coloring skin tutorial

#1

hello, im new here but not that new to photoshop. i was wondering if there are any good tutorials that can help me color skin? right now im still at the baby stage of coloring(cell shading) but i want to improve more. for some reason, the problem i have is choosing right skin tones, and actually putting them on a person haha

#2

Lesson 1: Skin is not pink.
Lesson 2: Shadows are not black.
Lesson 3: Lights are not white.

#3

Skin is also not one constant shade. Use grunge maps or whatever you want. apply them in a new layer, apply a slight gaussian blur to soften them, and use the layer style/blending options to apply them. Try overlay, soft light, multiply, darken, lighten etc. to see what all the various blending styles do. After that, make a new layer again, use the noise filter to create noise, monochromatic in the new layer, and use blending styles also to experiment with those to get pores, etc. Keep in mind in blending that you can adjust the transparency of the layer to get the effect you want. If you’re learning to create textures, my main advice is learning to use layers and blending styles.

#4

Understanding skin tone means you have to understand the science of how lighting works, and the surface quality of human skin. The skin has it’s base color–and it’s not consistent throughout the entire body–exposure to sun, areas with more bones or more fat, areas flush from strain/excitement, areas with lots of blue veins showing, areas where the skin is compressed together (knees, elbows)…etc all play a part in varying a person’s skin tone.

The color temperature of the lights on the skin also plays a big part. “Normal” skin tone only happens under 5500k kelvin degress–basically a bright noon day lighting outdoors. tunsten light, flourescent light, candle light, neon lights, lights bouncing off of various colored walls or shining through various colored glass…etc all will dramatically change the skin tone.

So, you have to think about all these things in conjunction.

Do this little experiment–take still frames from a bunch of different movies and different kinds of lighting situations, throw them into photoshop, and then sample different spots of skin. See how the colors can vary drastically? Now, look at the scenes and analyze why the skin appears a certain color at a particular spot. Is it because the person was standing next to a bar and there was a colored light coming from the side? Is it because the person was standing next to a wall that’s painted green and the light is bouncing off that green wall and onto the skin and giving it a green cast?

Once you have a grasp on the above described, you’ll be on your way.

Good luck.

#5

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