A Look Into Drawing Braids

Because someone asked me to, and I am easily encouraged when flattered, here is an examination on drawing braids.

So to begin with, there are lots of tutorials on drawing braids. I don't want to retread territory that has already been covered with this thread. Like my previous overviews, I prefer to address concepts and how to think about things rather than creating a step by step guide (like these ones here).

Let's start with the braid. I once again made reference material myself using LED wires because you are my favorite voidlings. Note that I used a pattern on black-red-black-red, and that I was able to keep that pattern throughout. You CAN twist them, but braiding is largely a lateral movement.

Okay, so let's say you want to draw a Huntr/x Lara Croft crossover in a space station and their braids are all twisting around like crazy. What then? Well as it turns out, a braid is really just a glorified thicc ribbon.

The sides are surprisingly thin, even, and it tends to twist on it's flat edge. Like any ribbon object it can also be made to twirl in a spiral, like a curl. (If you need more information on curls, I highly recommend you pause here and look over my write-up on curls).

How thick are the sides? An arbitrary amount really, which will be determined by the thickness of the sections you use. When seen from the side (the flat end of the ribbon) a tightly formed braid will be the equivalent of about two sections thick.

Which begs the question, what about not tightly formed braids? If you look at my demo you can see I used a pattern of two cords, but it was only one cord thick because the cords laid directly side by side - the equivalent of fluffing out a traditional braid. Think strand thickness, not width.

So let's get to actually, you know, drawing. If you want you can think of your braid like a very limp two by four. Or a cooked lasagna noodle. Or very thick bubble gum. Now excuse me as I **IGNORE THIS THICKNESS FOR THE REST OF THE OVERVIEW**

The basic formation of the pattern is like this. You probably won't have to carefully diagram it out like this unless you plan to do really complicated motions or perspective. But it's good to know!

Why point four? Because it is a strand with two strands between each point! So the next time it comes into rotation is in the fourth position! To complicated? Don't worry about it. It's not important.

And from there you draw in the rounded edges. Keep in mind they are strands, so they all connect, and the curves should reflect that!

Mmmm delicious challah bread.

Of course, in reality these shapes are almost always more rounded, since the object has depth and form, and aren't just, you know, straight lines. You want to really lean into those S-shapes. Essentially, when you do your framework, use curves instead of lines.

As an aside, many tutorials will essentially skip all that measuring and tell you to bisect your bubble gum down the center and draw those lines inwards without having to measure, which does seem very reasonable, and can for some people be very helpful.

It can also be a trap. The artist is inclined to draw lines toward the center and just ending the lines there since they've made this wonderful guideline and all. Which leads to a lopsided braid. Trying to compensate by overdrawing the line can lead to messy uneven zigzags.

Honestly the best thing to do is just... offset the centerline and draw your lines to that.

No messy zig-zags, no lopsided braid.

So what about the bending and turning? And weird perspectives? Well this has already taken longer than expected, and I have to run soon, but let me give you the run down real quick. So, you might have noticed you can divide the braid in half, into different plank sections.

Each of those sides, when drawn out alone, resembles something like a unicorn horn. Or a poop emoji, if you'd prefer. Note it retains its partial divisions - the ends don't meed at the ends, but a ways upwards from the split. It's stacked, like the planks.

⭐A braid viewed on its side is a spiral.⭐

That spiral stack can be further extrapolated by adding it's other spiraling counterpoint, following the motion of the cord and the knowledge we have of braids and how they stack. Note - this braid is not straight on. The directions of overlap and curve matter.

You can then use that concept of ribbon > spiral > extrapolation to plot your braid on an number of complex pathways. The shape of the S curves will change based on viewing angle, and the edges will be comprised of those spiral stacks, twisting as the "ribbon" does.

I know I had to rush the end of this one a little bit, so please let me know if you have any questions, I will be happy to answer them when I get the chance, or maybe even make a part two if I messed up that badly.

PS. I messed up and put three strands between the colored strand on the green example. It's also not very good. Sorry. Kinda looks like a rattlesnake though.

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