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When Vegalia Jean-Pierre couldn't find the tools she needed to design realistic micro-braids on a Black character in her digital artwork, she undertook the painstaking process to draw them manually instead. While there are myriad Procreate and Photoshop brushes available in the digital art world for straight and wavy hair, allowing creators to quickly create and animate characters with, say, so-called "beach waves," the 28-year-old artist saw a huge scarcity in ones representative of Black hair. When it came to curly textures and styles like locs and braids, the market fell woefully short.
Jean-Pierre, a Haitian digital artist and animator from Minneapolis, Minnesota, is the creator of unique pro-tool brushes for Procreate and graphic design that cater specifically to Black women's hair. A lover of all things geek — anime, Marvel, cartoons, and DC comics — Jean-Pierre wasn't used to seeing herself in the stories she grew up loving, which contributed to her desire to create characters of her own. But the tools frequently used by artists to create true-to-life features for Black folks were insufficient (or simply nonexistent). As a result, she decided to make her very own digital brushes.
"Digital brushes" are the tools graphic designers use on apps like Procreate and Photoshop to make their drawings. These tools can imitate the look of traditionally physical mediums like airbrushing, acrylics, pastels, charcoal, oils, and pen. With Jean-Pierre's brushes, animators are able to accurately depict various hair types, cultivating a lane in digital art that makes creating Black hair — specifically coarse, curly textures — possible. What started off as a test project became permanent after a drawing Jean-Pierre made of her mother went viral on social media in April of last year.
When CaShawn Thompson created the hashtag #BlackGirlMagic. Suddenly, my timeline flooded with Black women of varying shades and shapes all embracing their overall individuality. A space was created, one that emphasized and amplified the importance of self love. Women and femmes like me were encouraged to share their agency with the world — and we did so, unapologetically. Witnessing how we shine in our truth and embrace our beauty was (truly) magic, yet the isolation of underrepresentation becomes painfully apparent outside of the communities we've harvested ourselves.
We've made steps in the right direction: The Crown Act, which defends Black people and their hair from discrimination, is now law in 18 states and under consideration by the Senate. Culturally, though, we still walk a fine line between representation and tokenism. Actors, models, and artists of color continue to share stories of experiencing hair discrimination on set. And it's not just those in front of the camera — as a graphic artist, I find it hard to manipulate tools in my favor to draw curls and coarse hair. It's difficult to make artwork depicting Black women and cater to their natural hair texture, forms, or patterns. It takes industry pioneers like Jean-Pierre to make the decision to commit to the task in championing true diversity.
The artist spoke with Allure about purpose, community, and her work to move the illustration and animation industry forward.
ALLURE: How did your journey as an artist begin?
VEGALIA JEAN-PIERRE: It started when I was a kid, but I didn't reenter the art space until after college because, in high school, my advisor said you should pursue other things besides art because [it's] more realistic. So I pursued business because that's what I'd been doing a lot in high school. And then it quickly switched over to design in college. And then after college I'm like, "I don't want to do this." Then, during the pandemic, when everyone was slowed down, I decided to get an iPad. It was after a 10-year hiatus from art. I was impacted a lot by what happened in 2020, especially the summer of 2020 and George Floyd and Black Lives Matter. And I felt this purpose in my life. I had to do more, especially for the Black community to show positive representations and creating a space where people were included.
ALLURE: Making brush tools for Procreate and Photoshop started off as a test project. Can you tell us more about that?
VJP: I've grown up with cartoons and anime and everything. There are not a lot of Black characters that accurately represent us. At first, I started to develop characters like that — that's why I developed these brushes in the first place. I drew this character [and it] took three to four hours to draw her micro-braids. And I'm [thinking], "That was fun, and everyone appreciated it, but it took way too long." And I don't really want to do that again, but I don't want characters to just not exist just because it took a long time. I want other people to be able to use these. I want other people to accurately draw us, too.
I released just a small little portion — 12 brushes at the time. It was only braids for Procreate, but it blew up massively on TikTok. It hit millions of views and I was really shocked. I was working a full-time job at the time and kept it all a secret. I was like, I'm making all this money from these brushes and everyone's so excited to have these products and then people are commenting: "We want curls. We want it for this Photoshop. We want it for Clip Studio. We want it for all these other sites."
ALLURE: What's been the most rewarding part of this whole process?
VJP: I slowly began to build and build all the brushes to be even more inclusive for all those softwares and have over 50 different hair curl textures. I'm sure I'll have more in the future, but anywhere from animators to illustrators to do book covers to comic book artists, to people who are just hobbyist or really young beginners that just want to use it for fun or to practice how to draw curls. Because I've noticed a lot of people, they'll buy the brushes and then a year or six months later. They'll actually know how to draw it themselves too. So it's a learning tool as well. So that's been really rewarding to see all the different ways that people use it. But I think the most exciting ways are people designing their own characters to be in their own stories. So that's been the most rewarding for me to see too.
ALLURE: How did you create this tool?
VJP: I did a lot of research on different black hair textures specifically. I looked at all different types of hair because it's not all the same. If you know the hair chart, I looked from anywhere from 1A to 4C hair texture to make sure I got it accurate. I looked at reference images on Pinterest, but [at people in] real life — my mom, myself, my dad, my cousins, or my friends — [I wanted to replicate their] hair texture and see how it moved or how it glowed in the light. And that's how I illustrated all of them for the digital brushes I made, so that they are really accurate. [I want] everyone who uses them can have an easier time drawing all the different hair textures that we have and not have such a hard time or a long time drawing them.
ALLURE: Where do you draw inspiration for your artwork?
VJP: I usually draw inspiration from TikTok, because that's where I'm on the most and see the most people. There are a lot of people who I wouldn't see even around Minnesota on TikTok, because they're so unique and it can be, I guess, basic around here. I love going to art museums. That's why I love going to New York. I go to see traditional artists and how they did things, how they went through their art journey. And my last inspiration would have to be animation specifically. Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli and all his storytelling — Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle — that kind of storytelling where it doesn't really make sense, but it's very expressive and it makes you feel warm and fuzzy towards the end. That's really inspiring for all the things that I want to create in the future.
ALLURE: What did you learn through the testing process of making your brushes?
VJP: I learned that some hair is really intricate when I was developing for the 4C hairbrush texture, which is really, really tiny coils. My dad has 4C hair texture and I said, "Here's the brush. I made it for you. And it was my first iteration." He said, "That's not how my hair looks." I'm like, "Yeah, it is." He's like, "No, that does not look right." I'm like, "OK then, can I see your hair closer?" He's like, "Sure." I'm like, "That's not close enough. Can you cut some off?"
That's why that series began — because he [said] his hair wasn't accurate. And I cut a little tiny piece of his hair and it's a little circle. There's a lot of intricacies in it. It interlaces in a pattern I didn't expect. And having a lot of reference images was great, especially with braids and how they interlock. It's like triangles, interlocking together.
ALLURE: Do you incorporate your daily hair routine or styles into your digital designs?
VJP: I feel like I do. My hairstyle changes all the time and I feel like the brushes have pushed me to do [new things with] my hair because I'm researching different hairstyles all the time. I've never had braids in my hair because I'm allergic to a lot of different kinds of hair products — florals, aloe, and certain ingredients. [If I use those ingredients,] I'll get a sore throat and a runny nose, and my eyes will be burning.
But I want to try all the different hairstyles, especially box braids. And now, I know every single time type of braid you can have. I know the difference between crochet braids and Ilani braids, lemonade braids, every single kind of braid, because people come to me as the hair expert. The brushes have really inspired me to push myself more and the different hairstyles I do.
ALLURE: You mentioned experiencing allergic reactions to some beauty products, but do you have any hair products you've loved?
VJP: Yeah, I use TRESemme products, because they actually make one of the only shampoos and conditioners [I've tried] that isn't super scented. I really like the Got2B Invincible Styling Gel for slicked-back styles. It doesn't make your hair crispy. It makes it still soft afterwards. But your hair does have to be a little bit wet before you can put it on or else it won't really work.
ALLURE: As a digital artist, how do you hope to push the industry forward?
VJP: As a digital artist. I hope that I can push the industry forward to help people think about others who aren't themselves, or people who don't look like them [if they're not Black]. I hope that the industry becomes more inclusive, [and that] because of me that people can draw others more accurately. I hope to create more educational tools, whether it's through digital art or from our real world. And, hopefully, people become more educated and more accepting and positive because of the art that I create.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. To check out Vegalia Jean-Pierre's work or to purchase her brushes for Procreate and Photoshop, you can follow her at @byvegalia on Instagram and check out her Gumroad storefront.
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