Ringlette Tutorial

Let's start with the doll. I like to do the hair when my doll is fully clothed, but if you prefer to do the hair first, by all means, start with just the base.

Now draw in the hair. Each curl should be several pixels thick (it can change depending on the size of the base and how thick you want the curl to be - I made mine 3 pixels thick). Outline in any colour you like. I went with a nice bright pink.

Now the tricky part. Select the curls one by one, and make the background of each on a new layer. (The image shows one curl.) Also, I recommend doing this tutorial for blonde hair, and then recolouring the hair afterwards.

Soon, you should have a mass of blonde hair, with each curl on a new layer.

Now, for each layer (not including 'Outline'), go to 'Filter' -> 'Texture' -> 'Texturizer', and play around. I went with Texture: Sandstone, Scaling: 50%, Relief: 10, Light: Top. Do this to all the curls.

Now, we need to add the shading. Because my curls are three pixels wide, I need darknesses. Select one pixel width of the first curl, and go to 'Image' -> 'Adjustments' -> 'Brightness/Contrast', and change the one pixel width to -40. (It's easiest to do this if all the other curls are hidden.)

I set the middle pixel to +20, and the other side to -20. If the curl is more than three pixels wide, add in some other numbers (+/-10, -20, etc).

Now, shade all the curls this way.

Now, create a new layer with all the curls on it, and shade the curls as you would hair. (That would be dark along the part and behind the neck, and light across the top of the head.)

We're done! (This is the point where you can de-blonde her hair.)