Is there a way to draw behind art on another layer without changing the order of layers?

Imagine I have a person’s head and shoulders drawn on Layer 1.

On Layer 2 I would like to draw their long hair. Some of the hair would go behind their shoulders, so I’d imagine the only way you can draw hair that is behind and in front of their shoulders is by separating the hair in two different layers.

But is there a way to avoid having to do this? Can you draw art on Layer 2 that shows up behind Layer 1’s art?

I doubt it’s possible – I’m just curious.

Thanks!

PS: I know about the Draw Behind feature of the Brush, but it seems to only take art from the current layer into account.

Yes, if you use the sublayers (Line Art, Color Art, etc.) and are comfortable with going into the network a bit. You’d draw the face on layer 1 as normal. The hair that would be behind the head would be drawn on the Color Art sublayer or Layer 2, and the hair to go in front would go in the Line Art sublayer of Layer 2. Now go into the network, and plug Layer 1 into the composite. Grab the Color Art and Line Art nodes from the node library, bring them into the network, and hook up Layer 2 to them. Plug the Line Art node in front of Layer 1 in the composite, and connect the Color Art node behind Layer 1. Your hair should work as intended.

Another way to accomplish this that doesn’t involve using sublayers would be to use separate color swatches and the Color Override module. Duplicate the color swatch you have for the hair, and name them something like Hair 1 and Hair 2. Draw the back part of the hair with Hair 1, and the front part with Hair 2. Plug the Head layer into the network, and plug the Hair layer in behind it. Now pull a Color Override module into the network. Plug the Hair layer into this as well, then pug the module in front of the face. Now go into the Color Override and add the Hair 2 swatch to the “Render Selected Colors Only” tab, and select “Render Selected Colors” from the drop down menu in the left corner of the tab. Once again, the front part of the hair will be in front of the face.