Skin Textures Development..

airbrushtutor

Love Spreading Overseer
I have spent countless hours since the beginning of the year working on skin textures.. the thing we see everyday and something seemingly impossible to paint, but i think i'm finally getting some confidence and a bit of a better result;

Here is the result of the first attempt with varying intensities of the saturated color underneath:
skin.jpg

Here is the result of the second attempt immediately after again with varying levels of saturation underneath:
skin1.jpg

I'm feeling hopeful that i'm getting somewhere with this... my achilles heel of airbrushing.
 
Damn nice texture , Yes skin texture seems to be the most impossible thing to paint, They older the skin the more texture it has.
Interesting study and look forward to hearing what you figure out on it.
 
To me it seems to be finding the right tools to get those soft textures would be the hardest part. Paint mixing is my achilles heel :). Its a great acomplishment to put all those together to get that result...hats off to ya :)
 
Did you use the figure eight technique to accomplish that? My figure eights NEVER look like skin texture....
 
When you observe skin closely - under magnification - it seems to be comprised of a whole lot more than we actually see.
Pores, hair folicles [ not necessarily the same thing ] , blemishes , scars and a huge range of other things all affect what we see.
In my mind, at least, this would have to make it one of the hardest objects? to re-create with any medium.
I salute all who paint portraits, I don't have the nerve or ability.
Who knows, maybe one day!
 
One of the many things on my list of things l can't do lol. These look fab. Wish l was as methodical at working stuff out.
 
I wish i had the time to spend painting all day every day to paint and learn and test and breath and .....you get the picture..my stoopid job gets in the way.. dang job....lol....those are awesome to me!!
 
I wish i had the time to spend painting all day every day to paint and learn and test and breath and .....you get the picture..my stoopid job gets in the way.. dang job....lol....those are awesome to me!!
You can blame Sea monkey,It's His fault anyway you look at it!
 
Those are beautiful textures, I have struggled to get skin textures correct in graphite portraits, that in its self is complicated, add color to the mix and......pulling my hair out, so many subtle changes in color, intensity, texture, blemishes, and I need to figure this out with my airbrush while learning to control said airbrush and paint, :eek: my hair is nearly to my waist, but it will be pulled out soon!!!!:D
 
Mitch ... not sure if you're going to be reading this but before getting into air brushing which started because of my interest in special effects make up (eg scars, wounds, bullet wounds, burn effects, zombie effects etc) and this was supposed to be an adjunct to that hobby interest but has quickly taken over it ... I was doing a lot of work on skin textures.

In SPFX blending a prosthetic piece eg a bullet wound after "sticking" it onto the skin is the next basic skill after actually making the prosthetic. Mind you, it's not easy and I was in the process of learning that still when my wife got some cake decorating airbrush stuff and because you use airbrushing in SPFX as well (which lead me to want to get a handle on it - but now I'm friggin addicted....) I ended up getting more stuff for my purposes and then one thing lead to another - anyway I digress......

The first thing you learn is that the skin is in fact transparent and made up of layers of colour. You start with matching up as best you can the lightest colour of the area and then you add "stippling" of colours usually of RED, BLUE and GREEN (all of which are very pale colourings. After that, you apply brown for skin blemishes (dots) and then black stipples for possibly hair and stubble, follicles etc

To get an idea of the colours google "Skin Illustrator Skin Tones" pallet. This is the one we buy and use to get the appliance (as they're also called in the SPFX industry) to start the stippling effect with. You start OFTEN but not always. with red and sometimes followed by green (but this is for a olive complexion) and the colours chosen do depend on the skin you are blending the appliance on to. Have a look at the colours on the skin illustrator palette and hopefully this may either send you in a new direction OR just send you on a wild goose chase.

DISCLAIMER: This is general advice and maaate .... if you follow these suggestions then ummm errr all time you spend on this pursuit is not to be billed to me :)
Good luck Jim and as usual if you or any of your team get caught ................................... :)
 
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