I thought I’d share my basic cartoon hair coloring style. This is my original character Lorraine from “1977 the Comic” and I have fussed for years and years over her hair and coloring style. This is one I’ve settled on, but I still shake it up depending on how much detail I need to put into the drawing. In this particular drawing, she is featured on the entire page, so the reader will be able to see the details I put into all aspects of the drawing.
When you click on the images below, a slide show will pop up with a description of what I do in each of the steps. Enjoy!
The first step is the easiest as I simply do a simple solid fill. Lorraine has black hair, but I use blue tones to highlight her hair, so I start off with a medium blue as the base.
This is the step that takes the longest. In my sketches, I add in some basic pencil lines to guide me where I want her hair to flow. Now using the pencil lines as guides, I use a thicker ink line with the start and end tapered by 50%. I then fill in over those guide lines until I have the look I desire.
Next I add in some highlights following the same patterns I created in the previous step. I use two different tone of light blue to create the highlight effect I’m going for.
And the final step! It is subtle, but I add in a some dark shades to give her hair some contrast.