Watercolor Pencil Technique For Painting Hair

Okay, so being self taught and all I really am not fond of rules when it comes to art. I believe do what you love and it will show. However this is a rule I made up for myself. Perhaps it would be better to think of it as more of a guideline than of a rule.

The Rule Of Three is common and has many variations. There is a rule of three that says three objects are more visually appealing than two, or that your painting should be divided up into thirds and two thirds should be consumed by one element. But in this instance I am referring to the number of shades of pencils for a particular color that should be used. This rule only really applies to the final dry work stage of the painting process.

Hair is made up of varying colors and when struck by light this becomes even more apparent. So when putting in a hair coat, for instance in this case, I would use three shades of light brown, three shades of blue and violet three shades of dark brown, etc.

Depending on you fussy inclinations you can try to apply all three colors per hair. Say dark at the root, light in the center and mid range at the tip. But I generally just scratch in my hairs randomly, constantly switching between shades to produce highlights and low lights. If you only use one shade of brown, light brown and blue you will wind up with a very flat looking hair coat..

And since we are gonna think of this as a guideline it is perfectly acceptable to use two shades or four. Just be sure to have enough variety to mimic reality.

ABOVE PHOTO: Catch with his owner Carol.

Whenever I do a painting I like to have has many photos to work from as possible. Catch was located half a days drive from me so I really needed to collect ALL the photos I needed in one stop. On the day I photographed Catch I took around 200 photos. Of these I had about 20 on my drafting table at all times. The point of this is to supply information that one photo alone can't possibly offer. So I have close-up shots of his eyes, his muzzle, and his rump. I also have photos of him pointed every which way imaginable.

In the end, I choose this position because it hid a lot of his age from this angle while still being a true portrait.

To create the longer hair of the mane, I first drew in the hair thinly with the darker blue/black colors. Then wet it with water to soften and blur the edges. I do this by using a small brush which I wet and then gently follow the lines of the hair. At this stage, if too much water is added or brush pressure gets too rough, you may wind up softening the hair too much. If this happens though. No worries. Just wait for the paper to dry and then begin the process again.

So after the paper has dried and I had a softly blurred mane, I again went in and drew in the long hairs, leaving these well defined by not adding the water wash over the top.

By having both softly blurred and well defined lines, it keeps the animal looking a part of it's environment. Not placed on top of it.

Note: For the final dry pencil application for the hair, I start by using dark blue and black colors but then add the highlight colors such as perwinkle and gray for the shiny areas.

About The Horse In This Painting.
The portrait of the horse in this tutorial was of a very special gelding named Catch Penny II. Catch is a wonderful horse with loads of personality. He was 27 at the time of my painting him. Then and even now, several years later he still works as a dressage schoolmaster.

He loves kids and tolerates all sorts of antics from children, including standing patiently for hours while a little girl did him up in ribbons and pink glitter. But the true mark of his greatness as a schooling horse is while excellent with children, he doesn't suffer any kind of foolishness from adults at all.

This is an excerpt from my Apples 'N Oats magazine article, telling of the day I went to photograph Catch Penny II. To read the whole article, please visit Wild Faces Gallery website.

As they had just been turned out, Catch really took very little interest in meeting us. This actually makes the photographing part easier. However, he was so engrossed in eating, that after a few shots of him grazing, well . . . we needed a little more excitement!

So Carol flung bits of grass in the air and was rewarded with a lazy flick of the ear. She did the usual clapping, whistling and flailing of arms. He watched her quizzically, occasionally lifting his head (with large mouthfuls of grass mind you) to get a better look. But after a few brief moments, he promptly resumed grazing.

At this point, we fell to bribery. I had some apples in the van and we tried to lure him into some interesting facial expressions, which hopefully didn't involve chewing or swallowing. I managed to get a few more pictures taken, until of course the apple was gone.

So Carol, in an earnest desire to help me get some action shots, started jogging around the pasture, occasionally springing into the air, while making excited chirpy noises, accompanied with yet more flailing of arms. The jogging thing got the ol' boy's interest, perhaps out of curiosity more than anything, but he trotted along beside her.

Working on suede is much like working on regular watercolor paper except that far less water should be used. When done correctly Suede takes layering of colors and blending much the same. It does require more time for drying since working while wet will damage the surface. However it makes up for this minor inconvenience but offering a softness and fur like texture that you'd be hard pressed to create on paper.