I personally would use red tones as it gets darker and then go down to a dark brown. Obviously that’s for a more warm tone but it makes it look better. The lightest skin tone would go on first and then layer the darker tones around it.
Warm shadows i add red, cool shadows i add blue. It all depends on the value of your shadow and what colors are being reflected by the subjects surroundings
for me it depend, if i'm trying to reproduce strong natural light, i do use red tones as it gets darker. But for artificial light i tend to use cold tones for shadows, for the mid tones it can change depending of the body part and the reflected light. I do not speak english, pardon me for writen mistakes
Best is to use a warm dark tone on the edge of where the shadow starts. Skin is slightly transparent and light travels under the skin to make edges red. Then have it fade cooler towards the center. Cool the rest of the shadow because direct sunlight is warmer than the ambient (usually sky) light that illuminates shadows
Honestly when I’m painting skin tones I don’t try to paint by “what this skin tone would like like flat” I paint by looking around the object and finding the colors that would truly match closest to the actual color on the reference. That might be not a typical color for skin it could be blue or purple or red or green, layering on top with other colors but starting with a base like blue or green can add dimension and levels to your work that plain skin tones couldn’t reach, even when working with darker tones.
Exactly.. Thinking "skin color" is not a painter's mindset. Color is light, including reflected light from nearby objects. You gotta mix them all to make a picture. Unless you're painting a "skintone rectangle" 💀
If it’s a warm skin, I suggest using red for shading and yellow for highlights (But it mostly depends on the room or ambient that the character is in.)
*better depending on what vibe you’re going for. Remember that going redder when darker (which is where you get that umber) is for lively skin. If you want to look ghastly, sick, etc. you’ll still need red/umber in certain key areas, but that grey/black becomes your best friend.
not cool blues, greens and purples? I feel like depending on how you're painting, having layers with blues, greens, and purples have more of that sickly look due to easily bruised skin and dullness
@ Of course, but even then you rely on desaturation and greys and blacks quite a lot depending on the vibe, style, lighting, or otherwise. Blues, purples, greens, and yellows make good bruises- especially as a base tone- but the corpselike look is still achieved with the greys and blacks.
If you struggle with value, you can always take a picture on your phone and edit it so it’s in black and white-that way, you can see what’s going on in terms of just the value, and not get overwhelmed with the color! This is also super useful for reference photos. Value is much more important than color. There’s a reason you can use red and green and still make a relatively realistic portrait, ignoring the actual colors 😂
I feel like the subsurface scattering (which is the in between of the base color and the shadow and is warmer) should pop more. The skin here is great but it looks dead. Adding a warmer more reddish color there will make it look more alive and healthy. This method is great for those classic pale ghostly like depictions of skin, but if you want the skin to look alive and healthy you need stronger subsurface scattering
@@msfrizzleart I bought some a few days ago, does it work like other type of paints? Do I need to take extra measures? (as in using more/better tools) Will it ruin my paint brush?
As much as I wish I could answer that all in one comment, oil paints have several things that make them unique and I wouldn’t want to make it more confusing by being too concise. I highly recommend looking up some longer-form RUclips videos about beginner oil painting until you feel like you understand the medium! They’re easy to work with once you learn how they work💜
Another tip; if there should be reflected light against the skin from a nearby wall or other object, the reflected light/color cast into the cool shadows should be warm.
For me i just look at the reference and try to copy that. It depends entirely on the lighting situation, the shadows, the background, the models original skin colors, textures and hyperpigminentation etc. And most importantly of all, the planes of the face. Yours for example look extremely gray like this, but it could make perfect sense once you've added all the rest of the context.
In a open space with natural lightning, lighter colors will become warmer, while the shadows acquire a slight blueish-cold tone coming from the sky above, hope this helps ❤
i personally start with a small amount of the base color and add whatever colors are needed in as i try matching it to the reference photo. It makes it more impressionistic
Not a realism artist, but skin is the one area I actually shade warmer than the base color because I feel like it makes the character look more alive, like there’s blood under the skin
I like to replace my yellows and reds with ochres, siennas and umbers when I mix up my base skin tones (earth colors make some of the most beautiful skin tones!) and then use my more chromatic primaries to create my highlight and shadow colors. That way it's not too "neon-y" but avoids "plastic man syndrome" and isn't too dull. (Official art terms my professors loved to use back in the day, lol). Starring with a burnt sienna under painting also helps get your colors just right.
Lately, I have been using markers, and I like to use pink, orange, purple, green or blue, depending on the tone of the color base of the skin, and I really like to play with the colors 😂😂
Ill make a brief comment Basically use a little bit of a darker red to mix into a skin tone because of subsurface scattering occuring in human flesh for the transition zone between skin in light going into shadow
That warm to cool sandwich is actually extremely helpful advice thank you! I paint digitally and in all the references I’ve seen I never know where the warms vs cools go or don’t go
this is very very different than what I do (I actually paint purples, reds, and yellows onto the shading before blending) but it looks good. I link the contrast when using other colours myself
so the issue with these methods for me is that all of them end up feeling grey in the midtones. it makes the skin look dead/sickly imo, but it also depends on the paint being used. I prefer guache for skin, bc you can layer it really nicely and build up the under tones. I’m generally a sculptor, but I use the same method when painting skin on a model or the canvas: map out the temperatures of the face (you can find a ref for this easily online but you can break the face up into 3 general sections of color: blue for the jaw up to the nose, red for the nose/cheeks/ears, and yellow for the forehead/cartilage areas), then layer a thin wash of my skin shade, and continue layering, blending and mixing those colors to replicate the translucence of skin. Building up more blue under the skin color will give you deeper shadows, and likewise yellow will make the skin color brighter. It’s a very similar technique to this video, but I like to use pure colors and layer them on the canvas rather than premixing-that’s just my style, bc I like the randomness and the texture, but it’s 100% a personal choice lol, some people hate working like that
Personally since I use oils, I start on a black or very dark shade of an acrylic, after that dries I start highlighting with zinc or titanium white, then reds and greens and finally I fill in the rest with the shade i want the skin to be
And remember that your scene light color can be used instead of just warm for the lighter versions. If you want the painting to be of a person in blue lights, make it bluer
I paint mini figures and used to base in "skin tone" now I start with a deep red then progress glazes of increasing highlight, until a final reflection on the highest edges to show a slightly oily surface but keeps a depth of warmth and biology underneath.
I love painting, and I'm glad at least traditional painting isn't replaced by AI yet, I hope the technology needed for that would discourage people from exploring these possibilities.
Or just actually recognize that the biggest influence on color is reflected light, shadows will be warm when they catch light from the skin and will be cool when for instance they catch light from the sky or even a lit blue object nearby. Do observational work and look closely at shadows, try to figure out what might cause the different values and hues and then apply that logic (exaggerated or otherwise) to your other works.
Theres some other things to remember, i cant hear rn socim not sure if you mentioned it as i comment but Bouncelight & the terminator line , are VERY important. The other important thing is knowing what material youre painting & its transparency, colours will act differently depending on the surface
I usually just raw dog it and pick what looks good, but for skin I usually don’t use more than 4 colours, which is red, ochre, yellow and blue, plus white and I almost never use black even for things that look black (I mix brown and blue and trust me it looks way better)
Idk i usually mix a skin tone and then slowly mix colours on the canvas to build up depth (first i use my intal colour and then just add darker or lighter tones as i go)
I never had to paint skin until I got to college and I just overly blended until it looked good so u don’t need no fancy techniques most of the time lol
this is telling you what to do without explaining why theyre doing it this way, you can have warm highlights and cool shadows. but that only works because of colour theory. you can do cool highlights and warm shadows too, it all depends on your light source and what colours and bouncing off eachother. if outside in the city, you have a warm sun highlighting the skin, making the shadows appear cooler in comparison, then buildings and signs bouncing light onto different parts of your subject, the skin could in theory have a mix of alternating warm and cool tones on it but its all depending on your subject and situation.
As an artist for 10 years now, who does art professionally without understanding color theory AT ALL don’t worry too much about that last one. Even I get lost. But I just paint what I see, meaning colors too. And that I cannot explain. 😅
I tried using raw umber instead of black and was pleasantly surprised (I use bright colors most of the time so it’s not part of my color palette but it is now)
![Blox Fruits Dragon Rework Update [Full Stream]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/EqDAp8udhm0/mqdefault.jpg)
JUST POSTED my demo of using this technique on a real portrait! ✨💜
Hi! What colors did you use to get the principal tone, please?
I personally would use red tones as it gets darker and then go down to a dark brown. Obviously that’s for a more warm tone but it makes it look better. The lightest skin tone would go on first and then layer the darker tones around it.
Warm shadows i add red, cool shadows i add blue. It all depends on the value of your shadow and what colors are being reflected by the subjects surroundings
Well no shit that’s what she said in the video
for me it depend, if i'm trying to reproduce strong natural light, i do use red tones as it gets darker. But for artificial light i tend to use cold tones for shadows, for the mid tones it can change depending of the body part and the reflected light.
I do not speak english, pardon me for writen mistakes
Damn take your negative attitude elsewhere princess @darkx6869
she did say to use umber
The flesh orbs have risen.
All hail
All hail
I thought they were boobs :’D
All hail
All hail
The most realistic way to paint skin is taking your brush and painting on your skin
best comment
Will try
I never even thought of this! I'm totally trying this tomorrow!!!
Underrated
I'm ☠️☠️ . It's 5am here. I love starting my day with a good laugh!
Thanks.
I'd say using warmer shadows might be better, the cool shadows make it feel like dead skin
Best is to use a warm dark tone on the edge of where the shadow starts. Skin is slightly transparent and light travels under the skin to make edges red. Then have it fade cooler towards the center. Cool the rest of the shadow because direct sunlight is warmer than the ambient (usually sky) light that illuminates shadows
@@MrRedstoneready tysm for your tips 🤩
Honestly when I’m painting skin tones I don’t try to paint by “what this skin tone would like like flat” I paint by looking around the object and finding the colors that would truly match closest to the actual color on the reference. That might be not a typical color for skin it could be blue or purple or red or green, layering on top with other colors but starting with a base like blue or green can add dimension and levels to your work that plain skin tones couldn’t reach, even when working with darker tones.
Exactly.. Thinking "skin color" is not a painter's mindset. Color is light, including reflected light from nearby objects. You gotta mix them all to make a picture. Unless you're painting a "skintone rectangle" 💀
Even the way you say it…sounds beautiful. ☺️
If it’s a warm skin, I suggest using red for shading and yellow for highlights (But it mostly depends on the room or ambient that the character is in.)
*better depending on what vibe you’re going for.
Remember that going redder when darker (which is where you get that umber) is for lively skin. If you want to look ghastly, sick, etc. you’ll still need red/umber in certain key areas, but that grey/black becomes your best friend.
not cool blues, greens and purples? I feel like depending on how you're painting, having layers with blues, greens, and purples have more of that sickly look due to easily bruised skin and dullness
@ Of course, but even then you rely on desaturation and greys and blacks quite a lot depending on the vibe, style, lighting, or otherwise. Blues, purples, greens, and yellows make good bruises- especially as a base tone- but the corpselike look is still achieved with the greys and blacks.
@@silenthades I see I see thank you for your wisdom!
Warm shadows and cool light works even better.
If you struggle with value, you can always take a picture on your phone and edit it so it’s in black and white-that way, you can see what’s going on in terms of just the value, and not get overwhelmed with the color! This is also super useful for reference photos. Value is much more important than color. There’s a reason you can use red and green and still make a relatively realistic portrait, ignoring the actual colors 😂
Your shorts are incredibly helpful and make all these techniques sound so simple. I'm in love with your work, i swear
I feel like the subsurface scattering (which is the in between of the base color and the shadow and is warmer) should pop more. The skin here is great but it looks dead. Adding a warmer more reddish color there will make it look more alive and healthy. This method is great for those classic pale ghostly like depictions of skin, but if you want the skin to look alive and healthy you need stronger subsurface scattering
To see this on a much more diverse range of skin tones, just click on the related video 💜💜
What paint did you use in the video?
@@miysoi oil paint! To get the same blend with acrylic paints, you can add a slow-drying medium.
@@msfrizzleart I bought some a few days ago, does it work like other type of paints? Do I need to take extra measures? (as in using more/better tools) Will it ruin my paint brush?
@miysoi If you wash it properly and don't let the paint dry on the brush, I'm sure you'll be fine. Then again, I've never used oil paints.
As much as I wish I could answer that all in one comment, oil paints have several things that make them unique and I wouldn’t want to make it more confusing by being too concise. I highly recommend looking up some longer-form RUclips videos about beginner oil painting until you feel like you understand the medium! They’re easy to work with once you learn how they work💜
Can we just take a moment to appreciate how perfectly you finished the shape of that first circle? 😍
Ooh the last one makes me think of Arcane, you can really see some of those cool brush strokes giving dimension and also wear to the faces
This was the tutorial I NEEDED, painting skin has always given me so much difficulty
I love that warm to cool to warm trick, that’s really helpful!!! Thank you so much
nit even trying to be mean but how is it helpful? bc that's not how skin works
I do all of the light and shadows based on the vibe that the lighting in the drawing gives off
HOW DID I MISS ALL OF THIS!! thank youuuuu. so helpful
Another tip; if there should be reflected light against the skin from a nearby wall or other object, the reflected light/color cast into the cool shadows should be warm.
For me i just look at the reference and try to copy that. It depends entirely on the lighting situation, the shadows, the background, the models original skin colors, textures and hyperpigminentation etc. And most importantly of all, the planes of the face.
Yours for example look extremely gray like this, but it could make perfect sense once you've added all the rest of the context.
Bro really painted five flesh orbs and thought we wouldn't notice
You legit have Miss frizzle hair and I luv it ❤❤❤
this is a goated shorts pull considering we have just started our portrait unit in my painting glass + are working with skin tones a LOT
Crayola brown and orange markers haven’t failed me yet.
This is so helpful! The last one I’m not as sure about but still helpful tips to think about when painting!
I personally tend to switch the cold/warm tones for my highlights/shadows. I guess it depends on what style you paint and the lighting in general.
These would be good for any other material but skin. You need warms in the shadows and a pop of saturation on the terminator
In a open space with natural lightning, lighter colors will become warmer, while the shadows acquire a slight blueish-cold tone coming from the sky above, hope this helps ❤
sometimes i use unmixed primaries to add pops of color into the skin!
oh my god thank you. I genuinely could not understand WHAT shades to choose. Gonna go art rn thanks.
Grey for shadows can work if you’re painting, like, a vampire or sth tho. Makes it look lifeless, but that’s the point! Lol
I’m so inspired to paint vampires now… 🧛🏻♀️
My first big project! A vampy girl.
Looks great! :D
i personally start with a small amount of the base color and add whatever colors are needed in as i try matching it to the reference photo. It makes it more impressionistic
when im making skin tones i use a more yellowish highlight and a redish, saturated mid tone, and a medium temperature brownish shadow
Not a realism artist, but skin is the one area I actually shade warmer than the base color because I feel like it makes the character look more alive, like there’s blood under the skin
I like to replace my yellows and reds with ochres, siennas and umbers when I mix up my base skin tones (earth colors make some of the most beautiful skin tones!) and then use my more chromatic primaries to create my highlight and shadow colors. That way it's not too "neon-y" but avoids "plastic man syndrome" and isn't too dull. (Official art terms my professors loved to use back in the day, lol). Starring with a burnt sienna under painting also helps get your colors just right.
the last one was what i never found out how to do on my own omg tysm for this
I really loves your shorts. I don’t even paint.
They kind of look like pearls to me🦪✨️
Lately, I have been using markers, and I like to use pink, orange, purple, green or blue, depending on the tone of the color base of the skin, and I really like to play with the colors 😂😂
Oh for me i use a blue/green undertone, then paint over that with real skintones to create a more realistic look
I'm so out of practice, this is helping so much!!
Ill make a brief comment
Basically use a little bit of a darker red to mix into a skin tone because of subsurface scattering occuring in human flesh for the transition zone between skin in light going into shadow
That warm to cool sandwich is actually extremely helpful advice thank you! I paint digitally and in all the references I’ve seen I never know where the warms vs cools go or don’t go
this is very very different than what I do (I actually paint purples, reds, and yellows onto the shading before blending) but it looks good. I link the contrast when using other colours myself
I thought you meant most realistic as in realistically what I’m gonna do (which is number one since I have no patience 😂)
Great mixing tips. Thanks for posting.
flash balls are my fav trope in art
This deserves more views
I LOVE COLOR THEORYYYY ❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥👏👏👏
I always use dark red for shadows. Like I always try to saturate my shadows to make it more dynamic!!
those flesh orbs are looking great
so the issue with these methods for me is that all of them end up feeling grey in the midtones. it makes the skin look dead/sickly imo, but it also depends on the paint being used. I prefer guache for skin, bc you can layer it really nicely and build up the under tones. I’m generally a sculptor, but I use the same method when painting skin on a model or the canvas: map out the temperatures of the face (you can find a ref for this easily online but you can break the face up into 3 general sections of color: blue for the jaw up to the nose, red for the nose/cheeks/ears, and yellow for the forehead/cartilage areas), then layer a thin wash of my skin shade, and continue layering, blending and mixing those colors to replicate the translucence of skin. Building up more blue under the skin color will give you deeper shadows, and likewise yellow will make the skin color brighter. It’s a very similar technique to this video, but I like to use pure colors and layer them on the canvas rather than premixing-that’s just my style, bc I like the randomness and the texture, but it’s 100% a personal choice lol, some people hate working like that
it really helped, thanks!
Personally since I use oils, I start on a black or very dark shade of an acrylic, after that dries I start highlighting with zinc or titanium white, then reds and greens and finally I fill in the rest with the shade i want the skin to be
Really interesting, I’ll make sure to try this out
Ty I've been painting alot recently
if you can do this much with paint for skin tones, then beauty companies have no reason to not make a substantial shade range
I don't use paint but I do digital stuff. Thanks for the color theory. :)
Also I can't stop thinking about spheres of flesh....
And remember that your scene light color can be used instead of just warm for the lighter versions. If you want the painting to be of a person in blue lights, make it bluer
This is a really cool tutorial but I’m also distracted by the Flesh Orbs
Can you do a darker skin tutorial?
they easily could've in this video
@@sammyham6965 I’ve posted several!
I paint mini figures and used to base in "skin tone" now I start with a deep red then progress glazes of increasing highlight, until a final reflection on the highest edges to show a slightly oily surface but keeps a depth of warmth and biology underneath.
how beautiful art is
My Warhammer minis about to have the prettiest most multidimensional skin i can give em now...
Also very important to know where your light is coming from and what color light you're using.
Love it. Thank you❤
I love painting, and I'm glad at least traditional painting isn't replaced by AI yet, I hope the technology needed for that would discourage people from exploring these possibilities.
Or just actually recognize that the biggest influence on color is reflected light, shadows will be warm when they catch light from the skin and will be cool when for instance they catch light from the sky or even a lit blue object nearby. Do observational work and look closely at shadows, try to figure out what might cause the different values and hues and then apply that logic (exaggerated or otherwise) to your other works.
very educational. I learned something.
Theres some other things to remember, i cant hear rn socim not sure if you mentioned it as i comment but Bouncelight & the terminator line , are VERY important. The other important thing is knowing what material youre painting & its transparency, colours will act differently depending on the surface
This also give one ideas how makeup foundation works too.
I cant wait to paint a skin ball!
Imagine if this was on instagram
Wow this is beautiful
I usually just raw dog it and pick what looks good, but for skin I usually don’t use more than 4 colours, which is red, ochre, yellow and blue, plus white and I almost never use black even for things that look black (I mix brown and blue and trust me it looks way better)
You cab use maine add random colors and then apply hughlights going up to white before applying a verry soft purple shadow or a dramtic black shadow
Idk i usually mix a skin tone and then slowly mix colours on the canvas to build up depth (first i use my intal colour and then just add darker or lighter tones as i go)
I never had to paint skin until I got to college and I just overly blended until it looked good so u don’t need no fancy techniques most of the time lol
THE WAY YOU BLENDED 😻😻
Skin is my least favorite thing to color since I find it pretty confusing, so this was helpful
i saw that black being added and physically recoiled
this is telling you what to do without explaining why theyre doing it this way, you can have warm highlights and cool shadows. but that only works because of colour theory. you can do cool highlights and warm shadows too, it all depends on your light source and what colours and bouncing off eachother. if outside in the city, you have a warm sun highlighting the skin, making the shadows appear cooler in comparison, then buildings and signs bouncing light onto different parts of your subject, the skin could in theory have a mix of alternating warm and cool tones on it but its all depending on your subject and situation.
I usually use the last option. I dotn know why but it has always been the most logical one to me that also creates nice variations of colour:)
As an artist for 10 years now, who does art professionally without understanding color theory AT ALL don’t worry too much about that last one. Even I get lost. But I just paint what I see, meaning colors too. And that I cannot explain. 😅
Me and my Apricot crayola crayon are doing just fine, thanks.
I think the last orb proves that the order you put them in does matter.... -3-
So much talent
THOSE PAINTS LOOK DELICIOUS
🤨
@usertedi 😂
They do!
Can I ask what paint did you use? The blending looks satisfying ❤️
I’d been wondering the same thing! According to her reply to another commenter, she used oil paints.
that shadow on the 2nd is to gray it needs to be a bit more darker
I use black and white in my digital works. It's really helpful on black and grey horses, but I have gotten really good with it on other horse colors
Aaaaand this is why I only do abstract!
Pro tip: the warmer the light the colder the shadow and the colder the light the warmer the shadow
I tried using raw umber instead of black and was pleasantly surprised (I use bright colors most of the time so it’s not part of my color palette but it is now)
Umm question are you using oil paints and what is this interesting blending method with the brush😮
we need next season!!!
I love this video! What is that brush you are using? Also, what kind of paint are you using?
This may be a dumb question, but I am fairly new to painting. Is this acrylic paint?
I thin it is yeah