Textured painting! Skin 101

[nemo]

This tutorial is available as a PDF. Click here to view or download it

This is just one method. There are many, and i shall do a tutorial on more complex ones in the future

Hey guys, after much request i have decided to make a mini series of tutorials, this one being based upon skin textures. Please note, this method can be used for any colourisation, in fact it is one of my favourite methods. I didnt exactly spend a long time on colouring this image, if you would like some extra tips and such please feel free to post and or pm me and ill give you tips on smudging and such 😉 .. This just a small part of the series, i shall also be creating a very large, in depth guide to creating, applying and the 'finishing touches' of prety much anything you would like to create in the future..hopefully you can use this to help you do it in the mean time 😉

Ok so in this particular example, we will be colouring a picture of an arm (courtesy of Allen3d). Hopefully your turnouts should become something like this:

Believe it or not there are no plugins required for this, however the isolate line tool may come in handy.

Stage 1

Once you have the picture of the arm (this is were you use lin isolate if you wish), add a layer :AddNewLayer: and name it "Skin light". In this layer, draw out all the areas where you would see the skin being at its lightest, this stage is very important as it determines the direction of the light source. Once you have done this, repeat the same method on 2 new layers, one being called "Skin medium" - the main tone, and the last being "skin dark" - Only the darkest points of the image.

Stage 2

Boring part done, now lets get on with the fun! make sure you only have 'skin light' and the original arm layers selected. Now, add a new layer, i personally call it 'SL' for 'skin light'. Now set your primary colour to FFDBD8 and set the alpha transparency to 50, this will give you a nice light skin colour. Select the paintbrush tool ( ) and colour in the light areas which you had previously selected on 'Skin Light' as shown:

Once you have done this, you will notice that the paintbrush actually runs like a paintbrush (the longer you hold in a area the darker it gets). Simply hold longer in certain areas for a more prominant light 😉 .

Now you have got the grasp of this method, we need to add a new layer :AddNewLayer: and do exactly the same, this time we are going to focus on the main texture for 'Skin medium'. Again, i personally call this layer 'SM'. This time, set your 'V' to 85, you should end up with something like this:

Notice all the edges have a SM around them, this is because it will help give the arm a bit more of a rounded effect.

Aaand finally we get onto the SD (in my version), aka the 'skin dark layer'. If you have not already done so, add a new layer :AddNewLayer:, call it whatever you wish and then start on the dark parts on the arms. This time set 'v' to 74 Once complete your arm should look like a complete mess..congratulations!

Stage 3

Right, now we have the basis of a arm, well done if you have managed to get this far through my poorly written tut . You can now delete the first 3 layers you made which were to show you where to put the tones, that is, if you bothered to create them. This next part is down to your own decision. You can do one of two things, merge each arm tone down into one and then apply a gaussian blur at roughly 11 (dependant on picture but a lot less hassle) OR blur each individual layer. Once you have done this you may notice that there are some transparent areas around the arms brighter areas (this does not always happen). If this is the case do not panic, simply add a new layer, set 'v' to the max and simply 'blob out' the areas, apply another blur and they will be gone 😉 ..now set the layer to overlay and you should (hopefully) have something along the lines of this, you may need to feather it:

Still managed to keep up with my poor writing? ohh i am impressed :wink:.

Stage 4

Set a 'v' of 90, add a new layer :AddNewLayer: and apply it around the prominant edges of the image, then just run another gaussian blur. Next is a bit more tricky, the settings are different for everyone hence no picture but run a 'curves' until you have a look that you like. You should now have something like this (if they are a bit too dark just lower the opacity):

This is the point where most people leave it. Please read on for a little extra:

tip 1: run clouds with a medium of roughness and size and apply as overlay to get that more realistic skin tone

tip 2: add extra layers with more tones, every single piece you ever do should have 3 or more tones

tip 3: if you chose to do clouds try running a low blur on them to get an even more blended feel.

Tip 4: Use Simon Browns custom brush mini to apply different textures with different brushes

these should lead to something like this:

Probably the best tip: Highlight layer

Add a layer but this time, use a light colour such as FEF7FF and pop in where you want the light to come from, and...you guessed it! our old pal gaussian blur set to about 6 😉 ..i personally lower the opcity of this layer to about 144 as i dont want epicly shiny skin :shock:

Ok thats about it..not exactly realistic to the 'wow' point but there are a few extra bits you could do to sort that out (just pm me :wink:). I hope this has helped you get the grasp of 'painting' skin rather than just doing monotone work? Remember though, this tutorial can be applied to anything!, a rose..perhaps?.. 8).

I have tried to keep it 'image friendly' but to replace the images i have added a bunch of writing. Win some lose some.. .

Please post your attempts, be it of an arm or perhaps one of your drawings using this method to colour in a hat or something?

More to come soon. Bye for now :wink:.

Please note: Here is a tutorial by Oma based upon blur painting. Relatively the same but i really do suggest you take a peak at this somewhat forgotten tutorial, really adds on nicely to this one. 😉

[theonlychad]

First! and awesome tut nemo i will give it a try sometime

[nemo]

hehe long awaited by lots of people :shock:, i didnt realise i wrote that much. jeeze lol. Glad you like it ..Oyh remember i have a lot more complex methods coming soon :wink:

[theonlychad]

Heh i already had a bit of base knowledge of coloring but this is just awesome thanks nemo!

[Frontcannon]

Nice, this is very helpful!

:!: Typo in the header :!:

[yy10]

Cool! I've been waiting for this for a long time. Something tells me this is going to be a popular tut.

[nemo]

@Frostcannon: Thanks, changed it now :wink: . Glad you find it helpful

@YY: ohh i do hope so, it can be applied to prety much everything

[sokagirl]

Very nicely done Nemo , your first tutorial :AddNoise: great job .

[HELEN]

Very well written tutorial, nemo. I also like the paintbrush set at a lower transparency level idea; that's pretty neat. Nice job with it!

[nemo]

@Soka: Thankyou

@HELEN: Thanks, took me a while to make sure i had written it correctly but i think it was worth it. I use brush on low transparency all the time, great for base colours in images

[Aislin]

in one word: Wonderful!

[nemo]

Thanks Aislin, hope you get the time to have a try at some point

[Midgetalien]

Ohh i like this! with a few tweaks it could be applied to "beasts" - i tend to sketch dragons and what not, think i am going to experiment with this one

[Aislin]

Thanks Aislin, hope you get the time to have a try at some point

need to have a graphic tablet first..... I can now feel the economic crisis in my pocket.. so I need a cheap second hand tablet unfortunatly, lol

[nemo]

@Midgetalien: Yup, it can be applied to painting beasts too :wink:

@Aislin: i know, i still need one myself lol. Uhm theres quite a few out there if you search though

[Wilson]

Love this one! Great art, great tutorials, well done Nemo!

[nemo]

Thankyou Wilson , hoping to get tutorial 2 up next week :wink:

[oma]

lovely tut! should help some of the newbies get over their fears of tackling more advanced images.

great job nemo.

ciao OMA

[nemo]

Thankyou Oma , like i said in pm i would really like to put your blur painting tutorial as a side link at the bottom but cannot find the link, i am not sure but think it may have been in the legacy tutorials? If so ill have to request that back :wink:

[Midgetalien]

@Midgetalien: Yup, it can be applied to painting beasts too :wink:

@Aislin: i know, i still need one myself lol. Uhm theres quite a few out there if you search though

awsome, and yep i am looking for a tablet as well. Havnt found any yet. Though amazon has a few good ones atm.

[LibbyH]

Very nice tut Nemo! I'll be trying this one tonight if I get the time. I've been wanting to do more creating in paint.net. Currently I spend most of my time photo editting.

[nemo]

Thankyou LibbyH , If you get the time post up your results so we can see if it helped :wink:

[007 Nab]

Great job nemo - well explained, I'm sure this will help out a many people wondering about shading in the way you did. Good job explaining highlights / shadows as well - I definitely want to get into digital painting with PDN.

[oma]

Thankyou Oma , like i said in pm i would really like to put your blur painting tutorial as a side link at the bottom but cannot find the link, i am not sure but think it may have been in the legacy tutorials? If so ill have to request that back :wink:

its under creations here is the link

viewtopic.php?f=31&t=28453

[Aislin]

@Midgetalien: Yup, it can be applied to painting beasts too :wink:

@Aislin: i know, i still need one myself lol. Uhm theres quite a few out there if you search though

awsome, and yep i am looking for a tablet as well. Havnt found any yet. Though amazon has a few good ones atm.

My BF bought one for me today :wink: Genius G-Pen, cheap... but we have been reading the

reviews on that tablet and it's good enough. I'll give you my review when i have it at home next week.