Welcome to this hair drawing tutorial in Clip Studio Paint!
In this guide, we’re going to break down the process of drawing, shaping, and rendering hair — from understanding how it sits on the head to building up volume, placing highlights, and using the right tools to bring everything together.
Whether you're painting fringes, curls, or full hairstyles, we’ll go over how to simplify the form, use custom brushes effectively, and make your hair look dynamic and natural.
Let’s jump right in and take it one step at a time!
Direction of Hair Determines Everything!
Alright! First, let’s understand how hair sits on our head.
Generally speaking, hair follows the shape of the skull.
You can think of it like a cloth draped over a sphere. Because of gravity, it gets pulled downwards — so strands don’t fall in just one direction. Instead, hair surrounds the head, contouring around it
However, because of hair partings, the direction of hair flow changes a little.
It still wraps around the head, but instead of everything coming from just one point (like a spiral), the hair follows a more linear part, like this:
Most people have their hair parted so it doesn’t cover their face — it usually stops just at the side of the face.
But in some styles, especially with bangs, the hair falls forward and partially covers the forehead or eyes.
Understanding Volume
Now that we know how hair grows and flows, we also need to remember that hair has volume. It doesn’t just sit flat on the scalp.
Hair grows upward from the scalp, and due to gravity, it arches and falls.
These arches give it that visible volume and movement.
Keep this in mind when sketching — the hair should lift off the scalp slightly before curving down.
Drawing Hair: Think in Clusters
When we draw hair, we don’t need to draw every single strand. Instead, it’s more effective to work in clusters. This helps to:
1. Enhance the overall flow and direction
2. Simplify the structure
3. Make the shading and detailing much easier later on
Hair clumps help define shape, and you can always layer finer strands on top later.
There are also places where hair folds over itself, like how paper bends. You’ll see this especially in layered hairstyles or anywhere hair curves sharply.
Once you understand these forms, you can start by blocking out your hair in big, simple shapes — this becomes your base.
Using Brushes in Clip Studio Paint
Sometimes, it’s hard to figure out where to begin — especially when it comes to tricky parts like grooves or random strands. For this tutorial, let’s explore some Clip Studio Paint tools that can help.
Say you’re drawing fringes or curved bangs. If you’re not into line art and prefer carving out shapes as you go, there’s a dynamic brush setup that’s great for this.
You can use a round mixing brush, or any brush you’re comfortable with — I personally use this one because its shape makes it easier to block in large hair shapes.
Brush Settings That Help
Here’s how I set up the brush for better strokes:
Turn off the change brush tip color and choose a base color.
Layer Property: Set it to "Border effect" to create a subtle shadow between strokes.
Change the border color to black and reduce the thickness to minimum.
Enable "Color Mixing" in sub tool details so your colors shift with pressure and movement — this avoids creating solid, flat blocks.
Make sure the "Starting/Ending" stroke options are on — this allows for those natural tapered ends that hair needs.
Now, using this setup, we can start blocking in hair shapes.
Breaking Hair into Sections
Divide the hair into three main parts:
Front
Middle
Back
Put each section on a separate layer. For now we're just placing guidelines so create a folder and put all those layers inside. This makes it easier to work with and helps you focus on one part at a time.
Tip: The topmost layer should always be the front hair, so it overlaps correctly.
Then build the blockings of each section using brush strokes. Create a new layer for these following the layer sequence and make sure that the layer property is set to border.
You can also adjust:
1. Brush angle
2. Size
3. Tip shape
To get a more natural-looking block-in.
Shading the Hair
Start big and loose.
Divide the shading into light and shadow using a Multiply layer.
Apply Gaussian Blur and lower the opacity slightly.
Then, within each shape, refine the shadows following the flow and curve of the hair.
For fringes, it’s as simple as following the shape and flow of the strands. Since they usually fall forward in smooth curves, you can just block them in and taper the ends.
For curls, it’s a bit different — you have to define which side is the front and which is the back, and the easiest way to do that is through color contrast. Think of it like how paper folds or curls — one side catches more light, while the other falls into shadow.
Since we’re using a custom brush that already blocks in the shapes, we just need to define those curls by adjusting light and shadow — especially at the curve or fold — to show depth and direction. The edges of the curls are also usually dark unless it is here the light comes from.
Placing Highlights
Highlights go where the curves of the hair catch the most light.
For fringe/bangs, highlights won’t form a perfect circle — they’ll follow the shape of the clumps. I usually place them in an "H" pattern — they dip up and down across the hair blocks.
In curly or braided hair, you won’t just see a single crown — each curl or twist will catch its own highlight. This makes the highlight pattern more fragmented but still directional.
Adding Texture to Highlights
I like to take a wet watercolor brush (like the Wet Lead brush), and create boundaries around the highlights using a slightly saturated color.
Then, I blend outward with a textured brush. This stops the highlight from looking flat and adds life to the hair.
Also, I like to extend the highlights slightly to the sides of each clump to define its form.
Adding Cast Shadows for Depth
We already have our hair partitioned from earlier, so now let’s enhance the overlaps between clumps.
These cast shadows usually follow arched or triangular shapes and help define volume.
Final Details: Loose Strands and Texture
To break stiffness and add realism:
1. Add extra strands that follow the hair’s flow
2. Think of them as mini arrows that point in the same direction
3. Some strands will cross over boundaries and cast tiny shadows
4. Some will have tiny highlights of their own
For final texture, I add detail between the light and shadow areas. This is where hair strands are most visible. I use a fine brush to add individual strands, or the Painterly Blender to create subtle texture and flow.
That’s it! This is my usual process for drawing and painting hair in Clip Studio Paint — from base sketch to rendering highlights and shadows with helpful brush settings.
Final Thoughts
And that wraps up our tutorial on drawing hair in Clip Studio Paint!
Remember, the key is to think in shapes and volume first, then build up your details with smart layering, thoughtful shading, and directional highlights. Use your brushes to carve, blend, and refine — and don’t be afraid to experiment.
With practice, you’ll start to develop your own rhythm and style for painting hair that feels alive and textured.
Thanks for following along, and happy draw
ing!
