The trick to painting human hair is to not paint every single hair, but rather to paint it as a body of hair, with indications of individual hairs spread throughout. Also, most human hair (particularly straight hair) has a shine in direct light that means you must paint the hair in two tones to represent the shiny and nonshiny parts. These steps are performed after you have painted or at least started to paint the face of your subject.
Instructions
1. Mix a base coat of paint on your palette. Under most circumstances, you should make the base coat of paint the darkest shade that you see on the hair of your subject.
2. Paint the shape of the hair (with the base coat you mixed on the palette) onto the head on the canvas before you. Use a medium-size brush. The base coat should be thinly painted and quickly applied.
3. Lighten a section of the base-coat paint on your palette to the shade that matches the shine on the hair of your subject. If your subject is not in direct light, study the subject for any highlights and mix the appropriate color for the shade. Black, gray and blond hair will be lightened with white, while browns and reds will often be lightened with shades of yellow.
4. Paint the shiny sections of the hair onto the base coat that you just applied in Step 2.
5. Dip your medium-size brush into the same shade that you used for the base coat. Apply to the areas of the head that were not lightened in Step 4. Build a solid coat of paint over the entire head.
6. Lighten slightly the shade you used for the base coat with the color you mixed for the highlighted parts. Begin to apply this hybrid color to areas around the head in thick strands, spread evenly throughout the head. Use a small detail brush to do this.
7. Step back from your painting and assess your work. If you are working with oil paint, you may need to give the paint a chance to dry before doing touch-ups.
