How do you make such great skin texture in photoshop? I’ve tried a couple times and it just turns out looking… wrong. Any tips on painting human skin textures?

Posted on by Koko2018

euclase:

shadowmaat:

:

I do it like this:

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First I start with some base colors.

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Then I add scribbles.

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Then I add more scribbles, and maybe change the layer to overlay or something so it’s more translucent.

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Then I blur everything. Or smudge it. Depending on what will look best.

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And then I repeat, using a smaller and softer brush as I go. Until I get something that looks like this:

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You can also add noise and blur it that way:

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But I don’t like noise layers that much because the undertones are always changing, and it’s harder to color. I’d rather just paint the undertone.

That’s really it, though. It’s a controlled scribble.

I use the same technique for stubble, leather, and metal, too. Like a suit of armor? I do it the same way:

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You can see my scribbles on Richard’s armor and his leather sleeve.

Hope that helps. ❤

Holy carrots that’s amazing!

@sgurrdearg​ asked: I was wondering if you had tips for painting skin? I’ve looked up a lot online + in books and haven’t found what I need. I’m trying to paint a portrait of a char. from a book, but obv that’s difficult w/o refs so I ended up modelling a char. in a game to help with the proportions. Thing is, if I just paint as I would from a photo of a person, he looks plastic. Have u ever drawn a person w/o refs? How can I make him look real LOL. I know u only use 1 brush, do u have a technique for skin u use?

This is how I paint skin texture.

But how I do the actual skintones is trickier. I usually stick to this rule of thumb:

Highlights = low saturation light yellow
Midtones = low saturation middle orange/brown
Shadows = middle saturation dark red/brown

So something like this:

I’ve found the ratio works pretty well for any skintone, light or dark, as long as you aren’t an alien or a mermaid. And obviously it’s very generalized. Most of the time I’m working straight from observation anyway, so the skin is whatever color it is and rules go out the window. Different lighting will affect skintone in all different ways.

But what you DON’T want to do is pick a fleshtone and then add black and white to it. Highlights and shadows will be completely different colors.

This process shot of mine shows some skintone building.

This process from another artist is also pretty close to how I do it.

Hope that helps!