Drawing Realistic Hair and Beard with Graphite

1. Introduction: Hi. My name is Matosmas Sidu and I'm a realistic drawing artist. I have been teaching drawing for years and my favorite mediums are a graphite chalk, one colored pencil. Do you struggle when a draw different types of hair? Well, this class is designed for you who want to learn how to render a realistic finish to your drawings. I prepared this series of videos aimed at studying how to render realistic shading for short, long, dark, light, curly and straight hairs, all of them using only graphite and some subarctic tools. In the first part of the class, you'll have the chance to learn different techniques that will help you to draw various locks of hair. The studies are short and digestible, always explaining the process to make it simple and actionable. Then you'll be challenged in the second part to draw here for person from beginning to end in an immersive lesson when you apply that knowledge acquired in the first part. All the materials are going to be shown in the beginning, so it's a great opportunity to know more about the materials many artists use for realistic drawings in black and white. Have a seat, grab your drawing tools, and let's learn how to draw realistic hair with graphite. 2. Materials: Now let's take a look on all the materials I use for this class. If you don't have all of them, it's okay. Do your best with the tools you have at hand. There are papers in different colors, but I prefer those that are close to white. You choose the color according to your taste though. When it comes to the surface for realistic drawings, I prefer to work with smooth papers. I would recommend picking out a paper with medium to high thickness. Its weight should be at least 150 grams per square meter. All the drawings are going to be quite small, so you don't need papers bigger than A4 size. For the final project, I chose Lana Bristol paper. Other good papers are Fabriano 4L, Strathmore 300 Series Bristol Smooth, Hahnemuhle Nostalgie, and Canson XL Bristol. There are different grays for graphite pencils, and you don't need the complete set to take this class. I'm going to use only an HB, AB, a 2B, and a 4B. This is the Staedler Mars demograph, which is my favorite brand. I use also a 0.5-millimeter mechanical pencil with 4B graphite lead. When it comes to sharpening, you can use a pencil sharpener, but you can also sharpen your pencils using a utility knife if you prefer. My favorite option actually is to use a hand crank sharpener. It's an excellent tool, but it may be a little more expensive. A kneaded eraser will be used in this class. This is the Tombow Mono Zero 2.3 millimeters thick eraser. I use a utility knife to chamfer the eraser. It increases its accuracy. Eventually, a common thick stick eraser might be handy too. The pencil eraser can be a cheaper alternative if you don't have the stick eraser. These are blending stumps, also known as tortillons. I have only two in different size, number 1 and number 3. Get a piece of toilet paper or tissue. Fold it in triangles three times to have more control over it, and fold one of its tips to be able to see while you're blending. I use also some brushes for blending. They are all flat and I trim one of them to have firmer brushes, which helps to make the graphite grip onto the paper, and the other is a more delicate and helpful for shading as well. A soft long haired brush for cleaner drawings is handy, and it's better to use it than blowing the dust and the crumbs from the paper. It prevents you from spilling and ruining your drawing. This is an embossing tool which I use to draw white hairs. It is used to carve, to emboss the paper, as the name suggests. We can also use a ballpoint pen without ink, completely clean for the same use. That's it. 3. Intro to hair locks: In the next videos, we are going to draw various types of hair. We are going to make small locks of each type, and you'll notice that each hair can be drawn by making different textures using different materials. Once the locks are complete, you'll be more experienced and able to draw a person's entire hair, but we'll leave that for later. You can use my drawings as reference, or you can search for different images if you want. The important thing is they are of the same type of the hairs presented in the class, so you won't get lost. Anyway, you can download my own images here in the attached files. The sketches are already prepared at the beginning of the videos, so we'll focus on the shading and texture effects. Let's get it started. 4. Curly hair: Let's start with the series of locks of hair and beards that we are going to draw. As you can see, the sketch is already drawn on the paper, and for that, I recommend using a lighter pencil such as HB. Here, I'm just adding some details that can help me in shading, such as the lines that show the direction the strands are going in the line. Be careful so as not to make the sketch lines too hard. On the contrary, try to make them very clear, very lightly so that these lines don't show up in the finished drawing. This drawing is being made on A6 size piece of paper, which is one-quarter the size of A4. It's small. Now let's start with the shading. I start with a B pencil, drawing thin lines following the direction of the hair. Whenever possible, draw the lines starting on the darkest area and finishing on the lightest one. It's important that the lines are thin in order to create the hair effect. This is just the first step of shading. Let's make a base for the drawing. We will add more volume to this look later with darker pencils. At some points, I still needed to make some marks before starting the shading. At this stage, we are paying more attention to the general values. We'll focus on the details later. The brush helps to spread the graphite and make it penetrate the paper tooth, which gives a smooth appearance, reducing the grayness of the drawing. Now let's take another step in the shading, darkening the drawing. You can take the 2B pencil or use the B with a little more pressure. I prefer to use the 2B right away. As it gets darker, it's important to leave the light hair wide so that in the end we can create an effect of brightness and a contrast in the drawing. Be a little more restrained in its shading, except towards some dark hair strands that we see on the brighter areas. Now, it's time to use the 0.5 millimeter mechanical pencil with 4B graphite lead. As I did with the 2B pencil, I shaded the corners of the locks and also reinforced a few strains that appear very dark in the brighter areas. If you eventually don't have the mechanical pencil, use a 4B pencil instead. Just be careful to keep the pencil lead sharp. The problem is that the dark pencils are softer, which will make them to wear out faster and you have to sharpen the pencil more often. That's why I prefer to mechanical pencil for drawing darks trends, it's more practical for this type of work. The brush becomes even more important when using darker, graphical leads because they naturally have a grainy look. When rubbing the brush, you can also go over the lighter areas. Then we use the eraser to increase the highlights. The normal brush is soft. Has a softer effect, which helps to spread the graphite smoothly. On the other hand, to make the graphite penetrate the paper better, use the brush with the bristles trimmed because it makes them a bit firmer and allows you to achieve darker tones. Then we repeat the process until we reach the tones we want and always rubbing the brush afterwards to smooth the effect. After darkening the lock, I decided to go back to using a harder pencil like the B, to add some details to the hair. I also go back to using a mechanical pencil where I feel it's necessary. Now we're going to use the thin eraser to make the highlights. If the tip of the eraser is [inaudible], you will be able to make thinner marks, which we will render an even more realistic effects to the hair. Also draw some strains crossing the hair lock, so it will look less straight and tidy. Of course, this goes for this specific case. It depends on the reference you're using and the effect you want to render. Here I am erasing the graphic locks that escapes out of the lock. Using the B pencil, you can add strands outside the lock. Use harder pencils for this type of effect because they provide greater definition. Again, with the eraser to make white strains. Here I'm going to finish the drawing, making the final touches, increasing the contrast in some areas using the 4B graphic and adding a few more loose trends. I hope you enjoyed this video. We will soon be doing more studies with other hair types. 5. Blonde hair: In this video, we are going to draw a lock of straight blond hair. The paper size is A6. The outline is already done, so let's start the shading. Want to make blonde hair different from dark hair when using graphite is how dark we are going to go on the general values. One thing we should pay attention to is the pencil we are going to use. I'm using the B pencil here to make the base layer of the drawing. Make light strokes following the direction of the strands. Be careful not to splice one stroke into another. Make strokes in different size instead, some shorter, some longer. At the end of this first step, you can use the brush to spread the graphite. With the same B pencil, I push the darkest marks I find on this lock. As you can see, once again, we are drawing layer upon layer, making the general values first, and then getting down to the tiny details. Leave some empty areas for lighter values. It's interesting that there is this kind of variation in your drawing. Then, as usual, we will use the brush to smooth out the pencil strokes. I repeated this step one more time. I'm still with the B pencil and the brush, trying to reach the general tones that seemed more correct to me. Moving on, we used a 2B, but not now. It's time to use the eraser to highlight the white strands. It has a chamfered tip, the result will be even better. With the 2B pencil, we can stress the darkest strands of the lock. Many of these strands are close to the light areas and marks, which increases the contrast and conveys an interesting effect. At this step, I came back to using the B pencil to make adjustments in some areas to adjust the volume of the lock. I also took the opportunity to work better on the parts around the lock where it ends. Here we come to the final stretch of the drawing, where we make the final touches. When using the brush, you will also be darkening the [inaudible] made with the eraser. That's not a problem. After all, it will make them a very natural light gray tone. Then you can rub the eraser one more time to highlight the lighter strands of the lock. Here we come to the end of another video. I hope you can now draw locks of long hair on your own. Be sure to put into practice what you learned in this class. 6. Braids: In this video, we're going to talk about braids. This drawing is a little bigger than the previous ones. I'm doing it on an A5 size paper. This sketch here is already done and this time I decided to get started by marking the darkest areas of the drawing so that it will have more reference points when shading and not miss in this sketch outline. Since these areas are quite dark, you can also do as I do and use the mechanical pencil with 4B graphic lead from there. Here, I am preparing the base layer with the B pencil. Initially in doing more general marks convened the movement of the hearing each grade. Always remember that we must make thin strands, especially at the beginning and the ending of the stroke. At the end of this step, we can use the brush to smooth the pencil lines and render an even base. Now let's zoom in on the image to see how each grade is drawn. If the B pencil, I make lines following the movement of the hair, starting then in the darkest area. We can do two things on each grade. The first, is to market darkest values with firmer strokes. The other is to reinforce the base layer, doing a more general shading. Notice, I'm doing both here. Once this is done, use the brush to reduce the graininess of the graphite. Then I'll push the shadows with the 0.5 millimeter mechanical pencil, with 4B graphite lead. I'm drawing braid by braid switching between B, 2B pencils and mechanical pencil with 4B graphite lead. You should notice which pencil to choose for each area of the drawing, because it's on you achieve depends not only on the pencil grade, but also on the pencil brand, the paper you're using, and the pressure applied with your hand. We can already start doing the highlights on each area using this sticker razor. Observe the reference to know where to place the highlights. Here I took the 2B pencil because I felt I needed to add a layer of mid tones. Here I'm working more on the general values of the drawing. Moving on to the next braids, the process will be repeated. I'll start with a base layer, with the B pencil, then I use the mechanical pencil to mark the darker values, then I use the brush to smooth out the pencil strokes, and I complete the work with the 2B where I think it's appropriate. What changes here is how far you go to darkening each braid, as it varies through all the drawing. Here, once again the eraser for the highlights. Now repeating the process applied in the previous parts. Time to draw the end of those braids where the hair ends. In this area, more than the previous ones, try to make weak and firm strokes so that they end up thin. I'm using again the B pencil to darken what was done for the first layer. Leave some empty spaces for the lighter strands. We don't make the areas lighter only with the eraser, we also leave some of them blank. Also use the 2B pencil and the 0.5 millimeter mechanical pencil with 4B graphite lead to darken this area. Once again, let's use the brush to spread the graphite. In this case, I decided to use the flat brush with the bristles strings to spread the graphite in a more concentrated and dense way. The brush with longer bristles, does a smoother job. But here, I noticed that the area still looked a little rough, so a brush with firmer bristles might help me. Once again, let's use the tombow eraser. I'm going to start doing some loose drains here and there, which makes the hair look more lifelike. Then, make some adjustments with a pencil or a mechanical pencil if needed. In the elastic that holds the hair, I use the blending stump, which allows you to create blemishes in a quick and practical way on smaller areas. Now I've added some loose strains of hair around the braids. I'm using the B pencil making very light and delicate lines. These strains follow different directions and have different sizes. With the tombow mono zero sticker eraser, I add some sparkles here and there to add volume to this hair. In the end, I just made a few more adjustments. Take time to calmly look at your drawing to see if there is anything that can be fixed. Here we are at the end of another lesson. See you in the next video. 7. Dreadlocks: Let's now draw another type of hair, and this time we'll focus on the dreadlocks. I'm drawing on an A6-sized paper, half of A5. For this lesson, I chose to make the hair using this tool, which is known as embossing tool. Before shading, I use the metal tip of this tool to dig into the paper so that grooves will be created on its surface. Then, when I use the pencil over it, the marks made earlier will be operant. This is an easy way to make white strands in a dark hair mess. Not everyone likes the embossing tool effect. The idea here is to experiment to see if you like it. Here, I have not marked all the hair, but only where the lock gets light. Now, starting with the background, we will see how the embossing tool works. I took the B pencil since I don't want to make the background too dark, and I make a base layer then I blend the graphite using the blending stump. Now, I'm going to use the forth pencil to start covering the dreadlocks. For that, I suggest doing this scribbling movement with the pencil so that it will create a nice texture effect. Along with the stroke texture, the marks you made with the embossing tool will appear as well. Importantly, the leftmost portion is lighter and the right side is darker. So it also varies in the pressure you apply with the pencil. Once this first layer is made, we can darken it even more and for that, I will use a 0.5-millimeter mechanical pencil with 4B graphite lead. Notice how this tool is able to go darker than Staedtler's 4B pencil? Once again, I'm filling the area with small circular motions. Then I rub the blending stump one more time. Now, let's use the eraser to enhance the white strands. You can go over the same places you use the embossing tool on but not only. Try to imitate the movement of the strands if there is as well then continue to work with the mechanical pencil to highlight the markings you have made. It is also important to leave empty spaces when using the mechanical pencil so that the hair will show a nice tone variation. Then, using a bit the brush, which will spread the graphite without undoing what has been done so far. The brush will also reduce the intensity of the light values, making them more natural. Then let's repeat the process on the right lock. We make the base layer using the 4B pencil use the blending stump, then enhance it with another layer of 4B until we reach the desired tone. Use the eraser for the white strands, make touches with the mechanical pencil, and also use the brush to spread the graphite and decrease the lights. In short, that's it, let's watch it. Now to finish the drawing, I'm going to add a few strands of hair that sticks out of the lock making covered strokes with the mechanical pencil in different directions. Always look at your reference in order to make a more realistic effect. here, make some adjustments with the eraser. Here, we finished another lesson and I hope you are now put into practice what you learned. 8. Afro hair: Starting with another type of hair, this time a very simple one, which is a afro hair. Once again, I will draw on this small A6 sized paper. I start with the 4B pencil, making movements with my hand already trying to make the extra effect with a pencil. Start on the darkest areas because then you'll have a chance to spread this graphite all over the area of hair you're working on. Then fill in the remaining areas in a more sparse way. Now, let's use the blending stamp, make the same circular motions. Don't be afraid to blend out the graphite there. Then also rub the brush to make the graphite better, penetrate the tooth on the paper. Now, I'm going to add another layer on using the mechanical pencil, pushing the dark areas, then using the blending stamp and blend the graphite with the brush one more time. Each time you use the blending stump, the intensity of the blacks decreases, so be aware of that. That's why I make another layer of graphite to darken the drawing. To spread the graphite without losing depth, use the brush, which has a softer effect. Here, we are going to add light dots using the eraser, and I suggest using the eraser where the graphite is lighter because that's where the eraser will stick better. Afterwards, use the brush to attenuate the brightness if appropriate. Look at your reference to check if the step is necessary. Here, I made some final adjustments using the 2B pencil, because I didn't want to make marks as strong as the mechanical pencil makes. Here, we finished another lesson of our series of hairs. 9. Short beard: Well, in this video we are going to study how to draw a short beard. Here, we'll do the short hairs on the right and an even shorter beard on the left, which is a stubble beard. I'm going to make this drawing on an A5 sized piece of paper. For this, with the sketch already drawn, let's first make a gray base which will correspond to the skin, just to avoid drawing loose strands on an empty space. I'm using the B pencil to make light strokes parallel to each other across the entire drawing area, then we spread a graphic using the paper. No need to push it hard, rub it smoothly. After reusing the tissue, normally the sketch lines will be less visible, so I get the B pencil not only do redo these lines but also to make the first layer of the longer beard. Make relatively short firm strokes, but also quickly, fearlessly, try to imitate the movements I'm making. The strands do not all follow the same direction, so try to vary the strokes you are going to make with the pencil. Also take care that the stroke start and then thin, thickening the middle. You can take a separate sheet just to practice this movement not worrying if you're going to ruin the drawing or not. Here I'm spreading the graphite with the brush and tissue just to make sure the paper too will be filled. Now we can start working with the mechanical pencil. The idea of making a first layer with the pencil was to have some lighter hairs on this beard, so when you are using the mechanical pencil don't cover all the beard hairs but only the areas where you want the beard to be darker. Be sure to make a few beard strands that stick out of the face. Here, I'm using the 2B pencil to give more consistency to this beard to fill in this area of skin, then I use the brush to spread the graphite once more and smooth out the texture. I switch between the mechanical pencil and the pencils until I reach the tones I want. Now it's time to work on our perception because only through it we will know whether to continue to intensify the shadows. Here we are going to make this double beard and you see that it's a very simple process, choose a harder pencil such as a B or a HB and make short spaced marks. Use a very sharp pencil in this step, watch the movement I make with my hand to understand it. If you can, you can even slightly vary the tone of the strands by varying the pressure you apply with your hand. Try this, it's a good exercise. I myself work on some strands that I think could be darker. Here we've come to the end of another video. I hope you enjoyed it. 10. White beard: Now we're going to draw a beard with white strands. In this case, we use the embossing tool to help us in this task. Use it before starting the shading, taking care to follow the movement of the strands and to start and finishing them thin. Practice on a separate sheet before, to better understand how this tool works. Also, make a few strands sticking out on this area under the face. Before shading the beard area, I darken the area under the face using the 4B pencil. Then I use the tissue to spread the graphite. Add more graphite layers on, if you feel it's necessary. Here I'm going to make a first layer of graphite for the beard area, but with not so dark pencil. Here I took 2B so as not to get too dark at once. Then I use the blending stump to blend the graphite without leaving the area looking too regular. That's why I didn't use the toilet paper. Using the Tombow eraser, I'm going to start working on these lighter beard strands. Use the eraser both on the areas where you used the embossing tool and on other areas, always trying to follow the movement of the strands. Now, we can use the B or 2B pencil to darken the skin between the white strands. Which pencil we use depends mostly on how dark the person's skin is. In this case, the skin's dark, so I'm opting for the 2B pencil. After darkening the skin, I found it necessary to also darken the background to balance the drawing. Now we are going to rub the blending stamp on the same areas. The white strands may get a little stained, but you can simply use the eraser on these strands again. From now on, the process simply consists of darkening the graphite layers using the 4B pencil and a 0.5-millimeter mechanical pencil with 4B graphite lead to give more depth to the drawing. Then I use the blending stump to smooth the graphic texture and create blemishes. I use this stick eraser to outline them and so on. I repeated this process because I thought that drawing was dull and lacked contrast. Here we are at the end of another video. Thank you so much for sticking with me. 11. Intro to Final Project: Now, in the final project for this class, you're going to draw a person's hair from start to finish. So far, we've put more emphasis on the details of each lock of hair. From now on, the details are still important, but we can't lose sight of the hair as a whole. We must pay attention to the general values so that the hair has a coherent volume and the drawing is well structured. You will notice this drawing consists of a bind techniques we've seen so far, and this is an excellent chance to practice with a piece that takes longer to be done. Let's do it. 12. Dark hair - Left side: Hello everyone. In this video we're going to draw a realistic hair from start to finish. The truth is, if you've watched the previous videos where I teach you how to make lots of different types of hair, you've already understood what the process is like. The difference now is that we are going to apply the step-by-step process used for the hair locks. But we're also going to take care so that we do not lose track of the whole so that the parts will match and we will actually have a person's hair drawn in the end. Having the sketch already outlined down on a A5 size paper sheet, I will make the first graphic layer using the 2B pencil. I started with the 2B right away because this hair is dark. As always I make lines following the movement of the strands as I do when drawing in a lock of hair. Notice the areas where the hair separates into narrowing locks and runs in different directions. Then use the brush to make the graphic grip onto the paper tooth. The next step is to use the 2.3 millimeter Tombow stick eraser to mark where the lightest areas of the hair will be. We're still far from the final look. We're just marking reference point to perform the shading. Now, let's start darkening the hair with the 0.50 millimeter mechanical pencil with RB graphite lead. Make lines following the movement of the hair, taking care not to dark in too much the areas where we use the eraser. Occasionally you can make dark strands on the brightest areas, but we must differentiate these areas from the shaded ones, so that the hair as a whole has a coherent volume. Then we use the brush and then come back with the mechanical pencil to continue going further with the shading. At some point, I pay special attention to the areas where the strands are really dark. These areas are very important because they serve as a reference for their intermediate donors we'll have to work with. To render the transition between darker and lighter areas, I use meet on pencils like B and 2B. This transition is especially delicate. Make sure your strokes don't get heavy here, decreasing the pressure of the pencil on the paper. Use the brush after the pencils. Finally, add this strands that escaped from the log using a harder and well sharpened pencil like the B. Draw them with a light hand. You don't need to force in this step. You can remake some strokes later with the 2B pencil. I also made a light shading on the face using only the brush just to make the drawing look more natural and not look like the hair is floating in space. Later, I even used the mechanical pencil to settle some strands. That is, there is no formula to be followed. It all depends on the reference image and how you draw it. From now on, we'll be repeating the process we applied up there. Now we are in advantage, which is the fact that we have the area we made as a tunnel reference. This is the most important point when drawing anything. Having its overall values consistent. Yes, in my opinion, this is more important than the details because the overall values are the first thing we'll look at. Details are also important, but they're in second place because we only pay attention to them after approving the general values. That's my opinion. Let's go on making the first layer with the B pencil. Here we should outline those thin restraints that go in different directions on the bottom area. Then we'll mark the latest trends with the eraser and darken the shadows using the 2B pencil and the far B graphite mechanical pencil. As I said, the general values are fundamental. But if they're done well you can go a step further and take care of the details as well. Here, I'm using the B pencil to mark the loosest hair strands. When I make these strands, I'm not worried about making a perfect copy of the reference image since that will be practically impossible and I don't see a good reason to do so. My goal is to make something that has a similar pattern of a real hair and for that observe the reference carefully. Then it's a matter of simulating the effect as best as I can getting closer to the photo, but never doing anything 100 percent accurate. I want to draw attention once again to the fact that they leave lighter space between the stroke's made with the mechanical pencil. These are areas for lighter strands and if I use the mechanical pencil on them, I would have had a hard time to lighten them later with the eraser. It is difficult to erase lines made with darker pencils. We are now at the bottom of the left side of the hair where it ends. This area shows more loose strands, so it's important to make thin lines with the pencil sharpened. Most of the time, we can draw the end of this strands with the B pencil. Now I'm going to speak less and show more so you can see the process more closely. Do not skip the following parts. Now that this area is almost finished, we can add some loose strands to make the drawing richer and more interesting. As usual, I'm using a harder pencil like the B and making light movements with my hand. Always remember that you can practice this movement on a separate sheet before you draw. Here, I'm using a flat brush with the bristles streamed so that they are firmer because I was seeing some white areas between the pencil strokes. Instead of filling each of these spaces with the pencil, you can do as I do and use a firm brush as it's able to reach those empty spaces that may appear on your drawing. Here, finishing with more loose strands using the pencils B, 2B and the far B graphite lead in the mechanical pencil as needed. Here we finish the first half of the hair. 13. Dark hair - Right side: Well, now we're going to draw the second half of the hair and to be honest, it's all most a repetition of the previous part. For that reason, I'm going to show you the second step in a quicker way because the process will be repeated. Anyway, don't miss the chance to draw this hair to the end, this is an excellent opportunity to put into practice what you've learned so far. In this mass of hair, I started with the B pencil and then changed it to 2B and 4B, always using the brush to smooth the texture. I also use the eraser to enhance the shiny strands. Also tried to mark the locks inside the hair mass. They will serve as a guide for the lines corresponding to the strands. On the division of the scalp up there, it's also important to start the hair with thin lines. Notice in the reference you are using how these strands grow. They are hardly all aligned with each other. The line that divides the hair is often irregular. I'll be skipping the more redundant parts, but the truth is that this part here, was a bit more time-consuming because of the volume of the hair. Don't rush to finish it up. Use this second part of take another look at the process and then put into practice what you've learned in this class. When they mark their brightest strands in this area, I also try to cross some of them because that's what I see on my reference. Then we will darken around these strands and also use the brush to soften the brightness. Here, we see an uncut fragment to show the mechanical pencil work around the shiny strands. Also, in this case, the lines should be thin so that they hair has a more natural appearance. If you feel that some of these lines should be lighter, use a lighter pencil such as B or 2B. Let's move on in this area which is considerably laborious. Then we will still come back to make the hairs over the forehead and the ones that escape upwards. Now we arrive to the lower region of the right side of the hair and the process for drawing it corresponds to what we applied to the lower left side. Start by marking the locks in this area and each one is making a different move. These first markings can be made with the B pencil. You may have already understood that markings help us not to lose the sketch when we're shading. The markings made with the eraser at first also have dysfunction. They will serve as a guide to darken the drawing without losing the references. Now, let's continue intensifying the shadows using the mechanical pencil with 4B graphite lead and the 2B pencil. When light strands are over very dark areas, it is important to work on to contrast by shading the areas around those strands. Let's continue shading with the 2B pencil and the mechanical pencil. Let's now start shading the less area for this drawing and I start by marking the highlights and shadows using the B pencil. To spread the graphite, I use the brush with sharp bristles here, but the long bristle brush would also do. The truth is that, on the first layer, the type of brush doesn't make much difference. Here, I wasn't very picky when choosing which brush to use. The firmer brush, in my opinion, is better for making the graphite penetrate the bigger tooth. The long bristle one is better for a spread in the graphite over larger areas in a smoother way. That's why I use brushes of both types. We will continue with the process, preparing the base layer with the B pencil, spreading it with the brush, marking the highlights with the eraser, and deepening the shadows with the 2B pencil and the mechanical pencil with 4B graphite lead. At this point, we have to use our perception to know whether to continue to darken the drawing. While you're drawing, take breaks to drink something, go to the bathroom stretch your body, anything that makes you stop looking at the drawing for a few minutes. Later when you come back, your eyes will be less used that image and you'll be able to observe it in a more critical way. Another important thing is that you will observe the drawing at a distance, which gives you a view of the whole and how each part is uncertain in it, which will allow you to see what corrections will be necessary to make. This is essential for the overall drawing values to be consistent with each other. Adding the loose strands here, changing the pencils when necessary, start with the lightest pencils so you don't risk darkening the area too much. Let's move on to the finishing touches. Here, I want to work on the transition from hair to skin. On these areas, we see two things, shadow is cast on the skin and lose hair strands. The shadows can be easily done using the brush with longer softer bristles. Rub the brush previously on a separate paper sheet to see if you will not darken it so much when using it. If it's still dirty, clean it on a separate paper sheet. The loose strands are drawn like the previous ones. There is nothing new here. Look at the drawing at distance to get a better sense of where to add these strands. I hope you don't mind seeing my nose at this stage. When drawing with graphite, it's normal its powders spreads to other areas of the drawing and this is more evident when we have large areas of white on the paper. For this reason, I took a plastic eraser to remove the dirt that I saw in the background. Don't use the kneaded eraser for this, It will stain your paper. I'm also I'm going to adjust some areas within the hair mass that looked unfinished to me. Here, we are at the end of another class we went really deep into the process of trying this hair and I believe I gave you all the tips I could've throughout this video. Thank you so much for watching and see you in the next class. 14. Conclusion: We've come to the end of another realistic drawing class, and I hope you've learned a lot. I believe that now you are able to draw the most varied types of hair and build that we will come across. Thank you so much for watching the videos and don't forget to share your drawings in the projects area and leave a review this class, your feedback is very important to me. See you in the next classes.