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DIGITALLY COLORING SKIN IN ADOBE PHOTOSHOP
This is a very neutral technic that can work with both realistic portraits and cartoons, and anything inbetween.
Like hair, there are three basic steps you need: base color, lowlights, and highlights.
No tablet needed. It would help, but it's not necessary. If you have good mouse contol, then that'll work. I do everything by mouse, so yes, it is possible! Just get friendly with your "undo button..."
|  First off you have your outline. Keep it clean and simple, so that means no shading!
You have the option to either color on top or underneath this outline. To color underneath it simple put your layer as “Multiply” and color underneath.
To color on top, just create layers over your outline. For this particular piece, since the portrait was so simple, I decided to go for the latter.
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|  Now choose your base color. I chose a light peachy color with yellow pigments in it to get a more oriental tone.
Roughly color in the areas of the face using either a soft airbrush or paintbrush. Since I wanted dramatic lighting, I only colored half of the face with specific shaded areas.
Technically for me, my base color is white.
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|  Next is smoothing out the lines to the shaded face. To do this select your eraser tool and set it to a small soft brush, opacity at 100%.
Trace along the edges until you get the form you want.
For small detailed places such as the lip and nose area where it has a more thick to thin feel, select the smudge tool and keep it at a strength of about 80-90%. Pull away at the color gently.
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|  Next comes the shading. When choosing the shading color it’s best if you don’t simply choose a darker tone (where only black pigments are added) because that can make the picture look dull.
Go for a related color, for example I chose to shade with red on top of the peach. It makes things more vibrant and lively instead of using a dark peach.
For more on color theory click here.
First, select a large airbrush (100px and up) with a very low opacity of around 5-10%. Gently dab the color on the edge of the already shaded area.
You want to go dark on certain areas such as under the lip, the jawline, nose and eye areas to emphasis and bring form. Without it, the shading will just look flat.
There will be excess color left, so simple erase it with another soft eraser brush.
For even darker areas such as the square of the jaw, use the smudge method; dab a solid patch of color at the corner of the jaw and take the smudge tool to pull away at the color to create that "v" effect.
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|  In the end, I choose to put an outline to keep everything crisp. I'm no where near done yet, so next is just brainstorming to finish the piece.
Until next time. . .! |
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