How I Draw Hair for the Secret Fantasy Hero Creator (Lineless Hair Art Demo)
Ever wondered how I draw hair for the Secret Fantasy Hero Creator? Wait not friends, here it is!
This demo was brought to you by GIMP, a free, open-source art software and my genuine human talents, thank you very much.
THIS DEMO WAS MADE BY A REAL HUMAN BEING BEHIND THE SCREEN. AI CAN SKIDDADLE. LEARN FROM YOUR FELLOW HUMANS BEFORE THE BOTS TAKE OVER!!!
I start out with a loose sketch of my hair item. For bangs and sidelocks I use a special hairline layer as a basis, then I start sketching the thing right away.
The same principle applies to any art style you use or any medium or format, so when drawing hair you mustn't strew around random strands nor must you draw a giant blob, so you must consider how it flows, how its texture and/or volume is, where it grows from, or its mass before you start doing it. Hair varies from person to person, or even cultures or time periods, so do your research first or observe the people around you!
And yes, there's no such thing as a perfect way of drawing hair, so it doesn't matter!!! I'm not perfect, so are you!
2. I create another layer for the base shape, then start drawing it out with a random placeholder color, in this case, maroon. Since I'm going for kinky hair, I'll have to think in scribbles when drawing it. I use a special dynamic that allows the brush to taper and various brush sizes to create this thing.
However, when I draw other hair types, I may draw the outline first, then fill it in.
I even add in a cool loose strand of hair sticking out for a touch of realism.
Once I'm finished, I could remove the sketch layer.
3. Finally, it's time to add the in texture!
Since this is a stylized lineless game, I represent hair texture by using streaks.
To begin with, I select the hair base shape, then start drawing the streaks, with the darker and lighter streaks in separate layers. The darker streak layer is set to multiply, while the lighter layer is set to screen. (Note: alternatively, you may use Overlay with a bright to mid shade)
In the case of bangs/front hair, sometimes there may be this little raised flap that shows up on top of the forehead so I start off by blocking in the flap interior, then slapping on the details. You could see this in this video, although it's quite outdated.
This is what the streaks look like when I set them on Normal mode. I use desat shades of purple/violet/blue when applying streaks, so the darker streaks use a more light-to-mid, somewhat desaturated purplish blue, while the lighter streaks use a more desaturated dark purple. Why purple? you may ask. I chose it because it could work well with other colors.
Since this is a kinky/very curly hairstyle, I apply scribbled down lines for the streaks.
Since the streaks overlap with each other, which is a thing I sometimes run into, I duplicate the darker streak layer then set it to Erase mode (this is a godsend if you use GIMP or any other art software with this blend mode). As you could see in the second image, the darker streaks have been making a hole in the hair base, but we'll fix that by merging down this Erase layer with our lighter streaks layer...
... and va-va-voom, the darker streaks magically go over the lighter streaks!
4. Time to apply the ombre! Don't worry, our ombre option is completely removable.
To do that, I select another placeholder color, in this case, white, then use the Gradient Tool to create the ombre effect by starting from the bottom of the hair piece then stretching all the way towards the middle of the hair piece. Once this is all done, I remove the select marquee.
Yes, I recolored the hair piece to the default orange/natural red our default doll has.
This is the hair sans anything. Sorry if I didn't remove the marquee.
5. Here's the final step in our process: adding in the streaks. They're still perfectly removable like the ombre thing.
What I do is duplicate both streak layers, set them on normal, then recolor them with special palettes.
These are the palettes I use for hair in question. They're all kept in separate layers actually, but I put them all together when I draw hair pieces. The first one is reserved for darker streaks, the middle one is used for the actual hair base itself + the gradients, while the third one is reserved for lighter streaks.
6. Whoops! Don't forget to apply the necessary tags!
Actually, these special palettes have names. The palette for the darker streaks are called "Shadows", while the palette for the lighter ones are called "Highlights". The main hair palette is simply just called... well, "hair".
If you want to remove something in a dynamic item in a Meiker game, simply just code it with a [removable].
And that's it for my little demo on how I draw hair for a certain game.
FYI, I also make duplicates for sidelocks and midhair options! I simply clone that item and flip it, then drag it to my desired location.
Happy Meikering! :-)
