A Comprehensive Guide to Drawing Braids

Braids are a popular hairstyle for people from all walks of life. They represent strength, beauty, and individuality. Some people wear braids to express their personality or mood, while others simply like the way they look. Anyone with long enough hair to braid or have braided can wear braids.

Braiding one's hair has been practiced as an art form and a method of keeping hair neat and tidy in most African cultures since ancient times. It is also used as a personal style expression that can be used to represent one's mood or personality.

They are most commonly done with two strands of hair, and there are numerous braids to choose from, including the Dutch braid, French braid, fishtail braid, and others.

In this tutorial, we will learn about braids and the French braid.

What you'll discover:

• The neck and back
• How to Make Braids
• French braid drawing instructions

Materials required:

• A sheet of paper
• A 0 5mm 2B mechanical pencil
• A graphite pencil in 4B
• A 2 Tombow Mono Zero 3mm eraser
• A stump for blending
• A kneaded eraser or an eraser
• A ruler

You will make the following braids:

These are the steps we'll take you through:

Section 1 - The back and the head

Many tutorials show how to draw braids, but only the hair strands and not how they attach to the head or the logic behind the hair moment.

We will not be drawing any braids in this section. We will learn one of the simplest methods for building and drawing the back view of the back, shoulders, and head so that we can draw our braids on top of.

We will make use of our 0 For this section, use a 5mm 2B mechanical pencil.

Step 1: Draw two parallel lines.

For this step, we'll divide our canvas into four equal parts.

Step 2: Make an oval.

Draw an oval of sufficient size on top of the horizontal line you drew in the previous step.

Step 3: Create a rectangle

Draw a rectangle that falls in the middle of your guidelines, as shown in the diagram. mnk9io,b87gv6ty9

Step four: Make two triangles.

Draw two smaller triangles on the rectangle's sides.

Step 5: Make a large trapezium.

Make a large, wide trapezium. This will serve as the backbone of our base.  

Step 6: Make two circles.

Draw two circles on the trapezium's sides, as shown in the diagram.

Step 7: Sketch two rectangles.

Draw two more rectangles to form the arms of our base.

Step 8: Form the flesh around the bones.

Remove your guidelines and replace them with flesh. To make it look more realistic, use organic curve lines.

That's it; you now know how to build the back structure and can practice it whenever you want.

Section 2 - Braid Drawing Instructions

If you missed the previous section, you can always get the base image here.

Step 1: Determine the direction of your hair.

Gravity has an effect on hair, particularly straight hair. Because of this, when we braid our hair, the braids always go down, pulling hair that should flow around into a tight lump. Hair grows all over our heads, so when we pull it in one direction, the layers of hair that determine the look on the back of our head are the ones that grow on top.

Because all of the hair will be pulled into a braid, it's only natural to see some wild hairs and thin strands strewn about unless we're using hair products or the hair is wet. This minor but critical detail will bring our drawing to life.

The zigzag is the second step.

Braids are made by intertwining thick strands of hair on top of or underneath another. It is difficult to determine where each strand goes, especially when drawing. We can use a zigzag as a base to better understand the structure and shape. It will keep our braids looking neat. We can calculate the size and length of our braids, which greatly simplifies the process.

The third step is to draw the lines.

Because the zigzag lines will be where each strand of hair disappears, it's only natural to draw the braid with small lines from the base of the head to the corners of the zigzag. It appears to be simple, doesn't it? Because many of us get confused and make mistakes, use these diagrams if you can't draw the entire braid in one go.

Step 4: Make the braid.

As previously stated, the hair disappears in the zigzag lines. That is why, in order to achieve a much more realistic effect, On each side of the braid, we will draw small curved lines from the zigzag.

Step 5: Include shadows

Make use of your 2B 0. Fill each strand with small lines (hairs) and shade as shown in the diagram with your 5 mechanical pencil. The shadows will always be darker where the hair goes beneath other strands (the zigzag). That is where our most sinister values will reside.

Step 6: Finish with loose strands

With your mechanical pencil and 4B pencil, add short loose strands to each side of the braid to add depth and thickness variation.

Step 7: Make the hair.

It's now time to draw the hair on the head. Pull small lines with your mechanical pencil and thick lines with your 4B pencil in the direction of the hair shown in step one. For a more in-depth tutorial, visit our "How to Draw Hair" article by clicking here.

Section 3 - Drawing a French Braid

Step 1: Make a zigzag.

Because French braids usually begin on top of the head, we'll draw the zigzag following the direction of a straight line for this step.

Step 2: Cut the hair into segments.

French braids pull hair segments towards the center of the braid, so we must first visually place those segments to build our braid correctly. You can do it one at a time, using curved lines for the top of the head and more loose lines for the base.

Step 3: Visualize and draw the braid's center.

As previously stated, the braid strands begin with the zigzag. However, for french braids, we must leave a small section blank under each strand because the strand will be pulled from the head.

Step 4: Visualize and draw the braid's sides

Draw the strands pulled from the sides of the head as solid shapes to better visualize them.

Step 5: Make the braid.

Using your 0 pencil, erase your sketch and begin drawing the braid. 5 pencils, mechanical To add dynamism to the hair, use both short and long lines.

Step 6: Add some shadows

Because the strands from the sides overlap the strands from the middle, the darkest values will be under the strands as well as on the zigzag (see Section 2).

Step 7: Apply graphite to the sides.

Fill the sides of the braid with a soft graphite layer using your 4B pencil. Don't be concerned about values or shadows just yet.

Step 8: Darken the braid.

Add more graphite to the braid with your 4B pencil, leaving some highlights in the middle of each small section.

Step 9: Include highlights

Remove some fine lines of graphite from the sides of the head with your Tombow Mono Zero, following the direction of each strand.

Step 10: Draw loose hairs

For an extra touch of realism and fluidity, add some loose small and long hairs to the head and braid with your mechanical pencil.

That's it. You've completed your task.

Thank you for following along with this tutorial. You did an excellent job.  

I hope you learned something new today and now have a better understanding of how to draw and shade braids.

Until the next time

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