How to Color Anime Hair with Colored Pencils

Choose three pencils before you begin

A small value family is easier to control than a large collection. Pick one pencil for the local or base color, a darker related pencil for shadow, and a pale pencil for highlights and transitions. For blue hair, that might be sky blue, deep indigo, and pale aqua. For brown hair, try warm ochre, dark umber, and cream. Black hair can begin with cool gray, deepen with indigo or dark brown, and use black only in the darkest pockets.

Test the trio on spare paper. Make a strip that moves from the pale pencil through the base and into the shadow. If the three colors merge without a sudden muddy jump, they are ready. If you own only a small pencil set, vary pressure with two colors instead: light pressure creates the pale passage, while repeated layers create depth.

• Warm brown: cream, ochre, dark umber
• Cool black: pale blue-gray, indigo, black
• Fantasy pink: blush, magenta, plum
• Golden blond: ivory, golden yellow, light brown

Decide where the light comes from

Choose one light direction before coloring. A simple light from above and slightly to one side works well for most portraits. Place a small arrow on scrap paper so you do not quietly move the light halfway through the page.

Now find the large hair masses: fringe, crown, side locks, ponytail, or back section. The top-facing parts receive more light. Roots, the underside of the fringe, hair behind the neck, and places where one lock crosses another usually become darker. This is a planning shortcut, not a law of physics; its purpose is to make the hairstyle readable.

• Lightest: broad bands facing the light
• Middle: most of each hair shape
• Darkest: roots, overlaps, undersides, and gaps

Treat the hair as ribbons, not separate strands

Anime hair is designed with simplified shapes. Follow those shapes. Imagine each lock as a gently twisting ribbon with a light side, a middle, and a shadow side. Lay your pencil strokes along the direction from root to tip. Curved locks need curved strokes; straight fringe needs straighter ones.

Avoid filling the entire shape with tiny parallel lines. That can make smooth stylized hair look furry. Instead, color broad, quiet passages first. Add a few sharper directional marks near roots, tips, and major bends after the values are established. Those selected marks suggest texture without breaking the clean silhouette.

Build color with light, patient layers

Begin with the lightest useful pressure, holding the pencil a little farther from the tip. Cover the midtone areas with small overlapping strokes or gentle directional passes. Faber-Castell’s current technique guidance recommends a shallow pencil angle and light pressure for even shading, and notes that repeated overlays can intensify color. This is helpful for hair because early light layers leave room to adjust the hue and value.

Add the base color over the middle and shadow zones, but keep the brightest highlight mostly untouched. Repeat the layer rather than pressing hard immediately. Alternate your stroke direction slightly in broad areas to reduce obvious gaps, then return to the hair’s flow for the final visible marks. If the paper begins to look shiny or stops accepting pigment, pause; heavy pressure has already compressed much of its texture.

Group the shadows before making them dark

Use the shadow pencil lightly to connect related dark areas. A shadow beneath the fringe can continue into the temple locks; a dark root can taper into the center of a curl. Connected shadow groups make the hairstyle feel like one form instead of a collection of outlined pieces.

Deepen the smallest dark accents last: narrow gaps between locks, the point where a tie gathers a ponytail, and tiny contact shadows where hair touches the face or clothing. Keep some reflected base color inside large shadows. Coloring every shadow with maximum darkness removes the room needed for those final accents.

Shape a highlight that follows the hairstyle

A common anime-hair highlight is a broken band crossing several locks. Make the band curve around the head rather than drawing a perfectly straight stripe. It can widen on locks that face the light and narrow or disappear where the hair turns away.

For soft shine, lightly overlap the base color into both edges of the reserved band, then glaze the pale pencil across the transition. For graphic shine, leave a cleaner paper-white shape with a few interruptions. Do not outline the highlight in dark pencil unless the illustration’s line art already calls for that effect; a hard border can make shine look pasted on.

Blend selectively, and save pressure for the end

Layering and burnishing are different tools. Layering uses repeated applications to mix color while the paper can still receive more pigment. Burnishing smooths layers with firmer pressure, often using a light pencil or colorless blender. Prismacolor’s guidance describes burnishing as a heavy-pressure method, while its blender guidance cautions that too much pressure can leave wax buildup. Both points lead to the same practical habit: do most decisions with light layers and smooth only where you want a polished finish.

Try burnishing the brightest side of a lock while leaving the shadow side slightly textured. This contrast can make the highlight feel glossier. Clean a pale pencil’s tip on scrap paper before moving it across a dark layer, or it may carry dark pigment into the highlight.

Try one of three simple hair recipes

For glossy dark hair, start with cool gray, layer indigo through the middle and shadow areas, then add black only at roots and narrow overlaps. Preserve a crisp, curved highlight band. For soft pastel hair, use pale pink over most of the shape, lavender in the grouped shadows, and cream or white to soften selected transitions. Keep the darkest marks restrained so the result stays airy.

For warm natural hair, lay down ochre with light pressure, add burnt orange or medium brown through the lower planes, and finish the deepest areas with dark umber. A cream pencil can unify the light side. In every recipe, the value structure matters more than owning the exact named colors.

Fix the most common anime-hair problems

If the hair looks flat, strengthen the difference between the crown and the undersides before adding more strands. If it looks striped, soften a few boundaries and join small shadows into larger groups. If it looks scratchy, use a sharper pencil with lighter overlapping passes rather than forcing one heavy layer.

If the highlight disappeared, do not scrub the page. Strengthen the adjacent midtone and shadow so the remaining light area appears brighter by contrast. If the palette feels disconnected from the face and outfit, repeat a small amount of the hair hue in the eyes, accessory, or clothing shadow. A tiny echo can make the whole character feel intentional.

A ten-minute practice before the full page

Draw or trace three simple leaf-like locks on scrap paper. Color the first with a soft blended highlight, the second with a crisp white highlight, and the third with no shine—only a light-facing side and a dark-facing side. Use the same three pencils each time.

Compare them from arm’s length or take a grayscale phone photo. Which version makes the form easiest to read? Which suits the character’s mood? This small test teaches more than experimenting across an entire finished page, and it gives you a reliable recipe to repeat.

Keep exploring

Build the character’s full color story →
Choose a coordinated palette for hair, eyes, skin, clothing, highlights, and shadows.

Browse all coloring guides →
Find more practical techniques and screen-free creative ideas in Rei’s journal.