Skin Tutorial - Blog Posts

vitiligo notes for artists

I’ve noticed that vitiligo has been becoming more common in art, and I think that’s really cool! But as a person with vitiligo, and an artist, there are few mistakes I’ve noticed in people’s portrayal of the condition that I wanna address. 

1. It’s not random. Vitiligo tends to appear more often in specific places, like around the mouth or eyes, the belly button, as well as on the hands and feet. It also tends to be at least a little bit symmetrical.

2. It doesn’t change your eye color. However in some cases it can cause patches of hair to turn white or blonde. 

3. It changes over time. As a kid I had tons of vitiligo spots on my feet and legs, but they eventually faded. For a long time I didn’t have any until I developed a spot above my right eye about a year ago. So if you’re portraying a character at different points in their life, their vitiligo should change too. 

4. All skin colors can have vitiligo. I’ve noticed on Picrew and other character maker games vitiligo will sometimes only be an option for characters with dark skin. Obviously it won’t be as obvious on light skin, but unless your character is a person with albinism it should still show up. 

that’s all I’ve got for now, if I think of more I might make another post :)

How I draw skin Part 2: DON”T DRAW NATIVE PEOPLE WITH RED SKIN!!!! A tutorial

For the first tutorial on how I draw skin, see the post here.

But seriously, I’ve seen too many drawings of Native characters with literal red/pink skin to count so just in case some of you are having troubles with drawing Native people, I’ve provided a guide for you. Please take my swatches if it helps!! and no more red skinned people, please

Disclaimer: this tutorial is mainly about the artistic depictions of Indigenous Peoples in North America, where the slur and redskin caricature originated, but it would still be racist to draw other non-North/Central/South American Indigenous groups like this so…..don’t.

Edit: please stop telling me about how Native people can be pale, I’m a whitepassing & pale Native myself and nowhere do I say people shouldn’t draw Natives pale at all. The “too light” section is about whitewashing Pocahontas specifically. Don’t whitewash brown characters, but don’t draw Natives red either.

can you give a run down on skintones?

PART ONE: COLOR SELECTION. 

In painting skin tones, a lot of the time I see people choose colors that are over-saturated or unbalanced. There isn’t really an exact art to this that I can explain—you just need to get a feel for what saturation balance you need for that particular skintone. Here are some examples of what I usually pick.

As you can see, I used different base colors (orange, reddish, yellow) for the skin shades in all three examples. The reason for this is because all skin tones have a different base color besides just Light, Medium, and dark. Some people divide them into categories of “warm” and “cool.” Pantone has some really good examples and references for this.

PART TWO: COLOR VARIATION.

Another big part about drawing and painting skin tones that a lot of people forget is how skin thickness affects color variation. The presence of bone, blood, and muscle underneath the skin affects its colors. This is especially noticeable on the face.

The colors here are a little exaggerated to show my point, but with a little adjusting and blending…

Voila! Subtle, but more realistic.

PART THREE: DETAILS.

Our skin is the largest organ on our body, and as our body’s first line of defense against the outside world, it’ll be covered with tiny details and imperfections. Things like sunburns, tans, freckles, scars, and facial hair all add character to your subject matter. Here are some examples!

TANS: Everyone tans differently, depending on your ethnicity and skin tone. Fair skinned folks tend to burn more than tan, which means you’ll need a more startling, eye-catching red.If you have a skin type that tends to tan more, the color will be more brown than red. For black skin tones, the tan is less red. (And while we’re on the subject: black people DO tan, so it’s important for you to put on sunscreen and be careful in the sun, too.)

Those are the areas that the sun tends to hit the most—and things like goggles, hats, and masks can change the shape of that area.

FRECKLES AND MOLES: Freckles are also products of the sun. Some people have freckles that stay year-round, while others have freckles that fade in the winter and return in the summer. Moles are skin cells that grow in a cluster instead of being spread throughout the skin. When exposed to the sun, they tend to darken. (Another note on skin health: if you have any oddly-shaped/colored moles, moles that have changed color, size, or shape, or anything of the sort, please check with your doctor!)

Freckles like to cluster around each other, sort of like stars, and they vary greatly in size. You can have a few freckles in one place, or a lot of freckles in multiple places. Most commonly freckled areas are your face, shoulders and neck, back, and forearms. 

FACIAL HAIR: Facial hair also affects the colors of the face. For simplicity’s sake we’ll be using black hair, as it is the most noticeable. Facial hair usually grows in these areas, and can make the skin look blueish/grayish because of the darker hairs beneath the skin. If your hair is red, this also very noticeable. 

END NOTE.

There you go! That’s about all I can think of at the moment for skin tones. As always, references and practice are your best friend (and so is this neat little trick that pheberoni has.) Good luck with your arting!