How I Draw and Design Hair for Characters

[@ADistantWail]

One might claim Sephiroth's hair is perfection at its finest. But, I refute! Jimmy Neutron's is the peak hairstyle we all strive for, with all of its towering, soft-served glory. In fact, every character in existence should have Jimmy Neutron hair. Why it hasn't been decreed in law already has me truly baffled and outraged.

[@TheKorenji]

The reason why is actually pretty simple. We are not capable to sustain such perfect hair, for we lack the intelligence to do so, which also applies to most characters out there.

[@Gregatron13]

But it is a great dream to have such hair!

[@Kyamusuku]

Honestly hair in the jojo’s bizarre adventure universe has that perfect balance of weird but believeable hair styles

[@josephdavis9234]

My favorite believable hair style is "Bleeds Into Hat".

[@littlea420]

The hair is amazing in jojo

[@L0rdOfThePies]

Hat hair

[@caviersim3806]

Finn's hair from adventure time is pretty iconic, you barely see it then its blonde and long. When he cuts it it changes as length each episode and it ties in with his mother's hair as well. Those deep moments when he climbs out the water with his wet blonde hair thinking about his life.

[@Rozdlc]

I think one my favorite Finn takes off his hat moments is in Stakes when he's trying to lure in one of the vampires XD

[@SirMasi]

As you mentioned before, the Splatoon Inklings have really great "hair". It extends naturally from their squid designs and helps accentuate their movements! Also, I have to say that the Simpsons family has some pretty iconic hair, despite being incredibly minimal. Good silhouette > detailed rendering!

[@CharacterDesignForge]

Splatoon hair is so good! And those Simpsons shapes are absolutely iconic

[@DiamondRedFox]

"Start with a simple shape-" *Draws Phoenix Wright's hair*

[@piper3778]

M, *pointy*

[@L0rdOfThePies]

Lmao, iconic

[@Sigmund_Froid]

I mean his hair is made of simple shapes... Triangles, a lot of them XD

[@beastcarleeto707]

I really appreciate you mentioning black hair, many only focus on straight long hair and that's it. I appreciate you for including others!

[@annabelleowl9586]

Snufkin from Adventures From Moominvalley has quite fitting hair. Yes he usually wears a hat but underneath it and when he takes it off his hair is uncombed and greasy like a little wanderer living in a tent should have

[@kursedcurtain4791]

Been needing this for a while! The only hair + character design stuff ive found was in a language i didnt understand. Thanks for this actually readable video!

[@CharacterDesignForge]

Sure thing, glad it can help!

[@leonildaverati3030]

6

[@dargonfrot]

@@leonildaverati3030 7

[@AZUREPHOENIX777]

There are lots of iconic hairstyles in fiction, way too many to pick out specific favorites. The characters from Ace Attorney have a bunch of wacky ones. Even though they technically aren't hair, would Sonic's spines count?

[@CharacterDesignForge]

Hehe I guess if you specified the movie version, it'd be hard to deny. Those Phoenix Wright hairstyles are pretty great!

[@user-ft3jq5vi2l]

Well, hedgehog spines are technically an evolved, heavily modified version of fur.

[@rainpooper7088]

I really love how Sonic does hair for the most part. It makes the characters look a lot more dynamic and recognizable while never drawing too much attention to itself. Except for the Deadly Six, those can go back to whatever Koopaling hair saloon they escaped from.

[@calliethewolfcat2183]

@@rainpooper7088 I agree. The designs in Sonic are really great most of the time. And when they do have flops in character design like the Deadly six, *shudder*, they're quickly ignored by the fandom.

[@calliethewolfcat2183]

Azula stands out in every way. During her meltdown at the end of the series, they use her hair to really emphasize how much she's lost it. That always impressed me ^^ Also, THANK YOU! I have desperately been looking for something on this subject. Thank you!

[@feanaro2712]

I really like the way hair is done in The Clone Wars. The stylised shape and the way it was coloured was just really aesthetically appealing to me. Also, I was just thinking yesterday that I needed to learn more about drawing hair, specifically - as you even say in the video - how to attach it to the head, so the timing of this video is really fortuitous. I especially appreciated the inclusion of the position/shape diagrams you included, those were really informative.

[@CharacterDesignForge]

Awesome, so glad the extra work put in to the video paid off for you!

[@minimalistmindset3020]

Right! I love the entirety of Count Dooku's character design in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, specifically. In the prequel movies, he looks like an old man, but the Clone Wars series gives his character design a much more regal bearing. He is a Count, after all. I'm not even a fan of the character itself, but I have long felt that the way that The Clone Wars captures that element of Count Dooku was masterfully done.

[@imadamn]

I think goku's hair is the most iconic of all media, even though it isint that crazy or special- I believe it's because goku himself is already very iconic and was the first "crazy anime hair" character to be uber popularized

[@ArcNeoMasato]

As someone with wavy/curly hair, you do actually just do the finger thing to style your hair, along with some "scrunching" (Literally just squeeze the hair together). You're likely having hair stylists use the wrong product in your hair actually, as if they use something too stiff (which a barber is likely to do) it won't allow the hair to flow naturally. Straight up, I just march my fat hairy ass into proper hair salons now like I was a girl getting ready for prom or something, cause they actually understand wave and curl a LOT better than basically anyone else.

[@CharacterDesignForge]

Incredible mental image 😂I actually did get the "scrunch" advice recently, and I think it's definitely the way I'd like to go! Now I just need to get the right cut, and what you're saying sounds about right. Thanks for the wavy solidarity!

[@ArcNeoMasato]

@@CharacterDesignForge Hey, curly hair gotta stick together! lol

[@deepdreammoth]

I think another thing people can forget is that both men and women can have unconventional lengths when it comes to hair, and it helps a character stick out a little more. For example, male characters with long hair and female characters with short or little to none. Just hair length alone can communicate a lot about a character!

[@Xylophlow]

I was literally just struggling to make a hairstyle for a character and this was uploaded @-@

[@Crayon_Egbert]

Hair is pain

[@TheZiiFamily]

Im a curly haired guy and i used to have it really long and that was a nightmare to take care of so ive now gone for medium short length and ive noticed the difference in waves and curves from then to now and when i let it grow a bit

[@Yorimotashi]

I feel like there’s a lot of world-building lessons to pull from this. Never thought about half of these cultural aspects of design. Great info.

[@CharacterDesignForge]

I'm glad!

[@godahlrogue8587]

Good video brookes! I actually like drawing animal characters with humanish hair lol--oh well. Different strokes for different folks.

[@CharacterDesignForge]

Hey no worries, it's all subjective! There's actually a few instances where I think it's been done well.

[@sharkwaffle1582]

All of my furry characters are like that lol

[@Kyamusuku]

Jotaro’s hat hair is pretty iconic 😄

[@Barada73]

I think Mr. Spock has some of the most iconic hair in all of science fiction. Try putting that hair style in any other character and people will still associate it with Spock. Wolverine is another character with an iconic hairstyle, even though that style didn’t originate with him. However, it’s one of those hairstyles that very quickly reveals whether the artist drawing him understands how human hair works or not.

[@RebekahLeiplein]

Gotta say, Merida's hair from Brave is iconic. My main OC has hair inspired by her and I love it.

[@aziebites]

i know it's like, the bare minimum, but thank you for including black hair without painting (heh) it as significantly harder to draw than straight/wavy hair. i've seen so many artists who won't draw black hairstyles because they're "too hard" or whatever.

[@CharacterDesignForge]

Of course! Big ol’ eyeroll at “too hard” 🙄

[@aziebites]

@@CharacterDesignForge YEAH like just say you're racist and go smh

[@CharacterDesignForge]

@@aziebites like a lot of things in anatomy etc are HARD but we still… try

[@aziebites]

@@CharacterDesignForge exactly!

[@potatocornsplease2383]

It is significantly easier for me, it can be just one big shape as a pose to dozens of strands or ribbons of hair. It's in no way universally harder, just less normalized/practiced and harder to find tutorials for.

[@ByrdieFae]

Ooh, I've been struggling with hair for years. It made me so happy that it was the topic this week. It made me even happier that you talked about/used examples with non-white characters so much. "Hair Love" is such a great short. Also, Son Goku and Vegeta's hair. I know, they're gravity-defying anime styles, but dang if they ain't iconic.

[@gabyeguizabal7164]

One of my friends has spectacular hair. It is curly, thousands of small curlers, like springs, but it wears it loose, like the lion's mane. I love him.

[@ojhat]

hair silhouette is something I consider myself to be pretty well-developed into my drawing skills by now with how much I've focused on Character designing (instead of other things needed for a comic as well >_>'); even if I keep reiterating, refining, strengthening and working up the hair styles I've made. However, the aspect I feel you glossed over more, "lighting" and "shadows" in hair... OOF! that's the hard part for me to still work out well.

[@IcecreamCat23]

The hair stages we all go through 1. Spiky and stiff No artist can deny it, when we first drew hair, it was spiky and very stiff 2. Scribbles To try to get out of our super spiky hair, we use the (messy) scribble method to try and avoid it. And while this works later on, we don’t *really* know how to do it at this level, so it’s just a mess 3. Big and/or funky shapes If you are an anime fan, bonus points 😂 This one it pretty Self Explanatory 4. Loose and flow(y) This is when it starts to come together and from here, people split into the styles they typically choose. 5. Experienced There is no way I can identify this stage, because at this point, you’ve been drawing for at least 3-5 years, you have a lot of experience and can finally make anything you do with hair pretty good. Congratulations, there’s more levels since art improvement never ends :D

[@U.R.coolkid]

Holy heck the first tip was already mindblowing and super helpful, excited to see what else i could do for hair design ^^

[@CharacterDesignForge]

I'm so glad!

[@sylvanshroom]

OOOO THIS BACKPACK'S A GOOD'UN This vid has me thinking so much! I really don't think as much as I would like about how much circumstances play into a character's hairstyle, I tend to lean more on what I like/looks good-- so that's just another layer of consideration!

[@L0rdOfThePies]

Take in account era aswell! For characters in a realistic timeframe think about hairstyles of that era, one of my characters has a short curly bob like alot of people in the 1930s

[@BubblingBrooke]

Rabbid Peach is a gift I will not hear any slander XD But to answer the question posed in the video, I tend to gravitate toward fluffy hair/fur in fictional characters. Vi and Lief in Bug Fables have fluffs around their necks that look soft for example.

[@jarvis5552]

Bug Fables is incredible!!

[@ripskiddly2466]

The hair styles for the characters in the Gantz manga are pretty cool, the circumstances in the story always has strangers appearing from different walks of life so there's a pretty neat variety when it comes to hair.

[@tailnottale6128]

I have a feeling one day your gonna have this amazing animated series for us to watch

[@CharacterDesignForge]

Aw thank you so much, I’m working on it!!

[@tailnottale6128]

@@CharacterDesignForge wait, you actually are planning on making and releasing an animated series someday?

[@CharacterDesignForge]

@@tailnottale6128 Yep! The pilot for Stormfellers is releasing later this year!

[@tailnottale6128]

@@CharacterDesignForgeOoooo I can’t wait! I hope this series is noticed by millions! Your an amazing artist with an amazing talent and I can’t wait to see you do more in the coming future!

[@CharacterDesignForge]

@@tailnottale6128 really appreciate that, thank you!!

[@vaclavmusil1197]

Finally, the video I knew I needed, but could never find.

[@jilliancrawford7577]

Thank you so much! I appreciate the practicality of the suggestions too; I don't have type 4 hair (not sure what it is), so knowing the maintenance those types of hair need is something I can't reference from personal experience and would need to research.

[@n00bplayer72]

I'd also like to point out that facial hair also follows the same logic when drawing: How it originates on the face (cheeks, jaw, chin, lips, neck) how it flows/doesn't flow (if it's cut short) and the importance of using general shapes to give it structure.

[@ArtistOdysseyMaster]

Thank you!I have once again created another oc that needed a unique hairstyle and this really helped with that.

[@blythedalebloomerie]

This really blew-drew me away!! So well explained - you make it seem less daunting…love the thought of starting with the shape first. I continue to unabashedly drool over your drawing skills and your teaching skills 💜💛

[@galehunter2519]

The best advice I can give is to literally go to a place where there’s enough people (not too much, so that you can’t tell people apart), schools, work, or a moderately busy store are all great places, and take inspiration from their hair. This one kid in my middle school (African American) had this great cornrow Mohawk, and most of my partially curly hair designs came from kids in high school, and people walking on the street.

[@CWorthStudios]

My biggest struggle with hair is my most fleshed out characters are anthropomorphic animals with nothing but bangs basically. The fur is usually a uniform texture (but I am expanding the palette there) and those limitations often lead to repetitive designs, especially when I try to keep things more simple and not... overdesigned anime.

[@HelderGriff]

I literally started to research how hair works since yesterday and you came up with this video. It's a sign

[@sarahwestliddle567]

I HAVE TO MENTION LEGO NINJAGO The main four characters have elemental powers: Fire, Earth, Ice, and Lightning. Fire guy has spiky anime type hair that looks like a campfire, and the most vain personality. You KNOW he maintains those spikes, they're not natural. Earth guy is the most "steady" personality, he has a mop of hair like the cool older brother type. Which also looks blocky and is black-and his name is Cole. So his hair looks like his earth pun name while fitting his personality perfectly. Ice guy is the weird one and has a tall blond crew cut, so basically an ice cube shaped hair and straight lines for a stiff personality. Lightning is the silly one of the group and has the classic brown short hair of a nerd. At first it doesn't look "electric" but if you look closely his bangs are a zigzag pattern. It fits great because his personality is less explosive lightning and more "fun excitable electricity". He could be a Pikachu-cute and cuddly but also able to zap monsters out of the sky. I consider Ninjago to be the height of punny character design.

[@CharacterDesignForge]

Ah totally! I was just a little too old to catch Ninjago on the come up, but can definitely appreciate

[@wahtinthegoddamn1487]

As an amateur writer, i can say that all of these videos (Mostly the likeable character videos) are really helpful to me. Thank you! :)

[@gurdy7674]

I know this is a bit late, but thank you so, so much for touching on black hair. As someone who used to struggle with my own identity and self worth/confidence, being proud of my natural hair was sooooo important to my mental health (who knew!) and I feel like more people should be aware that different hair behaves differently, and the effort that goes into keeping natural curly/coily hair well kept. Speaking of, hair style that stands out for me was Karaba from Kirikou and the Sorceress.

[@CharacterDesignForge]

Absolutely, Gurdy!

[@glitchy_catt]

@@CharacterDesignForge ik this is off topic for the entire video, but what is the song name for the outro? I've been trying to find it but can't figure out what it is 😅

[@graceoartyo]

i LOVE the hair in the new disney show, the ghost and molly mcgee- there are even a few background characters that i want to know more about solely because the shape of their hair makes them interesting

[@FuzzyDuckk]

This is a weirdly specific topic that I never realized I needed advice on. Thanks for the video! Good info, as always

[@CharacterDesignForge]

Without it you’d have a lot of bald character designs 🙂

[@Dragoneye2828]

That would require some boldness to pull off

[@dorkaeszterbecsjanszki]

Bob Ross has the most iconic hair!!

[@CharacterDesignForge]

FACTS!

[@tempesttossed6029]

Johnny Bravo has iconic hair.

[@FERNANDOYONATHAN]

I've tried to design hair for my character and i had so many design options for my character's hair but i finally got the perfect hair design!

[@PeachyLofi]

I’ve been needing this so badly thank you

[@TheCartoonluver23]

My favorite hair color would be Moka's form Rosario Vampire ( I love pink). My favorite anime where they drew the hair in a strange style is the anime Shiki. It looks like one general shape but when it moves it no longer holds it. Amazing.

[@squirrelpatties9240]

I like the hair style of cassandra and modern iterations of pico from pico's school They're not exactly realistic but they're distinct and say a lot about their personalities

[@jaclyndesforges]

The character with my favourite hairstyle is probably Maui. It’s so expressive.

[@EvasiveBlue]

As far as iconic animes especially from the 80s and 90s have the market cornered. Goku and Vegeta have a hair style that is only rivaled by Johnny Bravo or Betty Boop. I am currently in a history of animation class lol.

[@muffatoons]

Sara Chidouin from Your Turn To Die has an… *unique* hairstyle, and honestly, despite it being so ridiculously weird it makes her easy to remember soooo… guess it got the job done?

[@liebesbrief-z3x]

omg kimi ga shine :3

[@nodewizard]

Joe Madureira romances the Occidental and Oriental art styles, which is his iconic signature. I would say Red Monika from Battle Chasers has some of the best hair I've seen and rendered by team Liquid!

[@delwynklassen3644]

The Battle Chasers hair designs all indicated character well: Gully - street urchin, Knowlan - wandering wiseman, Garrison - from three-years growth to soldier crop. Man, so many hairstyles in that.

[@toffee.moonshake958]

Just something about pigtails make me happy tbh and like pink/purple/blue look really pretty for hair like when you shade blue hair with teal or purple with blues then pink with blues purples and reds

[@icelio7251]

In one of episode of the donkey kong tv show, donkey kong got his head shaved. And instead of having a different head model, they just swapped the textures to shaved flesh. So it implies that the swirl on donkey kong's head is actually the shape of his skull and not just hair.

[@CharacterDesignForge]

YEAH. I… wish I could forget it 😵‍💫

[@Crow-mq1qp]

Finn the Human. Honestly some big brain hair design.

[@CharacterDesignForge]

YES

[@magentagamingartgallery]

zuko's hair transformation and its reflection on his character arch

[@Nettles_Cauldron]

Marge Simpson gotta have the most iconic hair

[@Funky_Jester17]

I think Wilson from Don't Starve has some very wacky hair. I love it so much!

[@illegaltuna7755]

I was literally dealing with this issue yesterday!!! What a coincidence!

[@the_real_kanye]

Thanks for the video man, I think probably Goku has the most iconic hairstyle, the shape is pretty synonymous with him

[@adish1401]

Hair is like the most iconic part of my characters, canonicaly main bros have only been allowed to control their appearance, they just went full out with obnoxious hairstyles that at this point have properties of solids, and I love this x) It is just so fun to give characters hair that is impossible / harmfull to do irl, and it greatly helps with silhouette. Obviously you should keep in mind what texture particular characters hair has, it really helps generate the ideas for shapes it could take, but I am kinda standing against of realistic hair, it is kinda boring to me

[@OyasumiGalaxy]

You should give a character hair that looks like sans undertale

[@mirandaschor4572]

Knuckles the Echidna has the best hair of all time! I repeat, of all time!

[@SM-xy6py]

See me rollin through the apocalypse with that layered scisor cut.

[@adamnieves586]

Wilson P. Higgsbury has my favorite hair style

[@malicethemighty7560]

Glenn Radars from an anime I watched. I like the way its tied back.

[@objectjon9015]

An excellent tutorial I was definitely needing right now

[@WorldWeaver]

OK I'm so glad you have one of these videos because I'm trying to draw my characters but I can't figure out how to draw hair that fits them TnT I think you'll be pleased to hear that you're the first person I thought to look for when I needed help! :D I think Jaiden Animations' character has the best hair! :D

[@CharacterDesignForge]

Glad I could help!

[@fmbray_]

Me: *sees thumbnail* haha, characters as chairs. Me: *watches video* haha, characters as hair. That whole head-mannequin way is really useful though, now that I think about it. Hair is always so frustrating anyways because it seems like it's got a mind of its own even in drawing.

[@thenadefox453]

When I think of hair as a part of a character's silloette I think of Fry from Futurama. Also, Sailor Moon and Princess Leia need some love for their iconic hair💕

[@Aeice_art_fish]

Rose quarts from Steven universe has really interesting and iconic hair I always loved the way it looked in the show and I think it’s funny how stevens dad referred to her as big pink hair lady when he first saw het

[@EspeonaSparkle]

GREAT VIDEO! :D Madoka Magica does that really well imo. I really love how much the characters' hair says about them!

[@mintyflores7378]

From the the thumbnail it made it look like this was a video about chair design

[@skiafraylalnasache]

I really like how Steven Universe does hair, I don't have much to say about it other than it's visually pleasing. On that note, I was wondering if you've talked about the topic of Omnipotent characters or if you had any Ideas on how to write good ones.

[@sirelfinjedi]

Thanks so much!

[@dreddbolt]

I like how Terese Nielsen does hair artwork.

[@laliclaudesol2350]

Excellent job, sir! You've just got yourself a new subscriber! 💕🌻

[@CharacterDesignForge]

Awesome, thank you!

[@masterzoroark6664]

Thx Now I have an idea for a wasteland faction of people with dreadlocks and the dreadlock part signiffying how they relay on each other

[@relaxium3618]

Could you sometimes make a video on how creation of the character differs from artist's and writer's POV depending on a starting point? It's one of my favourite topics to explore and I'm sure you have something to add on the matter.

[@arminc4658]

My favorite hair is from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. I think Golden Wind especially had some really cool hairstyles like Giorno, Trish and Doppio

[@LadyCpierce]

I love the hairstyles in haikyuu, particularly bokuto, kuroo and Kenna’s! Bokuto is obviously referencing the great horned owl, but it’s also spiked up and opens up his face-indicating his character as a very open and outgoing person who wears their heart on their sleeve. No hair obscuring his expressions. Kuroo hair is covering his eye because he’s a bit more of a shady character, so his expressions are partially hidden, and Kenna’s hair expresses his desire to fit in with the dye, but he also obscures part of his face because he’s very shy 🙈 I think these designs were well though out in furudate part

[@LadyCpierce]

Ignore the typos I have autocorrect on lol I meant Kenma **

[@13KuriMaster]

I think Yugi Muto has the most Iconic hair style...... because EVERYTIME someone wants to bring up crazy anime hair, They go to him. Even in this video.

[@skunkooo]

as someone who draws a lot of furry characters, i admit i do the whole "wig" thing but something i enjoy doing is making the hair a color that resembles the species represented so that it makes a bit of a hybrid between human hair and natural fur, something that i think more people should try

[@HelloFellowFriends]

THANK you!

[@CharacterDesignForge]

You’re very welcome!

[@Okalynn]

Brookes: Who has the most iconic hair Me: AAAAAARIANAAAA GRANDEEE

[@ArtParlor]

"it's our chia pet" hahaha xD

[@peppinoandweskerfriendsfor3450]

I think that Travis Touchdown from no more heroes has cool hair. It gives him this kinda punk vibe to him, especially compared to Henry Cooldown whose hair is more tidy and kept and stuff

[@CharacterDesignForge]

Not being familiar with the series, the name Henry Cooldown made me chuckle 😆

[@yakuzaslostjudgement8317]

i think braids can happen in the apocalypse after the towns have been rebuilt with zombies outside the borders. people will probably enjoy doing hair and styling while not on patrol! You gotta do something else besides decorating your zombie slaying *chainsaws* !!!!

[@TheVeyZ]

Marge's hair is pretty impressive. Lll

[@hnnsdraws]

Thank u for this vid i never really learned how to draw hair

[@ThaetusZain]

I always liked Storm's mohawk back in the day. Can't put my finger on why exactly, it SHOULDN'T fit, she seems almost godlike and mohawks normally don't give those vibes. But it seems to work. I honestly think it would be better if they didn't change the whole costume, where it was still the same white superhero outfit with the only change being the hair.

[@Gidiotic]

You should use the same thumbnail for April's fool with the video focusing on chair.

[@a.j.morrow5533]

1:19 That looks more like another tree than a brick wall. Haha

[@CharacterDesignForge]

😝

[@a.j.morrow5533]

The character with the most iconic hair would definitely have to be Sonic the Hedgehog. (SIT DOWN DBZ FANS!) A character with one of my favorite hairstyles would have to be Tiz Arrior from Bravely Default II. I love how he has this messy permanent hair stick up that parts to one side. His hair was an inspiration I used for one of my characters.

[@evelynleisher8313]

I def agree, but why u gotta choose violence like that?

[@dj-yf9jg]

This video is interesting and helpful!

[@CharacterDesignForge]

Glad it was helpful!

[@dj-yf9jg]

@@CharacterDesignForge OMG, tysm 4 responding!

[@layla9739]

Piers from pokemon swsh. Try to recreate it In any other game.

[@dondemitri3760]

Normal person reading thumbnail: "Character, but hair!" Me reading thumbnail: "Chair-acter"

[@meganjones4127]

Welp- time to start over with all my characters hairstyles. 🤓 JK JK 😂 But Thank you! This was really informative and made me think more about the backgrounds/origins of my characters! :) :D Ummm- favorite hair style of a character? 😳 Tbh I never really paid much attention to hair until now. 🤪 but for what it’s worth, I think your hair style is awesome, wavy or straight. 🤣🤣 Thanks for another awesome video!