Welcome to Draw Tip Tuesday, here's your weekly dose of inspiration, to build a
creative habi,t one drawing at a time, brought to you by sketchbook school
hi here's a question I get a lot: how do you do skin tones when you're
drawing? well skin tone is just not one color - everybody's skin has a different
tone and color and complexion so I don't really have an answer to that question
but I can show you how I approach drawing skin using colored pencils. but
first let's also take a look at how other artists approach this. I have a
selection of books here from artists who draw people often and whose work I
admire. here's one of Felix Scheinberger's books - his work makes me wonder: do we
need skin tone at all? just a tad bit of watercolor and a few pencil lines might
be enough. and here bright pink on the cheeks it's not the real colour of skin
but it works so well. look here purple red blue all these colors add up to skin
tone. it's not photo realistic skin tone but therefore maybe much more
interesting. I love this too - people aren't pink, but using pink like kids do
actually, works really well and he mixes again with purple and blue. I think it's
also really important to leave a lot of blank paper space and also be bold and
exaggerate. look, just a bit of mark making is all you need to create the
sense of a face and some color on it. I think when we look at Felix Scheinberger's
style it is really a matter of being bold, daring to combine bright bright red
with a simple beige for example
Miguel Herranz is another one of my favorites. again here's proof that you
actually don't need to color the face at all. this is
done on gray toned paper and that gives you a mid-tone. keeping it flat like this
puts more emphasis on the important parts of the drawing. or what about using a
limited palette? you just need a few hatching lines to indicate shadows and
create volume. so who needs skin tone anyway? and here's another example that
you don't really need this skin tone at all. the emphasis is on the other colors
and the shapes and it's not even important what color the skin is.
this is a book by Inma Serrano. she is amazing with color and she uses colored pencils
a lot to combine with other media. let's look at this: brown colored pencil, ochre,
yellow, orange, pink. brown and ochre again. and what is really important here is
that she is actually using colors that are in the rest of the drawing so
instead of using the right skin color Inma is using the palette of colors that
she's already using in the rest of the drawing
this gives the drawing kind of a unity. here, this is a bit like Felix does just
a few strokes of color. and the bright pink here shows that it must have been a
very hot day. these people may have a bit of a sunburn or they are flustered by
the warm weather
how about gray, blue, beige for skin color? it's almost a little muddy here but it
makes sense as these people are in the shadow and in the background. and then
the little round pink cheek that is added gives a lot of life to it
and just like with Felix, colored pencils can give you the association of of them being a
kid's tool, well, use that! here, Inma uses a red pencil to color the man's face and
doesn't it make total sense even though it's not photorealistic?
Lynne Chapman draws people very often and she made a book about it. here's proof
that there is no real answer to the question how to create skin color. look
at the green and the purple and the blue that is combined in these faces. here's a
green face but doesn't it make total sense because the tones are right? Lynne
often uses water-soluble inktense pencils. look here:
green. red. this is even more extreme: blue, purple, green. just a few colors - very
strong and again just like with Felix Scheinberger's style and Inma's style: be
bold. And Lynn has this whole thing about skin color actually in her book: green
shadows prevent the skin from appearing too pink for example. she uses tan to add
a warm tone. red for a bit of a blush. stubble can appear blue which is a great
insight and so true. well I won't give away all our secrets just buy the book
even if it was just for this one single page. but then I also realize that when
people ask about skin color they want to know how to represent the color the way
it looks in real life. Tommy Kane often combines pen, watercolor and colored
pencils. there's a lot of red involved here and that's the thing: some people
have a more red complexion, others are more pale, the next
has a brown skin and what about the shine and reflections you can sometimes
see on skin? wow look at this! and this girl has more of a pale complexion so
Tommy has used delicate strokes of soft pink, orange, yellow, blue, gray and all
colored pencils on top of watercolor. there is not one single formula that's
clear. check out all these faces. for every face there's a completely
different approach
and probably this is what people are asking about how to do skin tone in a
realistic way, like here. and I'll show you how I use my colored pencils to
build up skin tone for a portrait. I found this photo on my phone and I will
use it for reference for my drawing I picked up this terracotta color which
will be my starting point this light pink could be helpful and maybe this
pale pin.k I'm not sure yet. a yellow and red
this pink might be too bright but you never know
there will probably be orange involved and some lilac or violet and
blue also for some cooler shades and contrast. I'll start with a quick outline
but when I am drawing skin tone I am trying to look at light and shadow
rather than colors and shape. I can see so many colors here in that cheek it's
kind of pink but it's not just pink I actually see sort of underlying yellow
and here is a white reflection so I leave that white. so let's focus on this
cheek area I draw with a very soft and light touch so I can add lots of layers
to bring a sense of depth and volume to the drawing. I actually see a bit of
violet in here too. this takes time but it's important to find the shadows. they
define the shape of the face. and if this would be someone else's face the colors
would be completely different. and if this photo would be taken in different
lighting the colors would be different as well. just looking at the shadows the
longer you look the more shades and colors you will see. try to not think in
terms of only yellow brownish beige and pink but also think about opposite
colors and how they are represented in darker parts in the shaded area. you'll
see cooler colors and you just keep adding layer upon layer and those will
build up to the color you want to represent. make sure to leave a
lot of white because the more layers you add the more the colors will come
together and fill up the white space and you don't want to lose your highlights
and it's really up to you. are you trying to represent the reality or do you want
to have your own interpretation of things? this is just one way of doing
things but think about how Lynne chooses bright unlogical colors to create a skin
tone that makes total sense or if you don't have time to layer your color like
with this technique, channel Inma or Felix and pick up bright colors to make
some quick marks. the technique I am showing you will take time and it will
take patience but you will get a real nice rich combination of colors. and if
you want the texture to have an even smoother look try using a blending stick
it blends the colors together and creates a softer texture. something you
might want to try as well. well I could go on forever because once you start
this it's kind of addicting and meditative but I think this will do.
so find a photo of your face or someone else's face. just a portrait. make sure
that the lighting is good in the photo so you have a clear understanding of
where the shadows are and where the light source is and where the highlights
are because that will make things a lot easier to create depth and volume and
then look at an area or the whole face to really see what colors are actually
in there. so maybe at first it looks like it's just a pink or a beige or brown but
when you keep looking you actually see that one color is built by many
many colors and then pick your colors from your colored pencil kit and start
layering those colors until you have the desired effect so you build up to that
whole color. you can use a blending stick as well if you like to smoothen things
out. and if you don't have time or patience to use the technique that I
just show you that is fine, just try something else. pick one pencil one
bright color and make marks or you know use just that one little circle for a
cheek and maybe that's all you need for your portrait. so you can be bold, you can
take your time, as long as you have fun. and I cannot wait to see what you make
so please post your art on social media using the hashtag #dttinaction and I'll
see you next week have fun