How To Draw Wet Hair

Tips for drawing wet hair?

Questions, skill improvement, and respectful critique involving art assets.

Endorphin: Veteran; Posts: 366; Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:52 am; Location: Germany; Contact:

Tips for drawing wet hair?

#1 Post by Endorphin » Sat Oct 13, 2012 12:00 pm

Hey there, guys~

I'm currently working on a picture where the character comes up from the water and I'm totally failing at her hair.
I know that wet hair appears darker and that it has less volume and sometimes starts curling. Adding a few water drops will surely help, too.
But it's still rather... well. D;

Does anybody has some tips about highlights or other stuff to keep in mind?

- R.

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Re: Tips for drawing wet hair?

#2 Post by Sharm » Sat Oct 13, 2012 6:07 pm

It's also clumpier and will cling to the face and neck. The highlights should probably be less blended, be a harsher difference and take up less space. Drawing hair normal when it's wet is a big pet peeve of mine, I'm glad you're attempting to make it look different.

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Re: Tips for drawing wet hair?

#3 Post by junna » Sat Oct 13, 2012 7:20 pm

^^;;; if it was me, I would be taking pictures of my flatmates after they wash their hair in different light conditions. But anyway, wet hair also tends to look just a bit longer than dry hair because it's heavier. If the character has long hair and has it tied into a ponytail or braid...the hair styling would droop slightly.

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Re: Tips for drawing wet hair?

#4 Post by 15385bic » Sun Oct 14, 2012 1:36 am

i find that drawing hair strands more straggly and limp would be the way to go. More hair strands then normal. add some curl at some of the edges. add water droplets.
cant really say much about highlights....i would think that hair would reflect light easier so more shiny??

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Re: Tips for drawing wet hair?

#5 Post by junna » Sun Oct 14, 2012 1:40 am

15385bic wrote:More hair strands then normal. add some curl at some of the edges. add water droplets.

ehh? why does everyone else's hair curl when wet? My hair and my flatmate's curly one (real one) is straight as a board (or straight-er for miss curly hair over there) and heavy when wet (looks longer too) and puffs back to its original length plus curls at the ends (or back to its original curls) when dry. hmm...I must have more wet hair resources...

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Re: Tips for drawing wet hair?

#6 Post by Taosym » Sun Oct 14, 2012 2:38 am

Wet hair clings to the skin and loses most of it's volume, it also looks much darker wet, than dry. So you would draw it flatter, darker, falling in the face, the eyes. It would also be much shinier than dry hair as it reflects more light.

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Re: Tips for drawing wet hair?

#7 Post by Endorphin » Sun Oct 14, 2012 8:53 am

Thanks for the tips, everybody. :>
I'll make some more sketches~

Another question...
If somebody "jumps out" of the water (I don't know how to describe it, and thus I don't know the keywords and don't find good references D:), will the hair stay flat on the head because of the weight or will it move a bit because of the motion?
Thank you for your time. <3

- R.

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Re: Tips for drawing wet hair?

#8 Post by Auro-Cyanide » Sun Oct 14, 2012 10:47 am

Ryouko wrote:Thanks for the tips, everybody. :>
I'll make some more sketches~

Another question...
If somebody "jumps out" of the water (I don't know how to describe it, and thus I don't know the keywords and don't find good references D:), will the hair stay flat on the head because of the weight or will it move a bit because of the motion?
Thank you for your time. <3

- R.

Gravity and motion will still act upon it, it will just take more than usual and because of the extra weight and the more solid form it will stay in motion longer. It's not going to blow around in a light breeze, but if you turn quickly it will spin out (and probably hit you in the face). Also, if you are coming directly from the water, the hair might actually stick to the body and be very sleek. After a little while out of the water it starts to pull into the twisted strands and after that it will start to fuzz as it dried. Of course that all depends on what type of hair we are talking about. An afro is going to react very different to fine hair.

The direction and the momentum of the hair directly relates to the original source. If it helps, imagine the strands of hair are actually strands of beads attached to a pole. What happens if you spun it in the direction you are imagining? Where do the beads go?

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Re: Tips for drawing wet hair?

#9 Post by CtrlAltLee » Sun Oct 14, 2012 1:01 pm

Yeah, these tips and references are really good, but the best idea is what junna said. Take a shower or bath, and just record you hair afterwards with your phone or whatever doing the pose you need. (Or look at a film with wet hair scenes, but so many movies are CG editted to make the leads perfect looking anything recent might not be reliable) If you feel uncomfortable doing that just put on a bathing suit. It'll save a lot of time to just know what it should look like opposed to guesswork and estimation.