How to Draw Anime Hair Blowing in the Wind

Posted on by animeoutline

This tutorial explains how to draw anime and manga hair blowing in the wind in different directions from two different views with several examples.

Anime hair blowing in different directions drawing

Hair blowing in different directions is often used in anime manga to add dramatic effects, to show the weather conditions or to indicate the direction (and sometimes speed) of a character’s movement.

Being able to show hair motion in a believable way while at the same time maintaining the anime style can be a little bit tricky. To make things easier this tutorial uses fairly simplified drawings along with a breakdown of the hair into different parts as described below.

Splitting Hair Into Different Parts to Make Drawing Easier

Anime hair breakdown drawing — Anime hair breakdown when drawing

When drawing anime hair similar to that in this example it’s a good idea to think of it as splits it into the front, sides and back/top. Viewing the hair as individual parts instead of of just one massive set of clumps can make it much easier to figure out how it should move when being blown in different directions.

You can see the different parts of the hair indicated in different colors in the example above colored as follows:

Red – front hair
Green – sides hair
Blue – back/top hair

For drawing other anime hairstyles see:

How to Draw Anime and Manga Hair – Female

You will also want to know the position of the hairline as parts or all of it may become visible depending on the position of the hair. The hairline will also help you have a rough estimate of where the different hair parts are actually attached to the head. This in turn will help you estimate how the hair should act when moved in different directions.

For more on the hairline see:

How to Draw Anime & Manga Male & Female Hair

As this tutorial focuses on the hair we will only draw the head without most of the facial features. For drawing facial features see:

Drawing Anime Hair Blowing to the Side Drawing

Anime hair blowing to the side line drawing

When drawing anime hair blowing to the side the front view of the head is a good option to go with. This view will allow you to easily show the direction and waves of the hair. If you were to for example pick the side view a large part of the hair would either be hidden by the head or would point directly at the viewer and be very difficult to draw from that angle.

To start the actual drawing make a light line sketch of the head (and hairline) and at least the parts of the body that the hair will reach down to (if you want a full view of the hair). As already mentioned we won’t be drawing the facial features in this tutorial but if you would like to you can make a light sketch of those as well.

Over top of this sketch draw the major shapes of the hair (front, sides and back).

For an explanation of why you want to draw this way and other drawing tips see:

Beginner Guide to Drawing Anime & Manga

Usually shorter hair will curve in the direction of the wind while longer hair will also start to wave. With this in mind you can draw the short front hair just curving in the direction of the wind while the longer back hair can have a more “wave” like shape.

Be aware of the hairline and make sure you don’t draw the individual hair clumps in a way where it looks like they are tearing away from the head. Generally the base of the clumps should remain in roughly the same spot as when the hair is in it’s natural position. This may get a bit confusing as the clumps of the front hair on the right have their bases slightly overlapped by one another. Do your best to estimate their placement.

You can draw the shorter hair clumps simply bending to one side and the longer back hair with more of a “wave” in it.

Draw the main shape of the back hair splitting into smaller clumps towards the end. Try and draw these in different directions and of varying sizes to make them look natural.

You will also notice that in the example the part of the hair that will be hidden behind the body is also shown. The reason for drawing this way instead of just drawing only the two separate lines right away is to make sure that both ends will line up correctly.

For more on this and some other tips see:

Common Mistakes When Drawing Anime & Manga

To wrap up the drawing erase all of the head/body lines that should be hidden and add a few more hair clumps that will stick out from behind the main shape of the back hair. You can also add a few lines here and there to folds in the hair shape.

Finally go over the visible parts of the head and body with darker lines to finish the drawing.

Drawing Anime Hair Blowing Backwards Drawing

Anime hair blowing backwards line drawing

The side view of the head can work very well for drawing hair that’s blowing backwards in the wind.

To draw this type of hair you can use the same principals as for the previous example. Draw the shorter hair clumps bending towards the back of the head followed by the main shape of the back hair.

Once again blend some smaller/thinner clumps into the back hair after you finish drawing it’s main shape. Erase any overlapping lines after you are done.

For adding a “wind effect” for this hair see:

How to Draw Anime Weather (Snow, Rain & Wind) Tutorial

Drawing Anime Hair Blowing Upwards Drawing

For upwards blowing hair you can use the side or front view. For this particular example we will go with the front view but the same principals will still apply when drawing the hair in the side view.

The hairline becomes very important when drawing upwards blowing hair as you will need it to determine the position of the bottom parts of the front and side hair clumps.

You can draw the bottom ends of the front hair clumps just very slightly overlapping the hair though if you want to show very strong upwards blowing wind you can draw the hairline fully shown. For the bottom portions of the side hair you will usually want to draw some curves as the hair in those areas tends to grow downwards and will usually not point straight up even if it has wind blowing against it.

For the upper ends of the front and side hair you can draw the clumps close to upside down versions of the hair in its natural state.

Draw the back hair pointing upwards as a sort of onion or candle flame shape that splits up towards the ends.

Again after you are done drawing the main shapes of the hair add a few extra clumps in the background and erase any “see through” parts to finish the drawing.

Drawing Anime Hair Blowing Forward Drawing

When drawing the hair blowing forward it can again be a good idea to use the side/profile view.

You can again use the suggestions in the first and second example for drawing the front and side hair clumps.

Drawing the back hair is where things can get a little tricky. Unless you want the hair to hide the face you will want to position most of the back hair on the far side o the face. You can again draw this portion the same as the back hair in the first two examples in this tutorial.

To make the hair look more natural we will also draw part of the forward blowing back hair in front of the head. You can draw this portion smaller and position it around the neck area to keep the face more open.

To finish the drawing once again erase any overlapping lines from the face and body and add some extra clumps/folds to both the background and foreground section of the back hair.

Conclusion

Anime hair and hair in general can be quite difficult to draw especially if you want to show it being moved or blown in different directions. By using the breakdown approach as well as starting with just the essential parts of the hair you can make the drawing process a little less confusing and easier to manage.

For other similar tutorials see: