Hair

I really believe that painting good hair is all about reflected light. Shadows, main tone, multiple highlights. Think of shampoo commercials on TV, they are about strong color and a lot of shine. If you just drybrush the upraised lines that many sculpts have in their hair, it won't look right.

When I paint hair, I usually cover the area with the main color, then add the shadows, then highlights. I will sometimes use a wash (a tiny bit of paint in a lot of water) to darken a shadow or use the main color to calm highlights or shadows that are too extreme. I almost always use pure white now as the highest highlight when painting hair.

Blond

Use ochre yellow as the main color. ochre + ivory as highlight, then maybe ivory, then white. Shadows can be a tan, or brown to burnt umber. For pale blond, I often mix the ochre yellow with white instead of ivory.

Redhead

Use a main color of either a reddish brown (auburn) or orange. If you want to paint orange hair, consider mixing the orange with a flesh tone to make it look natural. Highlights usually a light blond or ivory, then white. Shadows usually a reddish brown. For auburn, use a reddish brown as the main color, use burnt umber or black-brown as shadow, red-brown + ivory mix for highlights, then white.

Brunette

Use black in shadows, whatever brown is your main, lighter browns or ivory mixes for highlights, then white. I'll sometimes use cold browns as the darker colors and warm brown for the highlights.

Black

Use black as your main color, use a dark grey, blue, purple, dark brown as your highlight, paint in the reflections with white.

Grey

Use a grey as your main color black or dark grey as shadow, mid-greys to ivory as highlights, then white.

White

Use ivory as the main color, then use a pale tan,grey, yellow ochre, etc... as your shadows, with white highlights.

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