First, a warning to fear the horrible coding. It's been at least two years since I've attempted.
SO. The things circled in red are the things that you are going to be learning :D Note that the wavy hair looks bad, because it is, in fact, not wavy hair. But you do not need to worry about that. This tutorial will only show you how to do strait hair. By the end of it, I hope that common sense wins and you will, on your won, know how to do wavy hair!!111one1!1 Joy.
REMEMBER THAT ALL THINGS CAPITALIZED ARE THE THINGS YOU SHOULD READ FIRST (of each step; don't just skip to the capitals in step four when you're on step one. Read every single step unless capitals are involved). ***NOTE!!! When you see 'soft rounded tip', it means the airbrush. I just forgot what it's called, but now that I remember I don't want to go back and change everything.
DUNDUNDUN STEP ONE: Okay, it looks horrible right now. But do not fear. Just brush on whatever colour you want for now; I have no recommandations on which colour to use because I'm no0b, though I think that the best one would be something not too light and not too dark (shut up about the brown).
Here I am using a soft round brush, opacity at 100%. (Note that the pictures in this tutorial was done under a questionably short period of time, so your end result should look better than mine :D)
STEP TWO: Whee. It looks, the slightest bit, like hair now. Using that brush I circled in red (I have no idea what its called), smudge the blocky ends to something more appropriate. (Because I probably was confusing, I meant to use the smudge tool, with that tip shape.)
STEP THREE: Using the soft rounded tip (the kind that was used to brush the shape of the hair), still with the smudge tool, pull some individual strands out (I can''t really explain that, but just look at the image). The brush should be of appropriate size (small), it's opacity set at 70%-90%.
You'll see that miraculously, there are now two blotches of poorly done hair. This is because I wanted to show you what to do with two parts of it (because hair isn't always in one blotch). Basically, still using that soft rounded tip, lightly brush on strands with the brush tool (at a fairly small size, like 5). You'll see that some strands are bigger than others - not because I used a bigger brush, but because I pressed harder. But just a bit harder, or else it'd come out looking horrible and blocky. Of course, you don't always have to connect the two blotches like that. You can just make random strands, following the flow at the side. Make little messy-ish strands that curves back into the blotch, at the sides of the hair (as illustrated). Even really really perfectly strait hair has those :P
STEP FOUR: This step is for the people who wants to be lazy. The result wont be as natural or good as if you don't use this step, but...yes. If you're too lazy to make individual strands, merely select the dodge tool and the burn tool with that weird sprinkly brush tip. Set the opacity to something very low like 20%. If your picture if going to be dull, use the 'midtones' highlight option. If it's more sharp, use the 'highlights' highlight option (this is the option I'm going to use for the rest of this tutorial). Basically what you do is overlap the burns and dodges, until it gets a decent effect. Even then it won't look as good.
IF YOU USED THIS STEP, SKIP TO STEP SEVEN. If you didn't, then merely ignore this and continue on to the next step.
STEP FIVE: SO. The continuation of step three; shading blotches! Yes, wonderful, all you have to do here is use the dodge and burn tool at low opacities (20%), and randomly (calculated randomness, considering the light source and such) shade in blotches! Don't do it too much touch. You can touch it up properly later.
This step is, in fact, so easy, that you don't even have to do it! Joy. SO THIS STEP IS OPTIONAL!!!
STEP SIX: I know that this looks like a big skip. But it's not. I merely did this without saving it between steps by accident.
Anyways, do not fear. All you need to do is use the soft rounded tip with the burn tool, and burn strands into the hair. You don't have to be percise, just make sure they flow in the right direction (that matches the shape of the hair). Set the opacity at 50%-65% (I usually use 58% or 63%). The option to use is 'highlights'.
After burning, dodge with the same tip shape and opacity setting. The option on this is also 'highlights'. Remember to try not to overlap with the burns.
Continue dodging and burning until you get the desired effect. ***NOTE!!! The smaller the brush and the more dodging and burning you use/do, the thicker and fuller the hair will look. Actually, always use a small brush. If you don't, the hair will turn out looking very very oily, divided into obvious strands.
STEP SEVEN: Using a bigger soft rounded tip brush (WHICH I NOW REALIZE IS THE AIRBRUSH...and, it should be very big. Not as big as the whole blotch of hair, but about 1/5 or 1/4 of it), burn in some blocks at a low opacity like 15%-25%. By that, I mean to burn at specific areas, giving the hair a more reailstic depth feel instead of a flat piece. ONLY LIGHTLY BRUSH ON THE BURNS - if you aply too much pressure, it will kill the hair. Make some spots darker than others by stroking the burns on multiple times instead of a hard stroke at once. REMEMBER YOUR LIGHT SOURCE.
STEP EIGHT: The same idea as step seven, except that you're now using the dodge tool. Very very lightly, brush on some highlights - of course, at where the burns aren't at. REMEMBER YOUR LIGHT SOURCE.
STEP NINE: Now for those prettyful light rings - use the airbrush in a size as big, or bigger, than the size used in the last two steps (I recommand bigger). Keep the opacity low, and vertically apply zigzags with the dodge tool. You won't be able to see the zigzag pattern here, but overall it's look more real than if you apply highlights horizontally. ALWAYS KEEP EVERYTHING THE WAY THE HAIR FLOWS. Yes. (I know that the scribbles are covering it, but D: too bad.)
STEP TEN: Now this may look like step nine without the scribbles, but NO. It's not. I used the dodge tool again, at a way smaller size (though in average it'd be medium size) to apply highlights on individual strands (not that individual - but a small group). Do not change the opacity, infact, you can even set it lower (but the lowest can only be 10%. Don't set it lower than that or you'll not only take forever, but you'll also get highlighted blunt ends by the time you're done).
STEP ELEVEN: DUNDUN THE FINAL STEP! Yes, I cheated, so it looks unbelievably ugly. But that's okay. Yours should look way better.
Anyways, all you need to do is some burning. Using the same settings as in step seven, put a dark ring around the top of the head. Make it fade off, make it natural. Make hair blotches along the way (like in step seven, at the top of the head). This would still apply even if you're using a really light colour like blond, or white - just make sure it's a few obvious shades darker than the original colour, but also make sure that it's not black (unless the hair you're working with is black).
AND THUS YOU'RE DONE. Oh dear.
This is the same thing as the image above. Just want to remind you to add a light shadow (light or not depending on the intensity of the light source) to the skin. That's all.
Ah, black hair...no, I didn't burn it. Merely open the Hue/Saturation (Image->Adjustments) window. Set a low saturation, but DON'T DESATURATE IT - black hair is never completely black. Here the hair is black-brown, though you can't tell it's brown. Set the brightness to something as low as the saturation - never make it completely dark (-100%), or you won't be able to see the highlights/strands.
More saturation play - was the previous brown colour I used for this tutorial too sharp for you? It was for me. I want a tamer, softer colour. So I merely set a negative saturation.
I put additional highlights, because I love doing that and the image seemed too dull without it anyways.
This has the same shade as the previous image, except for the fact that I dodged the highlights with the 'midtones' option. If you want something duller - or if you're thinking of a fully white light source - use this option. Personally I don't like it, but you might.
...WELL THE END. :DDDDD
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