This tutorial will show you how to draw manga-style hair in wet anime. It includes step-by-step illustrations. This tutorial also shows how drawing wet hair is different from drawing normal/dry hair.
Wet hair is common in anime and manga scenes that involve rain, baths, and swimming. This is true even for scenes that involve water or a character who’s sweating a lot.
Drawing wet hair isn’t as difficult as drawing regular (dry) anime hair, but there are some rules that you can use to show that your hair is wet.
Dry Anime Hair
It’s good to estimate the look of dry hair before you start drawing it wet. Above is the “dry” version.
Although the tutorial only shows one hairstyle, you can use the same technique to draw most of the popular anime hairstyles.
Details about wet hair
Wet hair tends to have less volume than dry hair because it sticks more tightly to the head due to its weight pulling it down. It will tend to hang down and be heavier because it is heavier. This is not the case for all hair types. Hair that’s pulled back rolled up tight or twisted into tight buns are exceptions.
We will separate the hairstyle into three sections to make it easier to draw and better track how hair changes when wet.
For more information on this approach, please visit:
How To Draw Manga Hair – Female
You can think of your hair as a combination of front, side, and top.
Step 1: Draw the front section of your hair
Make an outline of your head before you start drawing hair. Then, draw the hair over the outline. The hidden areas of the head can be erased later.
This article will explain why you should draw it. It also provides some good drawing tips.
Beginner Guide to Drawing Anime & Manga
The front section of your hair should be positioned lower than normal. Keep the individual clumps pointed more downwards in order to indicate that they are water-laden. You can also make the clumps more closely together at their base. This will give the hair a look that is closer to the forehead than wet hair.
This hairstyle is very easy to draw. Even though the example drawing shows a dark line for your hair, you might still want to draw lighter lines that you can easily erase if you’re using a pencil and paper.
Step 2: Draw your sideburns
Below you can see the difference between the dry and the wet sideburns. They will be less full and will not hug the face as much.
The comparison drawing below shows the sideburns as a separate drawing. Your drawing should be similar to the ones shown above.
Step 3 – Draw the top hair
The main difference will be in the volume of the top portion of the hair. Instead of curling to the sides, the bottom clumps will hang more downwards.
If you’re following the tutorial, you’ll need a drawing that is similar to the one shown above.
Step 4 – Draw the Back Hair
This particular hairstyle will have the largest transformation from dry to damp, as the bottom/back section of the hair is the most exposed.
The wet version shows the clumps “squeezed” together. Draw them again pointing down and hanging lower.
After you have finished the back section, you should have a fairly complete outline of your hair.
Step 5 – Clean up the Drawing
This is a quick step that will allow you to simply shave the areas of your head that are not covered by hair, and any other minor adjustments you feel necessary.
It was suggested that you first draw a light line on the hair. Then, you can add darker lines to it.
Step 6 – Drawing the small details of the hair
You can make your hair look more interesting by adding some inner folds/flips to the clumps. We will only show three in this example. You can add more details to your drawing if you need them.
Step 7 – Basic Shading
Step nine is a good place to start if you plan to shade the drawing with pencil and paper.
This is a very simple shading technique. You can fill the hair with one color or one shade of grey. The “bottom back hair”, shades it slightly darker.
You can also add a highlight to your project by following the tutorial:
How to Draw Highlights in Anime Hair
Step 8 – Water Drops Illustration
To further emphasize the idea that hair is wet, you can apply small amounts of water to several areas of the hair clumps.
Only draw water drops at this stage that is either hanging from the ends of the hair or rolling down the sides.
For the water drops at the ends of your hair, make the curves of the water drop shapes narrower towards their top and wider towards their bottom. The water drops should be drawn in a similar way to the upside-down question marks.
You’ll also notice that there are a few drops on the neck and face. Water drops will be found in the hair of characters who have water drops.
Step 9 – Inner Water Drops drawing (Final Step).
You can now add the next set of water drops to the main shape of your hair. These are often drawn in white in manga and anime because they are difficult to see on darker hair.
If you’re using pencil shading, this makes it a bit more difficult to add the water drops. You can leave these areas blank and color around them. To make it easier, you can use fewer “inner drop” lines. You can also use gouache paint to draw your drop directly on top of your pencil shading.
Combining several drops can create wave-like shapes. These wave shapes can be made larger if you want to show that your hair is really soaked.
After you have completed the “inner hair drop” drawing, you should be able to draw anime hair that is wet.
Below is a comparison of wet and dry hair.
Conclusion
Drawing Manga and anime hair are not difficult. Wet hair has fewer volume and clumps that point downwards. To further demonstrate that your hair is wet, you can add some water drops.
You can find more similar products at:
- How to Draw Manga Speech Bubbles Tutorial
- How To Draw Anime & Manga Male & Female Hair
You can find more tutorials about “water” here:
4 Methods to Draw Crying Eyes