How to Draw Straight Hair on Procreate [Easy Beginner Tutorial]

Drawing straight hair is actually harder for me than curly hair.

Curly hair is wild and messy and it’s relatively easy to draw.

I’ve already covered how to draw kinky hair, brown curly hair, blue curly hair, afro hair, twists, and dreads.

You can check out all my other hair tutorials here – I do have a lot of them.

In this post, I am going to teach you how to draw straight hair (since I’ve only been drawing curly hair off late).

I will only use free brushes that come in Procreate so you don’t have to buy anything extra. But I will mention drawing resources you can use to enhance your learning.

You can also use Photoshop or Clip Art Studio.

I will be breaking it down into easy steps so you can follow them no matter how old you are.

Here’s what you will learn to draw:

Add more highlights to the body and you're done. You've drawn straight hair.

It looks complicated, but it’s actually really easy if you do it step by step.

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I am currently using an iPad Pro and an Apple Pencil to create all my illustrations. But you can use any tool – a pen and paper or Photoshop because the drawing method remains the same.

Let’s begin.

Table of Contents

How to Draw Straight Hair for Beginners using Procreate

I’ll begin with drawing the head of the girl first, and then draw her straight hair in new layers.

Please remember to create new layers and this will keep your artwork organized and clean. Meaning, that your outline will be on one layer, your hair color will be on another, your skin color will be on another layer, and so on.

This is because if you want to change the skin color later (to complement your hair color), you don’t have to redo the whole illustration.

So, I prefer keeping different items on different layers.

This will make it very easy to manipulate layers and change colors. If you’re just getting started with digital art, please read these posts to understand what I mean:

Step 1: Draw the character

I’m going to start with a simple cartoon face and shoulders first since the hair is going to be quite long.

I won’t go into detail about drawing the head because this post is mainly about hair.

I’ll start with the outline.

Next, I’ll just give her a sun-kissed look by using the dry ink brush to color her skin a nice tan brown color and add some blush to her cheeks, nose, and shoulders to give her skin some warmth.

I’m adding these colors on 2 new layers underneath the outline layer.

Next, I’ll add a mauve lip color to her lips using the same dry ink brush.

Next, I’ll color her eyes white and add some skin color lipstick to her lips using the Dry Ink brush in Procreate (also free in the app).

I mainly use the Dry Ink and Bonobo brush to draw my characters and hair in Procreate. These are very beautiful and versatile brushes.

But in this drawing tutorial, I will be using the Dry Ink brush and the Studio pen brush more.

Step 2: Draw the rough sketch and base of the hair

Before you draw any hair on a character, always take a moment to think about the shape of how you want your character’s hair to look.

This takes time.

You can use Pinterest or even magazines for inspiration.

This will help you draw beautiful hair.

So, on a new layer over the outline layer, I’m going to go in with a green color using the technical pencil brush and just sketch a rough sketch of the straight hair.

Draw a rough sketch of the straight hair

Note the red arrows to see how I’m drawing the straight hair in the direction of her hair growth.

It’s important to pay attention to how hair grows and how it gently slides down the shoulders when it’s straight hair.

Now, on a new layer underneath the sketch layer, I’m going to color block the whole hair like this.

You can use absolutely any color you want for your character’s hair but I’m using chocolate brown with a hint of purple because I feel it complements her skin tone.

I’m using the studio pen brush for this because it’s a very smooth brush and gives a clean look to the shape.

Next, I’ll hide the sketch layer and add some stray hairs or flyaway hairs like this:

Add flyaway strays to the character's hair

This gives a more organic look to your straight hair.

Once you’re happy with the overall shape, we can proceed to add some definition to her hair.

Step 3: Add strands and definition to the straight hair

Now, it’s time to add more definition and details to her straight hair.

Using a darker color of mauve, I’m going to go in and first draw the strands underneath her hair at the top of her head like this:

Add inner hair strands underneath the top of her hair

When drawing strands, remember to pay attention to the natural direction the hair grows in – in this case it’s outward and sideways since it’s a middle parting.

Next, I’ll start drawing strands on the thick chunk of hair that’s falling on her shoulder here:

Then I’ll draw more strands on the whole side like this.

Here are a few things to remember when drawing strands:

Do not make them parallel – it will not look natural
Just move in the direction of hair growth

Pay attention to the green arrows to see how I do this.

Draw the strands in the direction of hair growth.

Using the same method, I will start on the other side of her hair as well.

Note the arrows to see how I’m drawing the hair strands down her hair:

Once you’re done, remember to add thick strands in her hair at the back of her head – this hair is behind her so will be thick and dense – you want to give the viewer an idea that her hair is voluminous.

Complete drawing straight hair strands throughout the hair

Now, we’re done drawing the straight hair but we can add some shadows and highlights to give it some depth.

Step 4: Add shadows and highlights to the straight hair

So, on a new layer, I’m going to go in with a medium purple and draw shadows behind her head like this:

Add shadows in a base purple to the back of the hair

Once you’re happy with how the shadow looks, change the blending mode to “Multiply” and change the opacity to 45% or less.

You’ll get something like this:

Change the blending mode and opacity of the shadows.

Now, I will add some highlights to the outside of her hair. You can read this post to learn more about how I add highlights and shadows to my drawings.

Using the studio pen brush, I’ll take a light blue (on a new layer) and just shade this zig-zag on the sides of her hair.

This is where the light is hitting the hair.

Then, I will change the blending mode to “Add” and the opacity to 10%. I’ll get something like this.

Change the blending mode and opacity of the highlights

I will repeat the same thing to add some spots on her nose and cheeks – I’ll get something like this:

And voila!

We’ve learned how to draw straight hair on Procreate!

Takeaway – How to draw straight hair + Resources

I hope this in-depth tutorial was helpful to you, and that you were able to learn how to draw straight hair on Procreate.

Drawing hair does get much easier with practice.

You can also get these beautiful hair brushes on Procreate if you’re finding it difficult to draw hair and want a shortcut:

CHECK OUT THE PROCREATE BRUSHES

Trust me. Also, drawing with references helps! You can look at stock photos to see what shape of hair you want before you start drawing hair.

One of the best parts about drawing in cartoon style is that you don’t need to complicate things by adding too much texture. You just have to get the shape right and draw a few lines in the direction of hair growth.

I have a post that you can read on how to find your art style

If you want to see more tutorials on hair and people, just leave a comment down below. You can check out my other posts on drawing hair over here.

I will be adding more hair drawing tutorials to this blog, so keep a lookout!

If you’re looking to improve your drawings faster and want to really draw as a hobby or even pick up drawing professionally, I highly recommend picking up this beautiful online course that teaches you how to draw female cartoon characters.

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