Some Basic Ideas About Painting Figures, Hair, and Flesh Tones

Now we'll switch from drawing to painting. This section covers a few things for you to remember as you strive to do your best painting on your character work.

One of the most confusing aspects of painting a character is how to paint good flesh tones. Let's learn some of the secrets of painting good flesh tones.

A certain young art student wanted to know the 'secret' formula for painting good flesh tones. He of course tried all the available tube mixtures, but he generally got awful results. This student finally thought he had found the secret one day when he stumbled on the oil color burnt sienna. What a great color. Burnt sienna can be mixed with white and will give you this beautiful, peachy, flesh color. Unfortunately, using this color led to unexpected results. The paintings had a boring and unrealistic feel to them. The student had not yet found the secret formula, because there is no secret formula.

The following are some hints and tips to help you 'paint' your characters better:

There are no secret formulas for flesh colors. ‚   ‚  Flesh color varies greatly from person to person and from different locations on the body. In traditional painting, all your flesh colors can be mixed with a red, yellow, and cool color (blue, green, black, etc.). Though you don't mix colors digitally the same way, the reasoning would be the same; you should use cooled-down pinks, oranges, and yellows.

Generally speaking, make the flesh tones of your male characters darker than those of your female characters. ‚   ‚  In most ethnic ranges, you can almost always get away with slightly lighter skin for your female characters.

T he general complexion for a figure is found in the chest area. As you move out along the figure, the flesh tones become ruddier and darker. The hands, feet, elbows, and knees are distinctly redder and darker in appearance than the skin color in the center of the chest.

The face can be divided into three zones of color. ‚   ‚  From the hair line to the eyebrows is a zone of golden color. From the eyebrows to the bottom of the nose is a zone of red color. From the bottom of the nose to the bottom of the chin is a zone of blue or cooler color. These zones of colors should be played up much more in male characters than in female ones. Figure 6.1 shows these three zones.

Figure 6.1: The zones of color in the face.

Look for highlights. ‚   ‚  You can find them in the following locations: the bridge and tip of the nose, the corners of the eyes, the corner where the nostrils meet the face, the upper lip, the corners of the mouth, and the chin. Highlights are almost always in these spots, with slight variations. They can act like signs on a map to help you make sure that your features are properly located. Figure 6.2 shows highlighting on the face.

Figure 6.2: The location of highlights on the face.

Skin acts very much like a white surface in its interaction with the surrounding environment. Skin will reflect and be affected by colors from everything around it. A figure in a red costume will have much redder skin than a figure in a blue costume.

Here are some other things to keep in mind when you are drawing a face:

• Skin almost always reflects back into itself with an orange hue.

• Make sure that you always put some of the background colors into your skin tones.

• Make sure that there is a full range of value from lights to darks within your flesh tones. (This has nothing to do with ethnic backgrounds, as you will find lights in darker-skinned people and darks in lighter- skinned individuals.)

• Dark-skinned people have shinier skin than light-skinned people do.

• The highlights on the skin always have a tint of the light's color in them.

• Fleshy areas tend to be warm, while bony areas will be cooler.

• Dark skin has more blue in it than light skin. Dark skin that has been exposed to the sun has more reddish tones than blue ones.

• Ruddy-toned skin has a lot of violet touches.

• Mid-tone skin has a lot of golden colors.

• Light skin is usually very cool.

• Stay away from using too much yellow when painting blond hair. Use lots of warm, yellowish grays and cooled brown with touches of yellow in the highlights.

• Red hair has lots of oranges and purples in the light areas.

• The highlights on black hair often appear bluish. The same is true for dark brown hair but not to the same degree.

• Use deep red colors to draw the lines between lips, nostrils, and lines between fingers, etc. Using a dark brown or black will kill the feeling of life in the art.

• Keep your colors in the flesh cooler than you think you need to.