Create realistic hair with a few simple techniques.
Drawing hair in Photoshop doesn't have to be difficult. Whether you want realistic curly, wavy or smooth hair, there are techniques you can perform to get the style you desire. You can create hair using these techniques if you have Photoshop 7 or higher. For this exercise, realistic curly hair will be created.
Create a Custom Brush Define Brush Preset (for Photoshop 7 this will appear as Define Brush). The brush will be saved in whatever brush palette you have open, so it might be a good idea to have your Natural Brushes palette open before saving your new brush.
Adjust Brush Parameters
Go to Window > Brushes to open your Brushes palette. Select Shape Dynamics (make sure the box to the left is checked). The box labeled Control should be switched to Off. You want your brush to appear more random; to do this, increase your Angle Jitter to at least 20 percent or more if you like. Next, check the box next to Color Dynamics in your Brushes palette. To create the appearance of varied hair strands, increase your Hue, Saturation and Brightness Jitter. Now check the box next to Other Dynamics and change your Opacity Control to Pen Pressure. Pen Pressure basically means that the program will recognize how hard or soft you press with your tablet pen, making the edges thinner and more wispy looking. To save your brush, go to the down arrow in the top right corner of your Brushes palette and click New Brush Preset.
Drawing
Create another layer over your background by going to Layer > New > Layer or by clicking the New Layer button in your Layers palette. You will be using this layer to draw on. Start by creating a base; pick a dark brown color swatch or Alt-Click on a dark area of the person's real hair and fill in your desired area. Once the base is complete, create details by painting over it with a slightly lighter color. If you have any flyaway hairs in your painting, use the Eraser tool set to your custom brush to remove them. Add some highlights by selecting a light brown and change your paint Mode to Color Dodge. To darken certain areas, change your paint Mode to Color Burn and lightly paint over any areas you want darker.
