How to color and render skin

Summary

In this informative tutorial, the artist 'Blue' shares expert tips on coloring and rendering skin tones with a focus on warmth and realism. Sponsored by Skillshare, the video explores the flexibility of skin coloring, using blush for lifelike effects, and shading techniques that consider subsurface scattering and reflective light. The artist emphasizes the importance of studying skin from references and adapting to different environments, providing practical steps for achieving depth and naturalness in digital skin rendering across various skin tones.

Takeaways

• 🎨 The artist's favorite aspect of digital painting is skin due to its softness, malleability, and the freedom it offers in rendering.
• 🌟 The video is sponsored by Skillshare, an online learning community offering a wide range of classes from various fields.
• 📚 The artist recommends two specific Skillshare classes: 'Digital Painting in Photoshop' by Melissa D. Noga and 'Digital Painting Concept Landscapes' by Jon St. O.
• 🖌️ The artist suggests doing skin studies and observing other artists' work to improve one's own digital painting skills.
• 🌈 Skin tones generally lean towards warmer colors due to the presence of blood underneath the skin, affecting the undertones of blushes.
• 💄 Blush is added to the skin to make it more lifelike, with adjustments in hue for different skin tones, even for darker skin tones.
• 🎭 When shading skin, the artist prefers shifting colors towards purple and maroon, using different saturations and hues for depth.
• ✨ Subsurface scattering is a phenomenon where light catches blood cells, making the skin appear redder, and is simulated in skin rendering.
• 🌀 Reflective light, often in contrasting colors like blues and greens, is used to enhance the depth of the skin rendering.
• 🔆 Highlights on the skin should be in the same hue as the base color but with higher saturation to stand out naturally.
• 👩‍🎨 The artist emphasizes the importance of rendering from reference to better understand where curves, lighter, and darker colors should be placed on the skin.

Q & A

What is the main focus of the video presented by Blue?

The main focus of the video is to demonstrate how to color and render skin in a digital art context, emphasizing the artist's preference for the flexibility and freedom in skin rendering.

Why does Blue consider skin to be a favorite subject for coloring and rendering?

Blue finds skin to be a favorite subject because of its softness, malleability, and the relative freedom in rendering compared to clothing or hair, which have more rules.

What online learning platform is sponsoring the video?

The video is sponsored by Skillshare, an online learning community offering a wide range of classes.

What are some of the classes that Blue has been taking on Skillshare to improve their art skills?

Blue has been taking 'Digital Painting in Photoshop: Create a Stylized Portrait' by Melissa D. Noga and 'Digital Painting: Concept Landscapes' by Jon St. O, focusing on value scaling, painting tips, stylization techniques, and landscape drawing advice.

What is a 'flesh cube' and how is it used in the context of the video?

A 'flesh cube' is a tool used by artists to find suitable skin tones and shading and highlight colors. It helps in identifying colors that work well together for a realistic skin representation.

How does the presence of blood under the skin influence the color of skin tones and blushes?

The blood under the skin gives skin tones and blushes a warmer undertone, as most skin tones lean towards warmer colors on the color wheel due to subsurface scattering.

What is subsurface scattering and how does it affect the appearance of skin in art?

Subsurface scattering is a phenomenon where light catches the blood cells in the skin, making them appear redder. In art, adding a darker red to the shaded areas can simulate this effect, making the skin look more lifelike.

What advice does Blue give for choosing shading colors for skin?

Blue prefers shifting the colors towards purple and maroons, using two different saturations and hues. The base shading might be a certain purple or maroon, with a lighter version created by reducing saturation.

How does the environment affect the skin tone and shading in a character's rendering?

The environment can drastically affect skin tone and shading by introducing different color reflections, such as green hues in a forest or bluish or warmer tones near the ocean.

What is the difference between coloring lighter and darker skin tones according to the video?

For lighter skin, the focus is more on blush and redness to create form, while for darker skin, the focus is on highlights to define facial features, as darker values can make features less distinct without good contrasting colors.

What technique does Blue use to enhance the depth and lifelike appearance of skin in their renderings?

Blue uses a combination of blush for depth, shading based on light source, and highlights in the same hue as the base color but with higher saturation. Additionally, reflective light in contrasting colors like blues and greens can enhance depth.

Outlines

00:00

🎨 Skin Coloring and Rendering Techniques

The speaker, Blue, introduces the video's focus on coloring and rendering skin, expressing a passion for the subject due to its malleability and freedom in artistic expression. The video is sponsored by Skillshare, an online learning platform offering a wide range of classes. Blue highlights two specific classes: 'Digital Painting in Photoshop' by Melissa D. Noga and 'Digital Painting Concept Landscapes' by Jon St. O, praising their teaching methods and content. Skillshare is also promoting learning paths for various skill levels and interests. Blue encourages viewers to take advantage of a one-month free trial offered to the first 500 viewers through a link in the description and emphasizes the importance of investing in personal skill development.

05:01

👩‍🎨 Understanding Skin Tones and Shading

The paragraph delves into the technical aspects of skin coloring, explaining that most skin tones have a warm undertone due to the blood flow beneath the skin's surface. The speaker discusses the process of adding blush to give the skin a lifelike rosy tint, choosing colors with a red or pink hue. For shading, the preference is for purple and maroon shades, using two different saturations to create depth. The paragraph also touches on the phenomenon of subsurface scattering, where light hitting the skin makes it appear redder, and the use of reflective light with contrasting colors like blues and greens to enhance depth. The speaker suggests doing skin studies and observing other artists' work to improve one's own skin rendering skills.

10:02

🖌️ Step-by-Step Skin Rendering Guide

This section provides a practical guide on how to render skin, starting with choosing a base color and adding blush to areas where skin is thin or ends in points to create depth and definition. The speaker then describes adding shading based on the light source, using different shades of maroon to simulate the effect of light and shadow. The importance of adjusting colors to fit the environment is emphasized, as well as the differences in rendering lighter versus darker skin tones, with a focus on highlights for darker skin to define facial features. The paragraph concludes with a mention of adding a reflective light and a final touch using an overlay layer to brighten the face area, summarizing the process and its application in the provided examples.

🌟 Advanced Skin Rendering Tips and Personal Experience

The final paragraph offers advanced tips on skin rendering, such as the use of highlights to define facial features and the importance of rendering from reference to understand curves and color placement. The speaker shares personal observations on the differences between rendering lighter and darker skin tones, recommending a focus on highlights for darker skin to maintain feature definition. The paragraph concludes with an invitation for viewers to ask questions in the comments and an expression of gratitude for watching, promising to see them in the next video.

Keywords

💡Skin Rendering

Skin rendering refers to the artistic process of creating a visual representation of human skin in digital or traditional media. In the context of this video, it is the primary focus, as the artist demonstrates techniques for coloring and adding depth to skin tones. The script mentions that skin is the artist's favorite thing to color due to its softness and malleability, highlighting the creative freedom in rendering skin.

💡Warmer Colors

Warmer colors are hues that evoke a sense of warmth and are typically found on the red-yellow end of the color spectrum. The video script explains that most skin tones lean towards warmer colors because of the blood flow beneath the skin, which influences the undertones of the skin's appearance. This concept is crucial for achieving a lifelike rendering of skin.

💡Blush

Blush in art refers to the application of a reddish hue to mimic the natural flush of blood in certain areas of the skin, such as cheeks or the nose. The script describes adding blush to give the skin a more lifelike and rosy appearance, contributing to the overall realism of the skin rendering.

💡Shading

Shading is the technique of using darker colors to create depth and contour in an artwork. In the video, the artist discusses selecting shading colors that are variations of purple and maroon to add depth to the skin, indicating how different saturations and hues can be used to create a more three-dimensional effect.

💡Subsurface Scattering

Subsurface scattering is a phenomenon where light penetrates a surface and scatters below it, affecting the color seen from the outside. In the context of skin rendering, the artist adds a darker red to the shaded areas to simulate the effect of light hitting blood cells beneath the skin, enhancing the realism of the skin's appearance.

💡Highlights

Highlights in art are the lighter areas of a subject that catch and reflect light, creating a sense of luminosity. The script mentions that highlights should be in the same hue as the base color but with higher saturation. The artist uses highlights to define facial features and add depth to the skin rendering.

💡Skin Studies

Skin studies involve practicing the depiction of skin by observing and drawing from real-life references or other artists' work. The video encourages viewers to do skin studies to improve their understanding of skin tones, shading, and highlights, as demonstrated by the artist's own practice of drawing from references.

💡Flesh Cubes

Flesh cubes are a tool used by artists to visualize and select appropriate skin tones and shading colors. The script refers to flesh cubes as a helpful resource for finding suitable colors for skin rendering, indicating their utility in the creative process.

💡Environment

The environment in the context of skin rendering refers to the surrounding colors and lighting conditions that can affect the appearance of the skin. The video script notes that the environment can drastically change the skin tone and shading, such as green hues in a forest or bluish tones near the ocean.

💡Skillshare

Skillshare is an online learning platform mentioned in the video script as the sponsor of the content. It offers a wide range of classes, including digital painting and concept landscapes, which the artist has taken to improve their skills. The script promotes Skillshare as a valuable resource for artistic learning and growth.

💡Stylization Techniques

Stylization techniques refer to the methods an artist uses to create a distinctive style or look in their artwork. The video script mentions a Skillshare class that covers these techniques, suggesting that learning and applying stylization can help artists develop their unique approach to skin rendering.

Highlights

The artist's favorite aspect of coloring and rendering is skin due to its softness, malleability, and the freedom it offers compared to clothing or hair.

The video is sponsored by Skillshare, an online learning community offering a wide range of classes from various fields.

The artist is improving their ability to capture likeness in portraits through a class by Melissa D. Noga on digital painting in Photoshop.

Another recommended class is 'Digital Painting Concept Landscapes' by Jon St. O, which provides advice on drawing landscapes from thumbnailing to composition.

Skillshare offers learning paths, a collection of classes designed to be taken step by step, covering various levels of experience.

The artist emphasizes the importance of practicing skin studies by redrawing actual skin from references to improve one's art.

Skin tones generally lean towards warmer colors due to the blood underneath the skin, affecting the undertone of blushes.

For darker skin tones, shifting the saturation to a brighter red is recommended when picking shading colors.

Subsurface scattering is a phenomenon where light catches blood cells, making them appear redder, and is utilized in the artist's coloring process.

Reflective light added to the skin can enhance its depth, often using colors opposite on the color wheel like blues and greens.

Highlights on the skin should be in the same hue as the base color but with higher saturation to stand out naturally.

The environment can drastically affect skin tone and shading, with different settings causing various reflections on the skin.

When coloring darker skin, focusing on highlights can help define facial features more effectively due to the darker value.

Darker-skinned individuals often have lighter palms and the underside of their feet, which is important to consider when rendering.

Adding highlights to the face can define facial features, such as by the eyes or under the eyes to show depth.

The artist uses an overlay layer and airbrush to add a pinker lighter color to the face area for a brightening effect.

Subsurface scattering is applied with an overlay layer to give the skin a more lifelike appearance.

The artist's painting process is showcased in the video, demonstrating the use of blush to shape forms and add depth.

Rendering from reference is highly recommended for improving the understanding of skin curves, lighter and darker color placements.

Transcripts

hello I'm blue and in today's video I'll

show you how to color and render skin

skin is probably my favorite thing to

color and render because it's so soft

and malleable and there's not a lot of

rules to it like there are for clothing

or for hair so I feel like there's a lot

more freedom to kind of render your skin

the way you want to I don't know there

just something about rendering hand skin

and then making it look so like yum you

know so first thing we'll do is the wi

and then we'll get to the how toos

before I dive in I'm excited to share

that this video is sponsored by the

group people over at skillshare

skillshare is an incredible online

learning community where everyone can

explore and enroll and even teach a wide

range of classes from photography and

graphic design to music cooking business

marketing lifestyle and much much more

there's something for everyone one thing

I've been wanting to improve is my

ability to capture likeness of people in

portraits I love the people in my life

and the idea of creating drawings that

capture Precious Moments is special to

me so the class I've been taking is

digital painting in Photoshop create a

stylized Portrait by Melissa D

noga she covers interesting topics like

value scaling painting tips and

stylization techniques her explanations

are easy to follow along and I

definitely recommend her classes another

class I really love and highly recommend

is digital painting concept Landscapes

by Jon St o it's so good with loads of

easy to follow ad advice on drawing

Landscapes from thumbnailing to

composition there's so much good art

advice on the platform I highly

recommend it if you're looking to get

better at Art skillshare offers learning

paths as well which is a collection of

claes carefully selected to be taken

step by step each class bolds on what

you've already learned reinforcing the

lessons they cover various levels of

experience from beginners to advanc

including topics like design

productivity creativity freelancing and

so much more so if you don't know where

to start skill sharees learning PS are

for you you so stop saying I want to and

turn those I want to into I made it

happen whether you're presuming Hobbies

or aiming to turn your skills into your

career start investing in yourself this

year with skillshare skillshare has

thousands of classes covering virtually

every skill imaginable skillshare is

giving away 1 month free to the first

500 viewers to use my link in the

description box I highly recommend

taking advantage of this opportunity if

you're eager for easy and enjoyable

learning big thank you to skillshare

again for their continued support now

let's dive into the video there are many

different skin tones with varying colors

and shading and blush types to use but

you can use the method that I'm going to

show you for any type of skin color

including the unnatural ones so most

skin tones lean towards warmer colors on

the color wheel so from here till about

here the reason it leans towards the

warmer tones is due to the blood being

underneath the Skin So this means that

skin tones and blushes will often have a

warmer

undertone I add this this and I call it

blush so when you add blush to the skin

it makes it more lifelike and and adds

more of that Rosy tint to it I picked

the base color of the skin tone and then

I shift the Hue to a bit more of a red

Pinker color even with the darker skin

tones all I do is shift the saturation

to a bit more of a brighter red color

when I'm picking shading colors for the

skin I prefer Shifting the colors down

to purple and Maroons I used two

different saturations and Hues when

picking the shading so I'll have the

base shading which will probably be this

purple or maroon and then I'll shift the

saturation down one to make it a bit

darker I'll use these two different

colors and different sections of the

skin if you look nicely you can see the

two different shading colors I used in

these two pictures when light hits the

skin it catches the blood cells making

them appear redder this is called subser

for scattering and I add this when I

color so how I do this is I will add a

bit more of a darker red outlining the

shading this is kind of playing on the

fact that there are red blood cells

underneath the skin and the light is

catching on it the second type of

shedding I add is called a reflective

light adding a reflective light to the

skin can enhance its depth I like using

colors from the opposite side of the

color wheel such as blues and greens to

create striking contrast so then we have

highlights how highlight should be in

the same Hue as the base color but with

a higher saturation this makes the

Highlight stand out without looking

unnatural now this is just how I do it

but if you'd actually like to get better

at it on your own I would suggest doing

skin studies so redrawing actual skin

from references like photos or from

screenshots and also look into studying

how other artists do it so weed drawing

and the artists artwork and observing

what they do

there's this really neat thing called

flesh cubes done by this artist which

I'm sure a lot of people have seen

before in the past they're great for

finding skin tones and then finding

shading and highlight colors that suit

the skin tone though the thing with skin

color is it is RAR ever the same color

twice the environment can drastically

affect the skin tone and shading for

instance a character in a forest might

have green isues reflecting on their

skin well one near the ocean might have

a bit more bluish or warmer colors

depending on where they sit so just

because you're using the flesh Cube for

examples doesn't mean that they will

always stay the same Hue so just a tip

I'd like to point out between coloring

darker skin and lighter skin is that

with lighter skin you focus more on the

blush and the redness to create form but

I notice when I'm drawing darker skin I

tend to focus more on the highlights to

really show the shape of the face so I

will use like a lighter color to show

where the rounding of the cheeks are or

where the face basically bends I think

it's because this darker skin tends to

catch more light than the lighter skin

also darker skinn people normally have

lighter palms and lighter underneath

their feet so I just wanted to point

that out if you're going in and

rendering a darker skinned hand just uh

keep that in mind highlights in the face

can Define the facial features so when

I'm rendering a face I tend to add the

highlights to places to kind of show

depth so for example I would add a

highlight by the eyes or under the eyes

to kind of show the eye bags or if I'm

rendering a hand I'll will add highlight

between the knuckles to show that like

it has a a bit of an elevated surface so

that's just something I wanted to

mention before I get into the examples

now let let's get into the fun part the

how to use I will do a step-by-step

guide on a piece on how I'm rendering

Skin So for this I will be doing

different skin tones for examples but I

won't be making extreme environment

changes so they'll mostly be based on

like regular environmental skin

tones so first thing I do is I add the

base color which is the regular Bas

Stone you can make use of our Lord and

savior the flesh cubes if you're unsure

sure which skin tone to pick or you can

just go off of the color wheel if you're

confident enough that you're picking the

right Hues so once I have the base color

down I will start adding the

blush so I add the blush to parts of the

body where the skin is more thinner such

as under the eyes the nose the cheeks

the ears the lips the elbows basically

any part of the body that ends in like a

point so shoulders knees ankles you get

my points then I also use blush to

create depth for example if I'm drawing

muscles I will use the blush color to

define the shape and depth of the muscle

or from drawing the back I will use the

blush to Define where the back crease is

it's really good to add more depth into

it when I'm drawing hands I use the

blush to show where the knuckles are uh

I use it to create depth in the body

parts I also add blush to rounded pieces

so if I'm drawing like an arm I will add

like a thin blurred out line of blush

next to the side to show that the arm is

round next thing I do is I add shading

based on the light source I pick the

shading colors which is either going to

be a maroon or a reddish color and then

I add it with a light will obviously

fall so then I have two different

shading colors I have a darker maroon

and then a lighter maroon and then I

just kind of play with the two of them

until they kind of

work out sometimes I will use the

sometimes I'll use the lter tool and

just airbrush in like the lighter color

into the shading but that's only when

I'm feeling really

fancy now do note that the shading

colors can change depending on the

environment all of these colors can

change depending on the environment so

just keep in mind where your character

is but if I'm just doing like a basic

flat color I normally just do with red

or

Maroons so for this piece I didn't

actually add like the light I'll go in

and add that at the end cuz I actually

forgot so what I do instead is I add a

lighter color to where some of the

creases are and I feel like that really

defines where the creas is so you can

see by her back or the knees or his neck

I added like a lighter color to show

that there's a crease so that's kind of

like a reflective light as well whoops

spoilers but here is the finished piece

and here is where I would add the

reflective light if I did go in and add

it into these examples I think it was

because I was using a reference for all

of these so and my brain didn't think

like oh I should be adding different

colors into it but yeah so here's where

I've added them it's normally a light

purple or a light green color that I add

for the reflective light cuz I think

that just goes with the skin tones but

yeah I'm so sorry about

[Music]

this so after I've added everything to

the drawing what I like to do is go in

with an overlay layer and the airbrush

and then I take a Pinker lighter color

and I just splash it over the face area

it kind of just brightens up the face

and makes it more poppy against the rest

of the

colors uh yeah

so that's what I did there and then I

add the subsurface scattering which I

showed earlier and normally I just did

that with an overlay layer as well and

then I'm happy with like the base color

I will go in and paint it which is what

I'm doing here if you are interested in

knowing how I paint uh I have a tutorial

on like my painting process over there

so a lot of the first part of the video

was kind of to show you the steps that I

take and this part of the video is how I

put it into practice so you can see I'm

using the blush to kind of like shape

out like the forms so like there by her

nose I added like a like a red line to

show that hey like there's like a a

shape that goes down I hope that makes

sense um yeah these were pretty fun to

do I really enjoy painting skin cuz I

think it's really freeing and just lots

of fun to do um you can obviously do

this a lot neater than what I did

because when I put down the colors I'm

more concentrating on like getting the

colors to look okay rather than making

it look neat the first time also if you

can hear the birds in the background I'm

so sorry it's really hot here and I

don't want to close my windows and they

were just kind of like screaming

so um yeah so the big difference that I

noticed like I said at the start for

rendering darker skin and rendering

lighter skin is for darker skin

concentrate on where the highlights hit

the skin and rendering that into it and

for lighter skin you don't really need

to worry so much about the highlights

since it is a higher value but for

darker skin I think concentrating on

where the light hits the skin uh will

help you define the features a lot more

since it is a darker value I feel like

the features can get lost if you don't

have good uh contrasting colors in there

um yeah so that's just something that I

noticed from painting a lot of different

color

skins other than that everything is all

around the same for all skin colors um

and yeah I think what really does help

to learn to actually render skin better

is by rendering from reference so a lot

of these ones that I rendered here are

from references and it did help me you

know well obviously I've done it in the

past so I know what I'm doing but it

does help you like decipher where the

curves will be and where the lighter and

darker colors will go and yeah it's

really

[Music]

cool this video was a bit easier to do

so I do hope you enjoy enjoyed and if

you have any questions feel free to ask

me down in the comments below I'll try

and get back to you and thank you so

much for watching I will see you guys in

the next video bye