Skin Tones

Let’s break down the basics of skin tones 😀 !!!

When laying down skin tones it’s important to remember three words : Base, Highlights and Shadows.

Sometimes it’s easier to start with the dark and work towards the light. Think of a light bulb lighting up a room, one light bulb can light up the whole room, however, there will still be a darker corner of the room further away from the light source. You also have to come closer to a light source in order to see. 🙂

Skin tones have many shades of color in them like red tones, yellow tones, and bluish tones. Red tones are found where there is warmth on the skin such as where the cheeks, eyes, and nose is. Where as Bluish tones or grey tones are in darker areas like chin, neck, and mouth area. Yellow or white brown tones are found on the forehead. These colors are known as Color Zones : Skinned complexion on the face can be divided into three zones. This depends on largely on how much blood, cells, muscles, hair or veins are present on our body. Cool right ? However when doing the skin tone don’t worry much about color zones but it will help you mapping out your skin complexion :).

What really helps me when figuring out which darker tones go where feel your face. You will feel where some areas on your face are deeper than other parts and some are more outward. Take the eye for example, underneath the eye, sides and on the eyelid we have a lot of deeper parts because of the eye socket and on the eyebrow its more outward.

To bring your skin more to life you can add different hues of colors 😀

Check out my artwork I did of Miles Morales below you will notice different colors like blue, purple, orange, pink and yellow while the main skin tone is still visible. These are know as Under Tones. Under Tones can be pretty much any color. You can layer them under or over your base colors when drawing to get more depth and realism. By increasing the saturation at the edge of the light and shadows it brings the skin to life. 😀

Hope these skin tone tips were helpful !!!