Digital Art : Painting Realistic Hair

Create a base layer for the hair, use separate layers for shadows, midtones, and highlights, and build the hair in rough shapes as you refine details.

Build up layers to paint realistic hair, set blending mode to lighten for highlights, add shadows on layers, then detail top-of-head locks with drum brush and experiment with modes.

Explore Photoshop blending modes to color hair realism. Work on a new layer, use the layers panel, and apply darkening, lightening, contrast, and overlay modes to add shadows and depth.

Create custom brushes in Photoshop to paint hair textures. Build a soft brown brush and a sharper edged brush, define brush presets, adjust texture, and save time adding hair detail.

Study backlit hair with photo references, then merge visible layers, soften edges, and add curved loose strands with a new highlight layer to create natural, realistic lighting.

Learn how to easily recolor hair in Photoshop using blending modes, merging layers, and a color layer with clipping masks to preserve highlights and shadows.