I tried I guess

For those of you that don’t know what 4c hair is, 4c hair is a hair texture type that contains coils to small and tight that the hair appears to be more puffy rather than curly ( like to photo below ) this is in NO WAY to be confused with curly hair. there is a drastic difference.

As a black artist that primarily draws characters with 4c hair, I’ve been asked many times to do a tutorial on 4c hair so here we go~

before we get into 4c hair, lets take a moment to fully understand it by talking about hair texture in a general sense first

let’s take a look at this example of straight hair vs curly hair ( 1 type straight hair vs 3 type curly hair )

If you take a moment to compare the two you’ll notice straight hair is flat, it has no texture. Straight hair perfectly hangs down similar to liquid-like silk. It’s lack of curl pattern is the reason as to why it hangs perfectly flat.

curly hair on the other hand doesn’t lie down flat and silky like straight hair, It’s more thick. Curly hair in it’s raw and unstyled state has a trapezoid like shape this is because the sides of the hair spread more outward.

So why is this? Why is straight hair flat and curly hair thick?

the answer to that question is a thing called piling up. When it comes to hair texture, the shape of the hair strands aren’t the only thing that matters, its how the strands coexist with each other, Curly hair strands coexist by piling up on top each other.

moisture also effects hair texture too, different hair types absorbs moisture differently, thus the thickness of each hair type is different. 

…..soooo, how does this all relate to how to draw 4c hair?? 

Well let’s take a look at the drawing below. Notice how the arrows go outward more as the hair texture gets curlier. As we’ve already discussed, this is because hair piles up, The curlier the hair texture, the more it piles up on each other, the bigger it gets, the more outward the arrows go.

Out of any hair texture, 4C hair has the most curls. Because of this, the hair piles up on each other so much that it doesn’t lie down flat like straight hair, nor does it make a trapezoid like shape like curly hair, it instead becomes more cloud like.❤️

This is what you need to take into account when it comes to drawing 4C hair.

Think of it as piling up a bunch of cotton balls on each other. The most cotton on top of top to lead to a bigger patch of  cotton. this is 4c hair.

How to not draw 4c hair:

Garnet fanart. Let’s talk about Garnet Fanart. I notice a trend that when artists draw Garnet from Steven universe, her hair texture is usually changed to 3 type curly like texture. This subtle form of White washing has confused me because this is inaccurate. 

Garnet’s hair is in the shape of a cube. Though 3 type hair piles up on each other, it isn’t curly nor thick enough for their hair to stay in the shape of a cube. Curly hair lies down more than 4c hair. So garnet’s hair being in the shape of a cube is a dead giveaway that it is 4C. Why do you think hairstyles like flat tops are usually seen on black men with 4c hair? It’s because, the 4c hair texture is thick and strong enough to stay in whatever shape you put it in.

please, if you’re drawing a character with 4c hair, avoid drawing it like curly 3 type hair, this is very anti-black and texturist.

So, how do you draw 4c hair?

honestly, its the most easy thing in the world

i wanna clarify that blobby looking 4c drawings ( like the one on the top left ) can work depending on how cartoony your art style is.

Another thing that I want to greatly clarify when it comes to drawing 4C hair is, YOU. DONT. NEED. TO. DRAW. EVERY. HAIR. STRAND!…..like, seriously. I’ve gotten many messages about how 4C hair is hard to draw, and it’s always left me confused; but then I find out that the same people that have trouble drawing 4C hair, attempt to draw every single strand of hair. This is unnecessarily time consuming because it’s merely impossible to get every single detail down, especially when you have a simple cartoon style. 4C hair does not require much effort, all you’re doing is drawing lumps. It’s that simple, nothing more nor nothing less.

The reason why I greatly advise all of you to avoid drawing every single hair strand is because in real life, when you look at a 4C textured Afro, your eyes don’t pick up on each individual hair strand like straight or curly hair. 4C hair, appears to be more undefined and cloud like, so attempting to draw each and every individual strand is unnecessary and will most likely end up looking inaccurate.

Some of the reference images I used to create my Thumbelina redesign!

I am the artist!!! Don’t repost without permission & credit! Thank you!

Can we c̸̡̢͎̦̖̈́ ą̷̦̩̼͎̜̓̑̄̔́͝ͅͅͅ n̷̨̝̯̙̤͆̈̇́ͅ c̴͕͓̰̦̪̭͎͖̠̋͒̀͜ ę̷̧̙͖̼̘̦̬̦̺̈͒͆͊͝ l̵̜͉͓̥͊̑͛̚̕  shoulders?

buy them on etsy

tip her on kofi

A mouth-watering fuck-ton of hand references.

I am so serious when I say if you want to learn about light, you NEED to at least look at modeseven’s tutorials. even if you’re not pursuing a painterly style, this is all essential theory that can be easily adapted to different coloring styles. notice how none of these ever say ‘light with these colors and shade with these colors’? notice how this is teaching how light works on a mechanical level, and reminding the audience to adjust the actual colors they choose by context? THAT is good advice.

@cutabello that’s a great hashtag but they are mainly selfies and im looking for things like this:

Im trying to find POC photography where there are in the world and being magical, or being with family, or going on adventures or anything other than it just being a selfie or talking about racism. Yes racsim should be addressed but I’d love to see more POC in surrealistic or domestic photography where there isn’t an explanation for them being there they just are. Like this:

@openheartopenhead OH MY GOSH????

Within 5 mintues I found EXACTLY what I was looking for? This is amazing i can’t even fit all the photos i found im floored!!

don't let yourself get caught out! know your draconic lore

…… hm.

when i say “do not repost” i mean, do not: 

save my art to your computer

reupload it to your own social media site, especially without credit

exploit my my art so you can become more popular/get more attention/etc

reblogging/retweeting is not the same as reposting. those actually allow the artist to keep ownership of their own art as it gets spread around. they are different things.

it’s not that i don’t want my art to be on the internet. that’s why i post it. but i don’t want OTHER people taking credit for MY art and the hard work i put into it. i have a store where i sell my art. having people repost my art to their own sites literally takes money away from me. because people don’t know that I’M the artist who drew it, then they don’t know about my store, and instead consume my art mainly through websites that repost my art for their own amusement or profit.

do you know how many japanese artists have deleted their pixiv/twitter accounts because people kept reposting their art without permission, OR credit, and have even profited from stealing their work? so much art is floating out there without an owner because the japanese artists were harassed so much due to their art constantly being reposted without any credit to them, that they had to disappear from the internet just so they could keep ownership of the rest of their art. 

do you know how many people found my art through pinterest? i’ve gotten so many messages from people saying they found my art there, and it took them anywhere from days to WEEKS to find me and my blog, because most, if not all of it was posted 1. without credit, or 2, without a link back to the original, because the pinterest user reuploaded it from their own computer. 

do you know how many people try to apply for jobs with their art, but can’t seem to claim ownership of their own portfolio because it’s been so spread out and reposted everywhere on the internet, that companies can’t be sure that the person they’re interviewing is the actual artist themself?

i don’t think you understand just how detrimental reposting is to artists. and i don’t think you understand how important it is for people to respect artists’ wishes. my art is not yours to use for your own amusement. there is a reason why most websites have a dmca report option, to take down unauthorized use of their art. even the law recognizes it as a personal right.

i do want my art to be shown to the world, but under my own terms. i want my wishes in regards to my art to be respected. you are not doing me any favors by reposting my art onto other sites without permission or credit. just the opposite, in fact–your hurting me personally, financially, and possibly hurting my chances of earning a job with my art. 

so in conclusion, here are the dangers of reposting:

the artists loses ownership of their art

no one knows who made it anymore, and don’t care

the artists stop making art because all that happens is their art gets reposted without a source, and so they prefer to disappear off the internet entirely. the world has now just lost an amazing artist.

people make a profit off their art, literally stealing money and potential customers from them, because no one knows where the art originated from

they lose job opportunities because the reposting and art theft is so ubiquitous, that even if they are the original artist, no one can be sure of that.

etc.

reposting is detrimental. it’s not the same thing as reblogging/retweeting, it’s something that literally harms artists in the long run. 

at the end of the day, the biggest way to prevent this from happening is by respecting the artist’s wishes with some basic human decency. that’s literally it.

Do you realize how ridiculous that sounds?? That’s like… If you don’t want your car stolen, don’t park it on the street. If you don’t want to get stabbed, don’t go outside??