Photoshop Hair Sketches Workshop - All from Skratch

[xspikeyhairx]

Ok well I am big on hair, and I love to design new hair "doos". I have decided to open a thread where I will post my creations and allow you guys to look them over and tell me what you think. I love constructive criticism because it is the base to learning and becoming better at what you do. So please let me know how they are looking. By the way, I am not putting work in the faces at all because I am only focusing on the hair.

Warning: Most styles seem emo-ish. So if you are anti-emo or afraid of such people and themes, do not look :P

(All of the following images were created from scratch, using the basic brushes that come with PS CS3 and were created totally by me with no references. All credits go to me.)



First one: tsunami wave
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m187 ... miwave.jpg[/img]

Second one: Basic Wave (This was the first one I did. It is kinda bad and did not turn out the way I wanted it to)

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m187 ... icflip.jpg[/img]


More to come. Please leave feedback

 

[Onyx Tanuki]

Not too bad. The shading looks pretty good. However, it looks a lot less random than real hair does. You used some of the scratchy-type brushes, didn't you? Instead of using them to paint on colors, maybe you could try laying down base colors first in separate layers, then using those scratchy brushes with the Smudge tool? The edges of the hair also look very unrealistic. Your best bet there would be to use a pencil tool in a new layer, then blur that layer so it looks a little more anti-aliased. The top of the first one looks better than the edges, but it's more suited to painting short fur than hair, I think.

 

[xspikeyhairx]

Instead of using them to paint on colors, maybe you could try laying down base colors first in separate layers, then using those scratchy brushes with the Smudge tool? The edges of the hair also look very unrealistic. Your best bet there would be to use a pencil tool in a new layer, then blur that layer so it looks a little more anti-aliased.

That is exactly what I did.... That is how I did my hair. I made a selection with the polygon tool, filled it with a color, and then did the other side on a new layer. Next I used the smear brush to make the hair look real on the edges. Next I used the dodge tool with a charcoal 14px brush and made lines for the hair. Next I did lighting and shading and then merged the two layers. Then I made a new layer beneath that one and used the smudge brush to make the spikes on the back. I then did lighting and shading on that layer. Next I took the emrged layers and smudge them some more on the edges to make them more realistic so that the edge isnt perfectly even

 

[Onyx Tanuki]

That's not what I'm talking about. I meant to use the Smudge in the main part, not on the edges. If you look at longer hairstyles like what you're trying to recreate, you'll notice that in many cases, they do have nearly perfect edges. They don't come off the edges like little spines, but rather the randomness comes from flyaways, strands that sort of poke out, but still follow the flow of the hair.

Spoiler: Take a look at this.

http://bonsaiblog.net/wlw/NewHaircut2_12FAC/hair2.jpg[/img]

This looks similar to the styles you're creating. See how the edges, for the most part, are smooth? There's plenty of flyaways, but most of the hair follows a specific direction, and doesn't deviate from that direction. Only at places where the hair is cut across (like the part covering his eye) does it become spiky like what you did to the hair in its entirety.

It's also better if you not use the polygon tool aside from putting the base layer. And never ever EVER use dodge/burn; it makes shading unrealistic. It's fine if you have no other light sources, but it's better to get into the practice of creating an actual palette rather than relying on an increase/decrease in lightness.

What I meant was to imagine the hair not as bajillions of strands, but as a series of solid lumps that happen to be textured. I'll again refer to the spoilered pic. See how the texture almost disappears near his highlights? You'd put that on as a painted color, then smudge it up and down the flow of the hair. Try it that way, and see how it turns out.