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Submitted: November 21, 2009
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SKIN: a tutorial - Part 1by ~navate

Resources & Stock Images / Tutorials / Digital Art / Drawing & Painting / Photoshop

UPDATE 7/31/2011: I've uploaded a slightly revised version. Content is still the same.

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This tutorial is very extensive and will be published in (at least) four parts.

IN THIS SECTION:

Skin basics: A simple but in-depth look that expands beyond the usual shadow-midtone-highlight formula, and how to use each tonal range most effectively.

SECTION II: Skin tones. how to apply the basic formula to light, medium, dark, and fantasy skin tones.

COMING SOON:

SECTION III: Background color and ambient light. How surrounding colors affect skin.

SECTION IV: Building a skin tone, blending and texturing. The technical section showing how to paint skin start to finish.
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This tutorial uses mostly digital work as examples, but the theory behind it should apply to ALL mediums. But of course it goes without saying that this is hardly the end-all-be-all of skin painting tutorials. Just my way of thinking about it.

I tried to make this accessible for artists of all skill levels. Intermediate artists will probably benefit the most. Beginners will probably find some of the principles discussed difficult to put into practice. But don’t be frustrated! The only “secret” to being a good painter is practice.

And hopefully even advanced painters will be able to glean something useful.

Also-- this should go without saying, but I will say it anyway: the ONLY WAY to learn how to paint/draw anything well, let alone realistically, is to STUDY COLOR THEORY AND FORM. All the stuff I blather on about in this tutorial is meaningless unless you take the initiative to learn the fundamentals of color and figure drawing.

Color theory resources can be found HERE.

Please, any questions, concerns, criticisms, etc: comment below.

Thanks so much for the DD!

Daily Deviation

Given 2009-12-01

The suggester writes: I've seen many a skin tutorial in my day, but I have to say that SKIN: a tutorial - Part 1 by *navate is the best! Not only does it cover the basics, but it also takes into consideration points about skin that most tutorials do not cover, such as the difference between normal highlights and peak highlights. There's so much subtlety in skin and this tutorial gets right to the heart of this challenging topic. This tutorial series is not even finished yet, I'm amazed and waiting for the rest with baited breath. Thank you for sharing! ( Suggested by =AngelaSasser and Featured by `znow-white )

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~Yumezaka Apr 2, 2013 Professional Filmographer

Wonderful!!

~EmeraldGreen4Life Mar 31, 2013

Brilliant!

~MorriganBlue Mar 26, 2013

Thank you so much for this godly tutorial. I've wished to be able to join some sort of art school all my life, because while it's handy to google everything, there actually are very if not none at all people who can actually dumb down the process for you and get into the smart details which, if taken in consideration, can actually make it look if not anatomically correct, at least more like a damn piece of real skin. Your tutorial is the closest thing to an actual good teacher's explanation which is awesome. I mean... so many tutorials saying "this is how i do it".... but none explaining WHY.

=JeanaWei Mar 20, 2013 Student General Artist

Hi there, I have a question as to what type of brushes you use? I use photoshop so there's not a lot of water brushes and such, how can I also get a smooth, natural skin using photoshop?

~navate Mar 21, 2013 Professional Digital Artist

In Photoshop I use a custom brush like this one to blend skin (and cloth and a lot of other stuff): [link]

It lets you create smooth but gently textured blends, which is perfect for skin. In my own work I also use Corel Painter, but you should be able to achieve a nice result in just Photoshop as well.

~Loistavia Mar 13, 2013 Student Photographer

Which pencils do you use? They seem so smooth! I tried with round hard brush but that becomes to harsh! Please help?

~navate Mar 21, 2013 Professional Digital Artist

Yeah, blending with a hard brush is tough! I lay down my color with a hard round brush, but I blend with a brush like this one: [link]
I also use Corel Painter's oil pastels and oils to blend.

~KupiecKorzenny Feb 20, 2013 Hobbyist General Artist

Do you create flat one-color layer at first, and than you add shadow and light, or do you start with few stains of shadow and light, or how?
And thank you for great tutorial. Immpressionist first noticed that shades are colorful, didn't they? Anyway, it's the first tutorial where author was focusing on colors so much, this is what I was looking for.

~navate Feb 20, 2013 Professional Digital Artist

I kind of start with a middle-mid tone and a darker mid-tone to establish a rough form, then build from there.

Nah, impressionists just didn't bother to blend anything and exaggerated all light/color effects. I see it really come "into fashion" around the Baroque/Rococo period, though there were painters doing it before then as well.

~KupiecKorzenny Feb 20, 2013 Hobbyist General Artist

Thank you

And keep doing awesome work.

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