Tutorial for Any Skin In 7 Simple and Detailed Steps

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kaiyuuyuu

kaiyuuyuu

Skin can be difficult for even more experienced artists to color due to the fundamentals of skin: transparency, opacity, and hue, among other things. In this tutorial, I aim to touch on some of that information but explain in the way artists know best: through the color wheel, color picker, and layer effects. This tutorial works for any skin hue, skin tone, and art style.

 

Personally, I know my strongest suit in art is my coloring. It transforms a piece but taking things to the next level can be intimidating. While the way I color skin isn’t super flashy, it works with the other elements of the drawing, which is my goal.

Step 0: Basics and Preparation/Studying A Reference

To start and in order to understand the basics of coloring skin for future use, I studied a reference photo with basic white lighting (other lightings are included in the 7th step for me)

 

In order to avoid any infringements, here is my hand.

 

Now take the color picker tool and run it across the palm, with your eyes on the color wheel. You should notice the colors adjusting in a clear pattern in the hue and saturation box as well as along the circular wheel on the outside.

 

The luminosity and saturation go in a diagonal line with a slight curve back when the luminosity dips below half. This is because the light from the color in my skin reflects in almost all parts of my hand, making it more saturated. The parts closer to the light are going to fall closer to the color of the light (white) while the shadows will naturally be cooler toned in this light (but in a cooler light, they may appear warmer). The hue also shifts (slightly!) towards true red because of the blood transparency in our skin.

 

These patterns can be used for almost any skin hue from natural to blue, from light to dark, the curve will just look slightly different as you adjust it while coloring. Lighting also messes with this method which is why I tend to save lighting for the later steps, but if you are going to be drawing a lot of characters in one type of lighting, it would be worth it to do a similar study with the lighting or skin tone you’ll be working with.

 

Now you can start drawing (or choosing) something that has skin that you’d like to color. Today, I’ve doodled a cute girl, but as long as it has skin, you should be fine.

 

Step 1: Base color

As I said previously, you may choose any base color you like, and the method should work. Below is a visual of what goes through my brain when choosing:

Today I’ll be choosing the third option down since I’d like to showcase the sunshine nature of this character with tan skin.

 

After you have the color selected, you will need to fill in the skin with the base color on a layer below the linework (or above if you happen to be a painting). There are several methods of doing this, but I personally selected the skin and used the “expand selection” tool on the selection toolbar to get under the linework for a solid base.

 

Other people may select everything besides the skin and use “invert” and some will simply paint it manually. Make sure you have a solid base in all of the skin sections in order to avoid any problems later.

 

Step 2: First Shading

Create a layer on top of the layer of the base color layer; most of your work will be done on this. I personally use a clipping layer, located here under the layer tab:

Some people prefer using a mask layer, while others don't mind the possibility of coloring out of the lines. Whatever method you choose is encouraged.

 

As I demonstrated earlier in Step 0, when choosing a darker color to shade with, you move the color down and to the right, diagonally, increasing the saturation and decreasing the luminosity.

 

Select your base color and move the picker down and to the right. Be sure that you also move the hue towards red slightly. If you'd like the color to pop a bit more, move it further to the right than down. Here is what I ended up with:

Once you've selected this color, choose the brush you'll be using; I used the "Dense Watercolor" brush that comes with CSP when you download the application for this layer. This gives the effect of a painting style and helps the colors blend while I paint. For a more realistic style, I might use a softer brush, such as "Hard Airbrush" and "Soft Airbrush" which also are defaults CSP brushes. If I were going for a rough painterly look, I might choose a toothy brush such as CSP's "Gouache" brush, or in the case of cell shading the "Bit Husky". The brush will change how the finished product will look completely, so make sure you try some out and pick wisely.

 

I make sure I shade away from my light source on the left side, in areas such as under the hair, below the lip, below the nose, under the chin on the neck, the collarbones, and some on the arms and hands.

 

While shading, I used the blending method in which I would lay down the color, pick the base color and then blend it with the previous color. Even though this process is called "blending" be sure not to overdo it to the point where there are no distinct shapes.

 

Sometimes I will soften this layer using a blur filter. Go to the top right to Filter>Blur>Gaussin Blur.

I typically only blur the layer up to 20.0 or lower.

And this step is done!

Step 3: Reds and Blush

After I've shaded, I like to go in with a saturated reddish-pink color in order to liven up the skin a bit more and give the appearance of blush and blood. I typically use a transparent brush or the soft airbrush. The hue should be redder than the base color but brighter and more saturated.

I apply this to the cheeks and temples, lips and nose, and any parts that look flat like the arm or hand.

Step 4: Shading the Shading

Take the color from Step 2 and move the color picker down and to the right OR left.

I typically choose to move it left since the contrast of the desaturated and therefore cool tone looks nice against the warm saturated orange base and shade color, along with the fact that most natural skin tones have cooler shadows, but sometimes I need the skin to be more red-toned in case the cool tone disturbs the color harmony of the piece.

 

Using the color and the "Opaque Watercolor" brush, I then shade the parts I've already shaded in Step 2 in order to deepen the tone. Don't let this color overtake the others though; remember to shade the shading.

Step 5: Highlight

Take the base color from step one and shift the hue away from red and up and to the left.

This color will serve as the highlight color. Using the opaque watercolor, I apply this color to areas close to the light source and that need brightening such as the bridge of the nose, the forehead, and chin, as well as along the arms.

You can decide to stop here if you'd like but in steps 6 and 7 I will be explaining some rendering and processing with effect layers that I used.

Step 6: Tonal Correction

I merge the base layer and the clipping layer at this step; then I right-click the merged layer.

Hover the cursor over "New Correction Layer", the third menu down from the top of the available selections. I usually use start with the "Tone Curve" and adjust the skin tone before moving to "Brightness/Contrast" and work my way down from there.

As I said, I'm pretty happy with the tan image the character gives off so I won't adjust the tone today.

I usually skip "Posterization", "Reverse Gradient", and "Binarization" but I encourage you to play with these features since they are useful for some effects and styles, and often help you catch mistakes you previously wouldn't have been able to see.

 

Then I level correct the colors, especially if it's a large piece with a background. Today I wasn't able to use it for anything, but again, play around and see what fits your tastes.

 

Finally, you can use "Color Balance" or "Gradient Map" for unusual skin tones. Color balance is another set of sliders, so play to your heart's content. To use gradient maps, I would suggest going to "Clip Studio Assets" and using the filter, search "Gradient Map". Download the ones that catch your eye.

Click on the wrench and find "Import sub material" to add the gradient sets you downloaded. You can also play with sliders and other options in this menu.

 

Tip for gradient maps: even if you don't want an unusual skin tone, once you've colored the entire piece, create a gradient map layer, choose a gradient that looks nice, and set the layer to 20% opacity. The colors of the piece will be more coherent, harmonious, and tied together.

Step 7: Using Blending Mode Layers

Right-click on the original color layer created at the beginning of step 6. In order to keep the colors from future layers in the lines and off the background, go to "Selection from Layer" and then "Create Selection".

Now create a new layer. In the layer management menu, there should be the word "Normal" at the top. The dropdown menu should have several options. I really suggest you play around here and see what you like. I often create at least 5 of these layers and using an airbrush or the bucket tool with bright colors in order to create something that looks nice. For example:

 

Tip: if you'd like the character to seem like they are in shadow and being lit from one side, try a color dodge layer on top of a multiply layer.

For this drawing, I used a light dusting of red "Overlay" for saturation, "Color Dodge" to brighten up a few spots", "Pin Light" and "Brightness" under an inverted "Glow Dodge" layer to make it seem as though she's being lit from the back, and a lighten layer on her face to draw attention to it. All of the opacity is adjusted to my personal liking.

 

This may seem like a complicated process, but the more you experiment with these layers, the more comfortable you will feel using them. Go ham.

Have fun coloring!

Thank you for reading thus far! I hope I was able to teach effectively and in simple terms in order for you all to understand and learn properly. I know my style isn't very realistic or flashy, but I think these steps and directions can apply to any artist.

 

I'm considering doing other tutorials, even video tutorials, in the future, maybe even outside of these monthly entries, so if this helped I would love to hear it.

 

Thank you once again, and happy arting!

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