I’ve been getting a lot of requests to do a demo on how to draw braid styles, since many of my social media posts have shown off colorfully illustrated hair with braid aspects. You can check out my project time-lapse on YouTube by clicking the Title link on this post. Hair is my absolute favorite thing to draw, so I wanted to share a few tips!

1.) Understand your Process - Do you like to build up your color, layer by layer, or do you prefer to go dark and work your way backwards? Understanding that I’m a person who does best by starting out dark and lightening the layers helped me to figure out which medium was best for me to use. I used the iPad Pro & Apple Pencil for this exercise (which is a little more forgiving). If you like to build your layers up, I would highly recommend using Copic Markers since they are blendable and come in many shades, or even watercolor.

2.) Know Your Light Source - Be sure to know where your light source is coming from that way you can work with shadows, highlights, midtones, etc. For this exercise, the light source was coming directly from the center.

3.) Study Subject & Be Patient - Observe your model/subject/hairstyle. Braids can be intimidating to draw at first. Study the direction of how the hair weaves in and out and figure out the points of intertwining. Do not rush yourself, and be patient with yourself when trying something new.

4.) Highlights = Dimension and Shadows = Depth - With each “piece” of the braid, just know that the edges of it will need darker tones for depth, and the part that protrudes outward the most will need highlights to show how rounded it is in dimension. The sections that weave will need to be dark as well.

5.) Build Layers - Whether you are working darker or lighter, use layers. It will contribute to the dimensional aspect of it.