I think this is just a bloomin' awsome picture! I love the lighting, the hair and the designs on the coat! Great!

Hi John,

I read your article on how to create her hair in the November issue of FX, and although it was detailed, you left out a lot of information on how you were able to create the look. I finished reading the article with about as much information as I had going into it, just with a beautiful example to look at.

Here are some of my questions;

1). Opacity and flow on the brushes. Are they at 100% flow? Do you have a preferred range, i.e. 30-60%?

2). Hair color selections and why? Obviously you used some other colors from the image to accent the hair, but do you work dark to light? Do you go over the final image with darker paint to create the textures in the character's hair?

3). Fading the tips of the hair and blending. Do you use the eraser tool on different opacities? Hard brush or soft? How about the blur tool? Is that useful in dulling out some of the specific details in the hair towards the back of the head to reduce the detail?

If you see this and get my message, i'd love to hear what you have to say about the illustration.

Hey guys, thanks for the comments and sorry about the tremendously long delay in getting back to you! I have had several issues with my forum account that has meant I've been unable to post. I hope you get to read this reply because I get the feeling my accounts will have to be deleted so that I can create a new one!

Glodefunk: Hi there, firstly I'd like to thank you for reading the tutorial! I'm sorry you feel that I glossed over the issues you wanted me to address. I don't want to make excuses, but it was a mini tutorial and there wasn't a lot space to cram in everything I wanted to say. I ended up editing a lot of text out when it came to the final article because of the word count limitations. However, I do feel the final edit covered the main points of the process I personally use when I'm painting hair. To go into further detail could have taken up the whole magazine as there are so many techniques involved that are almost impossible to explain.

Anyhow, I shall try to address some of your questions as best I can..

1. For the majority of the time, I keep opacity/flow set to 100% because I generally control my strokes with the pressure sensitivity of my Wacom pen.

2. I nearly always work from dark to light, and I have made this clear in previous tutorials. Generally, I try not to repeat to much information because I do not have that luxury (considering the space allocated per tutorial). I think you would get a much clearer idea of my working methods by reading some of my older workshops. My workflow is fairly consistent - I nearly always start with a sketch that is set to 'multiply', and then I paint underneath that layer with some foundation colours - working from dark to light. Above the 'multiply' layer I will paint highlights etc. As far as colour choice goes, that's just down to personal preference and not something that you should really attempt to teach. You can use basic colour theory (e.g. complimentary colours) as a guide, but overall I feel it's down to personal expression. I chose white hair because it was more in tune with the sci-fi feel I was looking for, and I used blue accents on the hair to compliment the eye colour and surrounding light.

3. I believe there is "pro tip" that gives you a few ideas for fading out strands and clumps. I didn't use the blur tool at any point (although it might be useful) and I use both hard and soft edged brushes. Hard when I want detail, soft when I don't. Additionally, I sparingly used the eraser to fade out some hair tips, but mostly I just drew them with the hard edged brushes (size value set to pen pressure).

Hope I've cleared a few things up for you..

All the best :)

Thanks John. The answers did help make it a bit more clear. I need to go practice some more! :)

I'll be looking forward to seeing more of your work in the mag. I like your art style a lot.

Take Care.

Hi John, I just wanted to drop by and say thanks for this article, even if it was a while ago! It, and the brushes that went with it, are part of my aily digital arsenal, and it's the first place I point people when they ask me about how I do hair. Thanks for all the awesome art and tips. You're an inspiration!

i like the work. i like that style

Great work. Ages since i read the Dune novels.

Water is life!