Painting hair with Painter

[Lunatique]

Palette knife isn't the best thing for hair. :scream:

To do hair in Painter is really no different than doing it in any other 2D software or traditionally on paper/canvas. The key is to use the right brushes/steps.

This excellent tutorial by ARthur Santel explains in detail his method: http://www.3dtotal.com/team/Tutorials/hair_in_ps/hair_in_ps_01.asp

Here's one by Will Kramer: http://www.3dtotal.com/ffa/tutorials/photoshop/hair_tutorial/hair1.asp

The palette knife at default doesn't have size set to pen pressure--and even if it does, it's not the best tool for hair. Sure you can use it, but it might look more stylized than you'd like.

I would suggest you use the Basic Round brush from the Tinting category to block in your basic shape/strands with the local color, then you can add shadow/highlights with nice drawing tools like the Scratchboard Tool from the Pens category, or the Cover Pencil from the Pencils category. I use the Opaque Round a lot, with the features turned up, to get that nice spaced strands while rendering the highlights and shadows.

There are so many different ways--it's as varied as different preferences from different artists--so essentially it's up to you to experiment and get the look that you want.

An important part of doing hair is to have excellent contorl of flowing lines and curves--and that takes lots of practice--for most people it takes years to get that one flick of the wrist down, to master that perfect stroke every time. It's like when you watch a guitarist play a simple scale up down the neck, and it looks so damn easy, but it took that person 10 years to do it at that level.

Another thing is--looking at tutorial pictures and readint text is nowhere near the same as actually watching someone demonstrating it. I recorded a really quick quickie just for you--nothing too detailed, but you'll get to see the actual handling of how it's done: http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/temp/Rob's%20Script%20Library.SSD

Just load the library and then open the script. You might have to open up a 512x512 blank canvas to run it. You can stop the script at any time to see what tool I was using, and at what setting.

[Leonard]

GOt it and ran the script. I haven't got your custom brush, but I think I get the technique....coool.

Leo

[merlyns]

hey,

very helpfull tutorials luna.
your script link seems to be broken.

-david

[phoenix]

very nice links Lunatique.........thanks

[jeroentje]

I did a rough hair tut a couple of months ago. To paint hair in a few seconds.
http://www.geocities.com/superjeroentje/tut/hair.html

[HapZungLam]

is it posible of using mouse to paint hair? or it will pain in the ass?

[Lunatique]

Is it possible to chop wood with a steak knife? Sure. But why would you want to when you can use an axe?

[Derlaine]

deleted text because i can't delete the post

[Jinbrown]

Hi,

Here's a little something that might come in handy when painting hair, or it might give you some ideas to use in other ways:

Mixing Two Colors on a Brush to Paint Hair (http://www.pixelalley.com/tutorials/mixing2colors_on_brush_to_paint_hair.html)


Happy Painting, whatver it is your painting.

:)

[Dark Monk]

Hi,

I have just found this thread and have tried to download the painter script that Lunatique so kindly made for Leonard but i cant seem to get it, does anyone know if it is still there as i would really love to see how he paints hair.

Dose any else have any movies of them painting in painter ??
I am very new to painter but i feel if you can just see how a few different people work then your own skill will evolve more quickly.

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