Skin Shade Layering
By the way, this is just my way of shading skin as a hobbyist lol, I'm sure there are many others ways to do, hopefully some of you would find this useful. I can't really do much text/image layout format here, I'll just refer the screenshots from top to bottom by number 1-6.
FYI, I'm using Clip Studio Paint. I think other painting software say Photoshop, SAI or Medibang got similar features too.
Starting with the base skin color (Screenshot 1-2), that's pretty straight forward. There's some anti overflow eraser that comes very handy if you have got seamless lineart.
I usually use at least two multiply layers for skin shading. A multiply layer adds color to the layer below and make things darker. I usually start with peach like color for the lighter shades (Screenshot 3), you can see that patch the corner I keep as palette reference. You can see there's some overflow around the hands, arm, butt etc, there's a button for that (Screenshot 4), the "Clip at Layer Below" button". The shade layer will only apply to the base skin color layer, so you don't have to bother erasing the overflow bits. You can see an orange stroke for layers using "Clip at Layer Below" in the right column.
These multiply layer can stack, so here I add another multiply layer of rosy pink for a dark shade of the skin(Screenshot 5), accentuating shades near the folded joints, breast, abdomen muscles etc. I like adding peach and pink cause I like that lush, rosy skin color for girl characters; you can try using other colors depends on you needs.
More multiply layers (Screenshot 6)as needed like face blush, there's a nude version for this lol so you can see the layers for nipples, and a normal layer for white highlights (like those white dots on the cheek, breast etc and along the edge of skin where it is supposed to receive light.
You can also group things into folders for "Clip at layer below". Say if you are shading a stripe T-shirt, you can place the stripe and base color layers in a folder, and do a multiplier layer on top of that folder and shade them all at once. In Screenshot 6, I clip the white highlight layer over Folder 4 which contains the skin layers and the nipple layers.
Screenshot 7 I have the background layers turn back on. I usually do some more tuning after exporting the image, like higher contrast and Gaussian blur etc.
Mainly talked about handling shade layers here. Also a here quick tip if you are clueless about where to apply shades on the body ... Nude Photos! Yay for Porn lol! Well at least find photos that show you the parts you want to draw.
That's it for now lol.
FYI, I'm using Clip Studio Paint. I think other painting software say Photoshop, SAI or Medibang got similar features too.
Starting with the base skin color (Screenshot 1-2), that's pretty straight forward. There's some anti overflow eraser that comes very handy if you have got seamless lineart.
I usually use at least two multiply layers for skin shading. A multiply layer adds color to the layer below and make things darker. I usually start with peach like color for the lighter shades (Screenshot 3), you can see that patch the corner I keep as palette reference. You can see there's some overflow around the hands, arm, butt etc, there's a button for that (Screenshot 4), the "Clip at Layer Below" button". The shade layer will only apply to the base skin color layer, so you don't have to bother erasing the overflow bits. You can see an orange stroke for layers using "Clip at Layer Below" in the right column.
These multiply layer can stack, so here I add another multiply layer of rosy pink for a dark shade of the skin(Screenshot 5), accentuating shades near the folded joints, breast, abdomen muscles etc. I like adding peach and pink cause I like that lush, rosy skin color for girl characters; you can try using other colors depends on you needs.
More multiply layers (Screenshot 6)as needed like face blush, there's a nude version for this lol so you can see the layers for nipples, and a normal layer for white highlights (like those white dots on the cheek, breast etc and along the edge of skin where it is supposed to receive light.
You can also group things into folders for "Clip at layer below". Say if you are shading a stripe T-shirt, you can place the stripe and base color layers in a folder, and do a multiplier layer on top of that folder and shade them all at once. In Screenshot 6, I clip the white highlight layer over Folder 4 which contains the skin layers and the nipple layers.
Screenshot 7 I have the background layers turn back on. I usually do some more tuning after exporting the image, like higher contrast and Gaussian blur etc.
Mainly talked about handling shade layers here. Also a here quick tip if you are clueless about where to apply shades on the body ... Nude Photos! Yay for Porn lol! Well at least find photos that show you the parts you want to draw.
That's it for now lol.
