Photoshop: Digital Face Coloring

Part 1:

Let's face it; Pin-up images are all about showing skin.

Skin is probably both the easiest and hardest to paint,

digitally or otherwise. Each of us has a different type of
skin color; caucassian, asian, african-american. Asians
even differ in skin tone according to where they are in Asia;
Japanese, Chinese, Filipinos. Its up to the artist to find the
right hue, not too orange, not too yellow or not too green
(unless you're painting the Hulk or the Martian Manhunter).

The tutorials I've made regarding this subject will only focus on the techniques I use to color skin,
and I'll try and make it as basic as I possibly can by using simple light sources and skin tone.

Part 2:

All throughout the coloring tutorial, I'll be

showing you how I'll color the image "Lee in
Pink Bikini".

From the image on the left, I've already done

the "flat" colors of her skin, hair, clothing and
other elements.

Below you can see how I've arranged my

layers in Photoshop. I've separated the blue
'fence' from the main color to simulate it
being in the foreground.
Part 3:

This will be useful all throughout the coloring process, so if you don't know how to make a Flats
Channel, you might want to check out the tutorial I made for that first.

Otherwise, If you already have an image that has these elements set in, then let's continue
on.

Part 4:

The main tools that we are going to use here are the Brush Tool (B) , the Polygonal Lasso
Tool (L) , the Pen Tool (P) , and the Magic Wand Tool (W) .

Again, this tutorial assumes that you already have basic knowledge on how Photoshop works,
that means you know the difference between the Freehand Lasso Tool from the Polygonal Lasso
Tool.

Before we do start, though, I'll briefly show you the settings I use for the Brush Tool. Below is an
image of the brush's options:

I use a fairly soft round brush, diameter will vary according to what part of the image I'm coloring,
Opacity is set varying in the range of 20% to 60%, Flow is the same. I click
on The "Airbrush" icon to indicate that I'm using the airbrush mode of the
tool. In Photoshop 7.0 and above, they've introduced the Shape Dynamics
option and whenever you pick a preset brush, the setting is turned on. Make
sure that throughout this process, you have it "unchecked" (see image on the
left).
Part 5:
I'll be focusing on the face first, so I
go to my Flats Channel and select
that area with the Magic Wand Tool
(W) .

The colors I'm using to paint is the base color (the flat color I used for the skin) and a slightly
darker and paler color, a sample seen on the right (background color). You can then switch from
foreground to background just by pressing X on the keyboard. Below is a screen shot of how I got
the darker shade:
Using the Brush Tool (B)
, I set it to Mode: Multiply first
, Opacity of about 35%, Brush
diameter to about 200 px.

I stroke freehand in the

directions you see on the left,
using the darker shade of the
two I've selected in my palette.

Seeing as the brighter light

source is located on her right
side, I'll opt to shading her left
area a bit darker. By setting
the Opacity of the Brush to
35%, I can gradually multiply
the darkness of the shadows
on her left area if I choose to
do so.
Part 6:
Next, i'll add more dark shades on
her left area. Using the Pen Tool (P)
for a more precise outline, I
isolated the area in which I'll be
working on. I followed the outline of
her nose to give it more detail, but as
you can see, I traced a bit outside
the outline of her face and nose. I'll
explain why when I get to it.

Apple+Click (Mac) or Right click

(Win) to bring out the options below
and select 'Make Selection'.

From the left you can see that I opted to

feather the selection by 12 pixels. This would
make the 'mask' I'm creating to have a softer
edge to compliment the airbrush look of
coloring that I do.

Note: You can vary your Feather Radius

depending on how sharp you want your
shadows to look on your skin.
Part 7:
What I ended up is the selection you see on the left. If you
look at the edge of her face, you'll notice that the selection
line is travelling at the middle of the inks, this is because by
using the "Flats" Channel, I was able to unselect elements
surrounding her face by using the Magic Wand Tool (W)
. I also removed the selection surrounding her eyes to
avoid coloring over it.

Now, remember that overlapped selection on her nose?

I wanted that specific area to be more crisp than the
rest, so what i'll do is use the Polygonal Lasso Tool
(L) , set the Feather to about 4 px. By holding the
ALT button while clicking on the selection, you can
subtract the unwanted area off (the red line on the left
image indicates the selection I made using the Lasso
Tool).
Part 8:
When I have the mask I wanted,
I hit Ctrl+H (Win) or Apple+H
(Mac) to hide those squiggling
lines and start shading again
with the Brush Tool.

The result is the image you see

on the left.

Relatively, I'll go and repeat the

process on the other side of her
face to add shadows to contour
Part 9:

At this stage its just a matter of repeating the process on the other side of her face to add
shadows to contour her face some more, mask and add the shape of her eyes, nose and
forehead.

What i'll end up is a finished shaded face you see in the left.

Now let's add some light shades to finish it up.

Part 10:

First is I select the face area again using the Magic Wand Tool (W) in the Flats Channel to
isolate it from the rest of the image.

With the Brush Tool (B) I set it this time in Mode: Screen, adjusted the Opacity to about
20%, brush diameter down to about 80 px, and using the base color, I basically just freehand
paint along the areas you see here outlined in red. Again making note that the light is coming
from her front right angle, that part of her face should be more bright than the other side.
Part 11:

With gradual application of the brush, I ended up with something like this.

You can further add a little more depth to your image by adding small reflective light on her left
cheek and along the contours of her nose, simulating that light has bounced from a reflective
surface behind her or at her left.

Next installment of this I'll show you how, by using the same technique, I've managed to color the
rest of her skin.

I hope this tutorial has helped you in any way to improve on your coloring skills, and remember
always that EXPERIMENTATION is the KEY.

Finished !!!