How to paint realistic brunette hair
Learn how a pro-figure-painter achieves realistic-looking brown hair on her scale models
There are many ways to paint hair. One of my favorite techniques consists of four easy steps: Base coat, shadows, highlights, and blending. And the best part, you don’t need an airbrush to do it!
First, apply a base color. I like Garage Kits.US (GKU) Rich Brown (No. GK-0-200). Paint in thin layers and build the color to its final opacity. This base color will be the middle ground for the brunette color scheme.
First, apply a base color. I like Garage Kits.US (GKU) Rich Brown (No. GK-0-200). Paint in thin layers and build the color to its final opacity. This base color will be the middle ground for the brunette color scheme.
Make a wash from Golden Acrylic Glazing Liquid (No. 3721-5) with an equal amount of water and a couple of drops of GKU Transparent Burnt Sienna (No. GK-T-461). Apply the wash to the hair and let it naturally flow into the recesses, creating realistic shadows.
Next, time to put in some highlights. This is going to be your brightest color, and I recommend a golden yellow like DecoArt Americana Saffron Yellow (No. DA273). Dry-brushed it over the curls, letting the paint only hit the highest ridges. Don’t worry, we’ll fix how stark it looks next.
To smooth and blend the transitions, mix Golden Acrylic Glazing Liquid with GKU Gold Tone (No. GK-0-207), in a 7:3 ratio for a brownish-yellow transparent color. Less a wash and more a tint or filter, brush it on to the hair and allow the color to tone down the highlights and shadows.
It would be fine to stop here, but I like to give the hair a boost by deepening some shadows with PanPastel black, dark brown, and dark blue with a small brush. After sealing your work with a clear coat, the pastels will blend in with the rest of your work.