IGGI
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tips on HOW TO PAINT THE SKIN.
🕑 Added 2025-01-15 13:01:34 +0000 UTCtutorial
P1
This is just a description of my approach to drawing, not some reliable or true information.
P2
All the lines outside the silhouette of the object are colored in a darker saturated color.
This makes all the inner lines and creases look warm and soft compared to the rough outline.
I paint the tips of the folds in light orange, and in places where the fold becomes deeper, it becomes very saturated with dark red / orange.
In most cases, I make the base color pretty pale, so that blushes and warm highlights look brighter later.
At this stage, you can start adding the first gradients:
The skin is slightly more peachy on top,
And it's paler from below.
Colored areas on the body.
Different parts of the body have different types of blush.
The ends of the limbs, elbows and knees have a pale red hue.
And on the head, armpits, navel, groin have a blush shade of a very saturated base skin color.
(there may be a combination of these blushes on the fingers)
P3
For me, gradients are an important tool for drawing delicate skin.
Probably even more important than the soft boundaries between shadow and light.
Falling shadows.
Shadows on the neck, face, armpits, fingers, etc. have a slightly saturated color.
The shadows in the remaining places are slightly paler in color.
(in places with accumulation of fat)
I try to make falling shadows of different colors depending on which part of the body they are on.
The main thing is to leave these differences as a nuance.
A render of shiny skin.
Such skin may have a darker color on the bulges on top.
And the glare may become lighter.
P4
Blurring (masking ) the lineart.
The lines around the edges can be blurred.
This way they will look like thin shadows between objects, rather than a lineart.
The thickness and degree of blurring of the lines.
I usually make the thinnest parts of the lines quite dark.
It's like it's a concentrated shadow.
And this shadow becomes lighter on the less compressed edges and with softer edges.
Compressed lines/thin shadows.
Sometimes, with strong compression, the dark shadow line between objects may disappear in places.
It's like objects are merging together.
But it's better to add gaps in lines when you're looking at compressed objects frontally.
When you look at them with some kind of rotation, such gaps can create the feeling that there are not 2 separate compressed objects, but 1, with a shallow fold.
P5
Shadow shapes at the folds.
A soft edge.
A hard edge.
Usually compressed folds have a teardrop-shaped shadow at the end.
One of the sides of this drop has a soft edge.
In this way, the shadows become soft, but they leave a structure.
The direction of the soft edge.
It looks better when the gradients follow the direction of the rounded shapes.
And the hard edges are located at the junction of these shapes.
However, you should not make the darkening uniform along the entire length of the contour line of the object.
And there are not always darkenings on all sides of each bulge.
I try to do the main darkening only on the corners of the lines that are directed into the silhouette.
The darkest areas of the folds.
I add the darkest spots at the intersections of the lines/folds in the "Y" shape.
First, I put dots on these places (usually it's a very rich dark red color), and then I add a little blur.
N6
is the gradient length for soft shadows.
I have only recently begun to pay attention to the differences in the length of gradients for different types of shading.
For example, dark shadows along the contour of a shape have a short length, while light shadows/blushes on top of bulges have gradients that last a long time and smoothly.
If these gradients have the same length, then the skin may look over-darkened.
But for some ideas, it may be appropriate.
Gradients can also be "incomplete".
For example, contour shadows may not have mid-shades.
Thus, the shadow is somewhat similar to a line, but with a slight smooth transition to the base color.
Or you can remove 1 intermediate shade from the blush under the glare, and then a circle will appear around the glare, which will add gloss to the skin.
P7
There are additional Y-shaped folds at the end of the folds.
I make them so that they stay in this general teardrop shape.
They often have a rather intense orange color.
I make the falling shadows darker than the shapes' own shadows on the curves and bulges.
But the darkest places on the folds are still the darkest on the skin, but they are quite small.
On page 3, it was mentioned that the shadow on the neck has a warmer shade, as the light falls on the chest, turns the color of the skin and highlights the shadow of the neck with warm light.
And so this shadow will be a little lighter than the shadow under the breast.
If the breast is large, then the shadow falling under it will be darker than its own shadow along the lower contour of the breast, because the light can reflect off the floor and illuminate the bottom of the breast.
This may not always be correct in terms of realism, but it can emphasize that something is hanging heavily and casts a dark shadow on everything below this object.
Gradients on the silhouette.
To prevent the character from looking equally lit in all places, you can slightly add gradients at the top and bottom.
If they are of the same saturation, then the character may look oversaturated, or too gray.
P8
Glare.
This one may look oversaturated, but the pale highlights balanced the palette.
Rich highlights and shadows look great on pale skin.
Often too gray contour and inner shadows don't look very good together.
Such pale skin can look delicate with warm shades in the shadows.
(I use this painting method most often)
When there are few unsaturated colors on the skin, it can look oversaturated.
This one is too gray and lifeless.
You can use colors with different saturation wherever you want (more saturated and less saturated relative to each other).
The main thing is that there should be a proportion of about 30% and 70%, or 40% and 60% between them.
P9
I make the contour light brighter and whiter than the small highlights on the body.
You can add a transparent orange stripe on the border between the contour light and the skin.
This is called "subsurface scattering".
Such a glow of the skin around the illuminated part is easy to see on the ears illuminated from behind or from the side.
P10
If the contour light overlaps the contour shadows, then you can simply enhance the shadow near this light.
Tracing around the entire silhouette is a very simple technique to give the drawing a complete look.
It looks pretty comic bookish, but I like how it can look.
P11
After all the previous steps, I add barely noticeable blurred spots so that all the colors somehow interpenetrate each other.
This color in the picture has become more voluminous and seems to glow a little.
For example, a blush on the face colored the hair in front.
You can also add gradients of unusual shades on top of everything.
After that, some details may become less distinct, but they can simply be re-highlighted.
Or, as a true artist, leave the minor details in the resulting haze, and highlight only those that are at the point of attention.
P12
Monochrome palette.
If you look at these colors, it turns out that all skin and hair shades are variations of 2 colors (orange-red and crimson).
So you can draw using only 1 color for each material.
By changing the saturation and brightness, you can create the illusion of different colors.
Using this method, it is easier to make a drawing with dirty colors than by painting with different colors.
But this palette looks restrained and interesting in its own way.
P13
Painting only with gradients (without shadows).
The usual painting with shadows.
Natural gradients.
More crazy gradients.
This method of adding volume differs from the previous ones in that it does not take into account the light source, correct shadows and illuminated areas.
To separate, for example, the far leg from the near one, they can be painted in different colors.
This will show that they are at different distances.
And the greater the distance between objects, the greater the difference in their colors.
A - the differences are very noticeable.
B - they differ in nuances.
P14
I noticed that very pale skin with small warm blushes and places in the shadows looks quite delicate and soft.
P15
When painting fair skin, you should pay more attention to working with shadows and on the differences in shades on different parts of the body.
But if you make too many shadows, then the skin color may start to look "heavy".
Here, the differences in colors are often based on nuances.
The base color. - pale orange.
Shadows. - pale red.
Tanned skin has an increased contrast between light colors and dark ones.
So the shadow gradient may have a longer length than that of fair skin.
And the dark color under the highlights can be darker to make the skin look more shiny.
So it's a light skin with increased contrast and more orange.
The base color. - slightly pale saturated orange.
Shadows. - dark orange/red.
On dark skin, shadows and all kinds of shading will not stand out much, so here you can pay more attention to working on the shiny texture, colored highlights and reflexes.
Lots of dark or grayish highlights.
There are a lot of reflexes and reflections from the colored environment.
The base color. - Dark saturated red.
(dark orange will look too brown-green)
Shadows. - very dark crimson (warmer than the base).
P16
Dark highlights.
The highlights don't have to be very bright compared to the skin underneath.
They may have a very similar tone to skin, but they may differ greatly in color or saturation.
And the borders can be blurred by glare from two edges.
On dark skin, the highlights should not be too white.
If the skin looks without bright details with dark highlights, then you can add a very bright, almost white contour light.
And on the opposite side, the 2nd contour light is less light and more gray.
I can sometimes add another small and bright highlight on top of this dark and large highlight.
P17
Colorful characters.
base
shadows
Blush
highlights
pale Blush
Super shadows
The same approach is used here as in the previous steps.
The base color is, say, pale blue.
The shadows are pale purple.
The darkest places in the folds are very saturated dark pink.
Blush and intimate places can be bright pink, or warm emerald, as long as the color is much richer than the base color.
Pink and purple ears.
Groin. rich base color.
The blush is dark yellow.
Dark orange ends of limbs
The color of the breasts is paler than the base.
The falling shadows are pale purple in color
and very colorful
For the base, shadows and blushes, I try to move the sliders on the palette over quite large distances so that the fantasy character looks colored.
P18
You can also add unusual gradients to the edges of different parts of the body.
I like to make the limbs of the characters almost glow.
The great advantage of fantasy characters is that you can experiment with their designs insanely.
For very shiny skin, you can make the edges of the bulges noticeably brighter than their centers.
So the skin looks like a slime and glows a little from the inside.
Sometimes I use a large gradient as the base color for the entire character.
P19
Thank you all for your attention!
I hope there was something here that you might find useful.
Have a wonderful day, everyone!๐
Comments
IGGI
aww Thank you very much! I'm so happy :3
IGGI
Yeee You're welcome โจ๐
IGGI
You're welcome! OwO
Daniel
thank you for ur hard work!!
Ricardo Dueรฑas
Thank you sensei ๐
Nerwind
This is amazing! It's a lot to un pack here thank you so much for the tutorial Iggi!
