How to Paint Hair with Oils

To begin painting the hair, the face has to be softened into the hair.  I brushed around the edges of the face with a slightly darker hue to re-wet the edge of the face.  I then brushed in a fairly dark hair colour (in this case a dark auburn - a lot of Ultramarine Blue with Burnt Sienna).  Feather these two different tones, brushing away from the face, very lightly, with short strokes.  You don't want to lose the edge of the face - just make it soft and blurry.  Ultimately the dark will become a lot lighter.  So then you can reapply the darks, gently dabbing toward the edge of the face again, without leaving a hard edge.

With my dark hue, I brushed in the bigger, more obvious layers of hair.  It's a continual breaking up of the hair.  Don't be too neat.  I'm still using a fairly big flat brush.  Once all the larger sections of hair are separated, fill in the rest with a lighter tone and feather it all off so it is nice and soft.

Now for the detail.  I use a fine No.1 brush with a bit of Liquin added to my mix.  We are going lighter and lighter with fine brush strokes.

So, back to the darks, emphasising gaps and the original folds of hair.  Don't forget the light source for those lovely clean highlights.

Lastly, the hair has to soften into the background.  As you move around the edges of the hair, flick the colours out and about into the background.  Use your background colours, making them slightly darker (e.g. a slightly darker purple against the blue background, a slightly darker orange against the yellow part of the background etc).

Again, not too neat.  Lastly, flick some random hair out and over the hair to make it a bit more natural.  Do this with a very light tone.