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Skin Tones - Page 1 of 6
By  Stephanie Shimerdla
Hello there! The processes described in this tutorial should be applicable for just about any colored medium, digital or traditional. However, everything shown here was painted in Photoshop CS with the aid of a Wacom Intuos graphics tablet.
Let's get started!
1.
The first thing that I do is sketch out what I'll be painting. Occasionally, I may start painting in the shape of the face right away, but usually I like to sketch it out first. This way is easier to illustrate for the purposes of a tutorial, as well.
So, here's the basic sketch:
(Feel free to use this sketch for your own experimentation as we go... but experimentation only, please.)
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2.
Next, I'll block in the basic colors that I'm going to want to be using. (In Photoshop, I make the skin its own layer underneath the "outline" layer, so that I can keep the original sketch there or make it transparent whenever I'm not referencing it.) For the skin base tone, it can range from quite pink to darker and with a bit more yellow/orange in it, to give it that "tanned" look. I went with a fairly pink one, this time.
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Notice the color palette up in the left hand corner? I do that so that I can be consistent. In digital painting, it's very tempting to just use your eyedropper tool and pick and choose colors from a reference photo. This almost never works. Digital images are made up of thousands of small pixels, as most of you know. That can make the color that you choose with your eyedropper tool nothing like what the color appears to be as a whole. Additionally, if
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you just eyeball the colors that you're using for shading and highlighting each time you go back to paint with them, you may change the color slightly each time. This could very well make the skintones across the figure extremely different. So, just like in traditional painting, let's make ourselves a palette!
How did I choose those colors, you ask? Well, to explain that, it's time for some color theory. I'll keep it short, I promise.
NEXT ----->
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[Page 1] [Page 2] [Page 3] [Page 4] [Page 5] [Page 6]
FARP Article Guestbook
| Date | Name | Comment | | | 31 Oct 2006 |  sea babe | Thanx for the wonderful tutorial,
what type of paper did you use i noticed that is may have a very small or nonexistent tooth and if it does how did you get all of the layers and sections to adhere properly. | |
| 24 Nov 2006 | Poppie | That is sooo cool she is so pretty!!
that's just amazing! | |
| 12 Dec 2006 | Obi-quiet | Honey, that is just about the best facial coloring tutorial I've ever come across, and I've seen quite a few in my time.
I've also never EVER come across a color theory that actually starts someone on the track of figuring out shades and tints (I've ALWAYS had issues with that and have never known how to fix it!). If you have a color theory tutorial, well, that would make me a very VERY happy aspiring artist.
Thank you so much! | |
| 27 Dec 2006 | Mer-girl | This is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO helpfull! Better than makin' em' pink, yellow, or orange (EWW!) | |
| 9 Jan 2007 | Irrevenant | Very cool tutorial, thank you.
One thing you might want to add to the tutorial is the reason blue is added to the colouring of shadows etc. (ie. because it's tinted by the blue light from the sky). It might help people understand/remember the fact better, as well as making it clear that blue tinting isn't appropriate for features illuminated by electric light or firelight. | |
| 18 Feb 2007 | Bella | for sea-babe above, ITS PHOTOSHOP IDIOT. thats what all those 'photoshop' references are from, and where all the screenshots are from. duh.
anyway, this is a fantastic tutorial! it explains stuff really well, and the colouring is amazing. | |
| 21 Mar 2007 | Anonymous | I've been two hours looking for a good portrait tut. This one was very good. Would like to see more from the author. | |
| 9 May 2007 |  Tiffanie L. Gray | A very good overview tutorial on the tones and colors for skin and hair.
Perhaps in your next one, you can add more about actual tools and techniques you use in photoshop to achieve such glorious, smooth results!
Beautiful picture. | |
| 2 Sep 2007 |  Sofie Lemontzis | Amazing tutorial and pic! I would like to see more tutorials from you, especially one about the technique you use for drawing hair in photoshop because I find that very tricky. | |
| 10 Dec 2007 | Quazzie | Many many thanks for taking the time to help those of us who still suck =-] | |
| Page: [1] 2 3 |
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 The collection of art and writing tutorials in the Elfwood Fantasy Art Resource (F.A.R.P.) is a part of Elfwood.
The FARP logo was created by  Miguel Krippahl (The muscular guy in the FARP-logo) and  Thomas F Abrahamsson (The text and general graphic design). Those sections written by volunteers are copyrighted to Thomas Abrahamsson and the respective writer. Elfwood is a project created by Thomas Abrahamsson. All rights reserved. Unauthorized Reproduction of the graphics, writings, and materials on these pages is absolutely prohibited! You may consider all material on these pages protected and copyrighted, unless otherwise noted. You may NOT use the images found at the FARP or Elfwood pages on your home pages! All of these images are copyright protected! Everything you see here represent the collaborative effort of the Elfwood community and Thomas Abrahamsson. Please read the Legal Disclaimer for more info on warranties/etc for these pages!
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