920s and are frequently attributed
to Josephine Baker, who was known for slipping down her sideburns and having
tight pink curls. They had another
resurgence in the '80s and '90s and quickly expanded to becoming a staple in Black
and Hispanic beauty culture. They are currently having
another comeback moment. There's no such thing
as too many baby hairs. There are no limits to how you
can style your baby hairs. They can become an art
piece in and of themselves. In the Black community, baby hairs are often the finishing touch
on our hairstyles. Remember, you can jazz
baby hairs up as well. You can add diamonds
or pearls and swoops. There's no such
thing as too much. Baby hairs are super simple, the more dramatic, the better. We are going to use a
previous illustration of our braids. Because I love to see
braids with baby hairs. It is my favorite thing to see. I've been dying to have the baby hair with
the braids myself. But my hair's too long. The baby hairs don't work,
my hairs are full grown. We're going to
start another layer because in case we mess up, in case we don't like it, we want to be able
to just go back, delete it if we
want to start over. Because the baby hairs
don't take a lot of time, so it'll be easy for us to
start over if we need to. Here goes nothing. I
always like to start by the ear because those are
my favorite baby hairs. I'm going to start here. I'm using the gray that
we're using in her hair. You want to use the color of the most prominent color in
the hair for the baby hairs, just so it doesn't look weird, especially when
you're doing braids because there will be
two different colors. I like to start by the ear
because favorite baby hair. We just going to
do a little curl. When you look at
it, it's too far on her face, it's weird. We're going to undo. We're going to come
back around and we're just going to
do it like this. This one is realistic. That is weird. But you can
always add a baby hair here. It doesn't matter
if they're long, it doesn't matter
if they're short, you can add in some
wispy or you can add in solid baby hairs. I like to go along the
parts like this because the baby hairs pretty much have no connection to
the partying space. You can add as many as you want or as little as you want. But I love the dramatic
baby hair trend going on right now. Recently I've taken to making a swirl and then adding another
swirl within that swirl. I think that's so cute and
I think it just adds to the drama which we love. We love the drama. That's cute, that's so cute. You're going to try to
add little additions if you hate it, undo button. If you love it, keep it. Now that I'm finished with
these baby hairs on the top, they've come out so cute. When you add additional lines, it definitely gives
different dimension to the baby hairs. The more lines you add, the more realistic it looks. But since I like to stick
with a 2D illustration vibe. I like that it looks animated. I actually feel
like I don't like this baby hair over here. I'm going to erase it and
we're going to add a new one. We're not going to
add one like that, we're going to add
one just like this. Which is, I think, my second
favorite form of baby hair. Baby hair is not always
stuck to the skin. Sometimes it is like literally curly and
sticking out like [inaudible] or like [inaudible] who love their baby hairs, so cute, I can only inspire. Baby hairs are super simple
and there you have it, it's not much to it. It's just a matter of
the flick of the wrist. It's a matter of adding
your own flair to it. We can even add like, let's add in some pearls
while we're at it. Because they're so simple. But you just have to put
in the effort to do them. We're going to make this our paint brush a little bigger, we're going to go to seven. We're going to just
add some pearls. I've seen this done before on someone's hairstyle and
I thought it was so cute. It really adds
some dazzle to it. There you have it, our braids
with the baby hair and our girl is looking fabulous.
9. Conclusion: I hope you're feeling so proud of yourself because
I'm super proud of you. In this class, we learn
how to draw afros, curls, braids, and baby hairs. I'm hoping has boosted
your confidence in drawing black
women in our crowns. Remember, the hair is the art. Learning to show that
when illustrating is a true skill worth practicing. I can't wait to see what
and who you drew and how you made there crowns
shine because I know you did. Upload your project below
with your IG handle, and you might even see your
piece on my stories weekly. Follow me there as well to see my weekly illustrations
and you might even see one of your own.
You probably will. Remember, consistency
beats talent. Keep on drawing. Thank you for coming on
this journey with me, I'll see you next time.
Destiny Darcel, Never Perfect. Always Authentic.
