lean blaze
I’m really struggling to highlight the hair on this fairy. It feels like if lost the vibrant colour while highlighting and almost has made the hair look grey. I would love some advice on how I could highlight it to look more realistic without losing vibrancy
latent pecan
Hi, the answer is glazing 🎉.
Hair is an element that can be interpreted almost as an NMM, highly reflective, very shiny and contrasting. Just like with metals, when adding an increasingly lighter color to create this effect of a lot of light, it is common to lose intensity, because the closer to white the result becomes, the more desaturated it becomes. In fact, you can see in the photo the existence of a slight grayish color in the shadow areas, something that we should avoid if the objective is to intensify the contrast. Use a medium-dark color, closer to the color of your shadow than to the highlights. Colors with greater transparency usually work easier, such as yellows, oranges and reds. In your case, it would be a reddish brown. Since it is a very shiny surface, ink could be used. If the color is too dark, try applying it without reaching the areas of greatest light. If in doubt, dilute it a little more and, if necessary, reapply the work, if you have not recovered the saturation. I hope this comment is useful and be sure to share the result with us. If you have any questions or if there is anything that I have not explained clearly, just ask! 😃