002 - IFX tutorial - Skin tones
This tutorial was written for ImagineFX magazine Issue#1.
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How to work with skin tones, and making them more real-life looking.
When painting skin tones, I believe in using a moderate mix of a wide range of colours, and if I want the skin to look realistic, I tend to avoid the monochrome colours.
A good place to start, is to check out all the different skin tone variations on your own body. In some places, the skin might look red or purple, like for instance on the knuckles, the cheeks, the elbows or the forehead. In other places, where the skin is thin, it assumes the colour of things under it, which is why veins look blue or purple, while wrists are pale and have a grey/dull bluish hue. I use red, yellow, blue, and even green when painting skin.
To a certain extent, you should try to forget the colour you think skin has. My suggestion would be to start off with a base colour which is fairly close to skin in hue, such as monochrome. The next step should then be to find a base colour palette. Personally, I make a 4-6 step palette which ranges from the brightest skin tones to the darkest, plus one for shadows/ambient.
Figure out which colours you want to use on the light sources and the ambient in your scene. For instance, painting a person standing outside under a clear, blue sky demands a blue-tinted ambient light for the shadowed areas.
Equipped with a good palette and your favourite brush, while switching regularly between the “color”, “multiply” and “normal” modes, you can mix the skin colours you need as your painting progresses.
Step 1 – Make a base colour
Personally, I start off by painting in greyscale, since I prefer to focus fully on shape in the earliest stages of a painting. When a decent greyscale version is up, I simply tint the entire character into one base colour. In this case, the base colour is red with some purple in the darkest parts of the shading.
Step 2 – Figure out the colour scheme and tint areas
Remember that skin tones tend to be a lot darker than you think. A good start would be to take a plain pink colour three to four steps down, to a darkish brown colour with a hint of purple in it. Now, use your favourite soft brush set to low flow (1-4%) and “color” mode, and softly begin tinting areas. At this stage, you are still working on the base.
Step 3 – Painting and mixing colours
With the base palette now at your disposal, use the brush on “normal mode” and low flow, and colour pick the areas you want to paint. You can also blend in some new colours, colour pick them, and mix them in there, mixing directly where you are painting. But don’t take the experimentation too far, and always make sure that you can revert to your pre-made base palette. Finally, adding overlay noise on top of the picture makes it look less “computer painted.”