Hi there! I'm working with my mouse here, so bare with me hehe. First, what you were doing is exactly right! You need to make a giant blob with the overall shape of the hair and include the darkest gradient in it. Here I did black-ish to dark gray as a base layer for the hair. Then, you apply mid grays following random strands of hair to make texture. Since you are working traditionally, you can use an kneeded eraser and shape it oddly to get texture effect over your gradient. Lastly, you put in the brightest value in the hair and the pieces that stick out, to break the blob shape just a little bit. This can be achieved traditionally by erasing with a fine point. Hope this helps you! PS. as a curly haired woman, I love seeing people try to get it rightly drawn :) | Artwod Feedback