Eyes beneath hair

[Coren]

When you draw faces, and the hair covers part of the eyebrow and eyes, do you allow it to be completely opaque? Or do you allow the eyes/eyebrows to be seen through the hair? Or do you make it slightly visible (and if so, how?)?

[Zylinder]

Opaque. The whole invisible hair thing is an extremely anime phenomena, so it really depends on whether you're doing that style. I don't think it adds much to the look though.

[LVUER]

Depend on your style, and depend on the condition. I usually draw the eyes completely visible since eyes are the ones who show emotion. But sometime, I want the eyes covered by the hairs. And also sometime when the hair isn't blocking the eye too much, I draw all the hair.

[15385bic]

well - i like to make it somewhat see through (when i'm not feeling lazy)
i do this by drawing the eyes on a different layer above and at the end after all the colouring etc - us the eraser tool at low opacity to see some of the hair underneath


but when i'm lazy the eyes are solid abov the eye layer >_>

just an eye >_>

[RunicV]

Personal opinion here.
It bugs me out when it's either opaque or translucent.
That's mostly because locks of hair aren't one gigantic clump of thick paper, so it shouldn't be so opaque that it covers everything behind it. Then again, it's also not fully translucent because it is opaque, so if I can see everything behind it it just seems weird.
Locks of hair are made out of individual strands of hair that are opaque, but there's space between the individual strands, so it's not fully opaque.

My style is to lower the opacity, so like what bic does(but maybe not so low). The opacity level depends on the colour of hair, light source and amount of hair in that section. Remember that hair is opaque, so there's actually shadows beneath it. A darker hair colour tends to absorb more light, so higher opacity as compared to a light hair colour.
For layers of hair, if it's the back of the head there's more hair there, so just like cross hatching, the more layers, the darker it is. So for people with bangs with lots of layers in front of their eyes, it's very opaque, but for those who have a thin layer, the opacity is really low.

Sorry for wall of text.

[icecheetah]

I don't mind seeing eyes through hair, unless the hair goes completly invisible and 1) looks like it's dissappearing into the eye and 2) makes it look like the character has hair that floats around the eye. But personally, I wouldn't draw it.
I prefer it opaque because, while RunicV is right about how the hair CAN be see through because it's made of individual strands, when I look at my hair the clumps of hair over my eyes are thick enough to be as good as opaque. Kinda like how a jar filled with sand isn't translucent even though it's made of grains.

[Deji]

I try not to cover the eyes with hair when drawing characters, and if the hair covers the eyes, I don't let it be transparent.
With the eyebrows, it depends, really... I normally erase the bits going under the hair, or erase some bits, so you can see 'some' of the eyebrows but it's not like they're on top of the hair. When I'm lazy, I just draw the eyebrows on top of the hair.

[LateWhiteRabbit]

It's probably my traditional art background, but I never make the hair over the eyes transparent. It actually really bugs me when I see it in anime or manga. If your character's eyes are important, don't design their hair to cover them up! And a few strands or locks covering part of the eyebrows or eyes isn't going to stop an expression from reading clearly.

[Pyonkotchi]

for some stuff some i draw the eyes separate from the rest, so i'll erase what shouldnt be visible
usually for like sprites, i draw hair and skin separate then i can stick the eyes in between those layers

some i have i just dont care since it isnt as noticeable,or its only covering a tiny bit
usually tho i just try to the design the hair so i wont have this problem in the first place., it can be hard with dem giant anime eyes taking up their whole face but still

[Vegeluxia]

When I do cover up eyes with hair, I always make the hair opaque. I've never liked the look of "translucent hair"---especially if the example is really extreme and you can see the entire eye or the majority of it despite it being totally covered up. If it's only slightly covered up though, I don't mind. It depends on the degree, basically.

Personally though, I'd prefer invisible hair over hair that goes behind the eye. I just. No.

[Obscura]

I'm not a manga/anime consumer in general, but FWIW, whenever I see transparent hair with a big ol' eyeball/eyebrow layered on top of it, I am even less inclined to want to pick up whatever is being presented to me.

It's one of those things that makes me want to pull out my (very opaque) hair. Personal peeve, but there you go.

[Coren]

Interesting to hear all these different opinions. I guess I should go the safe route and try the partially translucent method. It is a bit difficult not to have hair partially covering the eyes, after all, when anime eyes are so big.

Also Obscura, your "(very opaque) hair" line made me laugh. Hard.

[ShippoK]

Oo, this is a tough one for me. My brain was always at war with itself with the 'Hair beneath or not beneath' question.

I guess it really depends of the hair of the character and how the eyes are shaped for said character. I've always found it hard to transparent the eyes under the hair myself because to me, it looks awkward and unappealing, which is totally the opposite of how I should think of it.

This is especial case when characters have medium sized bangs that are all over the place on their head and face, their bangs are long but not enough to hide their eyes all together. This is when I end up debating how should handle them and my brain starts up the 'Hair Wars' once again. The 'Beneath' route tends to lose much more then 'Not Beneath' because the eyes tend to loss color appeal or become unnoticeable expression wise because of the transparency. (Curse my bang fetish, I blame you for making me suffer this much)!

Argh, I think I'm making this all a much more bigger hassle for myself; to answer your question, either way is fine as long as it doesn't look weird.

[Hellboy]

I'm not a manga/anime consumer in general, but FWIW, whenever I see transparent hair with a big ol' eyeball/eyebrow layered on top of it, I am even less inclined to want to pick up whatever is being presented to me.

It's one of those things that makes me want to pull out my (very opaque) hair. Personal peeve, but there you go.

Same here, eyeballs/eyebrows on top of invisible hair is one of the things I dislike of the whole anime/manga thing.
It doesn't bothers me that much if its a leftover of the pencils for instance, but when its clearly made to look like that, it annoys and distract me.

[clua]

...I dislike a lot when I see the eyes and the eyebrows, it looks so antinatural for me. So I like to avoid
showing eyes and eyebrows seeing through hair.

I've seen other type of coloring style that might appeal better than the regular
eyes over hair(attatched here)

1-This is what I prefer most. Also I like to add thick eyebrows or notorious eyebrows, so I can see their
existence beneath the hair lol
2-This is what anime teaches us! It's too contrasting also!(Well, if you consider my example's eyebrows...)
3-Now this is what I've seen in game artwork lately a lot, you color part of the hair(portion of what is near to
the skin of the face) with the color of the skin...My interpretation of this is that hair on those parts is very
see through? or maybe fine or something that you can see the skin also...I find this more acceptable than
example 2.

Whatever you choose is fine in the end, it's matter of taste of each person!