2012 Promarker Tutorials - 1 - Red Hair

Here we are with the first of the new batch of promarker tutorials by request!  This one is going to look at red hair.  There is a basics tutorial followed by a more intermediate one below it.
Please note that to get a clear picture for you the colours appear slightly different than they do in real life ie the red pen looks brown!

For the purpose of this tutorial I have chosen the image IZZY by Di's digi downloads which is $2 (approx £1.28) should you wish to get it yourself but you can practice on any image you like.
*I am not affiliated with Di's digi downloads nor on the design team, Izzy used with permission*

You should be able to get a larger view by clickng directly on the pic.

Red hair is like asking how long is a piece of string, there are so many shades and combinations!  For this I've gone with a mid range red and will give you some extra combinations to try.

Promarkers used

1. GOLD
2. ORANGE
3. CRIMSON
4. HENNA (optional)

NOTE: Picture may display differently on your screen resolution, on mine it appears a bit browner than it actually is!

STEP 1 - Start with the GOLD pen and colour in as below.  Notice how the hair rises up where I've left the whte bits and you can see this by the lines on many stamped images.  This is your highlight point and something to practice looking out for.
Some people start with the darkest colour first but I don't do this for 2 reasons, firstly blending in a dark shade onto dry card takes work and is more likely to put too much ink down and bleed over the lines, this is something for when you feel you've got a better grasp of colouring techniques to switch to should you wish and secondly if you make a mistake its much harder to colour over dark colours.  I use the lightest first so I can see my highlights and how the hair falls.

Leave quite large bits of white as you can always colour further into them later.

STEP 2 - Taking your ORANGE pen colour over most of the yellow leaving a small amount of the gold showing.  Youl should now be able to identify the shadow areas much easier now, look at the parting, its a dip so will be a shadow, around the ends of the plait knots etc.

STEP 3 - Now you've identified the shadow areas colour in a smaller amount of the CRIMSON leaving part of the orange showing.  Don't be neat with this and flick in the direction the hair is running so you dont have perfect straight lines.

STEP 4 - Take your GOLD again and colour over all of the hair going further again into the white you left leaving just a small bit showing.  There's no specific way you should do this, I just scribble in the direction of the hair from the shadow bit towards the light bit.

STEP 5 - Repeat step 2 and use your ORANGE leaving the GOLD showing a bit again.

STEP 6 - Repeat Step 3 and use your CRIMSON again as before

STEP 7 - Lastly colour over the entire hair again with your GOLD leaving the white until the very last then just swipe over that once or twice.  As an added option you can add a little bit of HENNA to the very darkest areas ie the parting and ends of plaits and give this literally a lick with the GOLD!

INTERMEDIATE

Now you're a dab hand at adding a lovely shine to hair you can play around a bit more and look at the various highlights and shadows there are.  If you have a good look at the image you can see there are parts of the hair that are clearly behind others so will appear darker and some much higher so will be lighter highlights.

STEP 1 - Use your GOLD to colour in the areas that are going to be darker, this helps identify where your shadows will lie and are easier to hide if you make a mistake!  Leave your highlights white at this point.

STEP 2 - Add your ORANGE over most of your gold as building up layers of colour help give depth to an image.

STEP 3 - You should be able to see clearly now where your darkest parts are going to be so colour these in CRIMSON.

STEP 4 - Go back to your GOLD and colour over most of the hair leaving just the very highest points white as your highlights.

STEP 5 - Add in more ORANGE covering most of your GOLD and leave the white bits again.

STEP 6 - Using your CRIMSON add this to your darkest points again leaving larger parts of the orange showing so here its is again in the parting, the fringe and along the edges of most of the strands.

STEP 7 - Blend in (colour over the entire hair) with the GOLD.  Remember as the basic lesson leave the white tll the very end and just go over that briefly.

Again you can add just a touch of HENNA if you wish and give a brief flick over with the GOLD again.  Here's the 2 sde by side, they both have a different look but the intermediate one you can see the layers of the hair a lot more.

So remember experiment and play!

Try different combinations and make a note of what you like or keep a book or ndex file with samples in to refer back to.  Have a try with these combos below or make up your own!  Simply replace 1 (gold) 2 (orange) 3 (crimson) 4 (Henna) with combos below

1. Gold, 2. Ginger, 3. Spice (light ginger)

1. Amber, 2. Orange, 3. Burnt Orange (very ginger!)

1. Amber, 2. Orange, 3. Burnt Orange, 4. Henna (very ginger again but more evenly toned)

1. Ginger, 2. Cardinal Red, 3. Walnut, 4. Henna (a deep red brown)

1. Baby pink, 2. Crimson, 3. Henna (A plum red)