How does an artist make a skin tone look more vibrant and varied?

[JoshRaed]

I drew this, and want to redraw it at some point:

And one of the main references I got was this drawing:

and how unflat the colors of the skin were. The thing is all I could find in this artists art that actually translated to the characters in my drawing was the blush, which looked pretty stiff and wrong compared to the blush in his art. What else does this artist do that I don’t?

[NickRowler]

This is what I would recommend...

• Don't use "flesh" colors for clothes or backgrounds, it can cause the characters to look washed out.
• Use a warmer tone for the darker skin. A common newbie mistake is using the wrong type of brown which can lead to characters looking sort of like zombies
• Use warmer colors to shade skin instead of grey or black, it will help make the skin pop. A common go to for some is purple tho I personally like more of a pinkish brown.

This is a quick edit to show how small changes can make a big difference

[VibrantFox]

Some other things to consider are references, not just other folks art but actual people as well as resources that help build an understanding of color theory. Two big one's i tend to suggest for skin tones specifically are

Puppsicle's skin tone cubes (aka the flesh cubes)
https://www.deviantart.com/puppsicle/art/Skin-Tone-Cubes-Free-to-Use-842445436

And the Humane project which takes the pantone skintones and a lot of photos of folks from around the world (this pinterest folder has a ton of em)

Also helps to look at lots of different art styles (both the basic and complex) to see how they combine base shades with various highlights and shadows (especially imo creators of color when looking on how to properly depict darker/nonwhite skintones). For example Céli/pianta is someone who immediately comes to mind for very bright vibrant drawing of folks with varying skintones but there's also a ton of other folks to observe and learn from.

[moontokkym]

100% what @VibrantFox said, take tons of reference not only from photos, videos, real people not just other people's art and the references they gave are excellent.

I'd also add onto that is that skin is very reflective of ambient light, coloured light can drastically change the colour you use to paint people so that they still look the skin tone they are. It can be good to work out your characters' "base skin tone" when they are in more neutral light, and then when you're drawing a piece to work out how that skintone changes appearance when in different colour lights. Coloured lights will also change shadow colour so it's good to work out how those colours will interact too.

As study I'd recommend Adebanji Alade the portrait artist who has a brilliant use of colour generally but a particular love of the richness of colour you can play with in black skin in different lights. It's not the style you're going for but studying his work can help you understand how different colours interact with light and work out how he tints his light and shadows to really make the skin living.

A couple of examples:

Hope this helps :3

[TheLemmaLlama]

Literally just colour pick from your references No-one owns a colour palette, and I'm not just saying this because my my own unusually accepting views of honest appropriation either XD

[margodraws]

Hey I've read that comic! I liked the art a lot. The base colours are actually pretty flat as far as I can tell; the interest comes from clever use of lighting:

• warmed up the flat colours overall
• hard light layer with dark green-grey shading + light pink highlight colour
• textured BG, for more visual interest and that glowy backlit look.

[feuersichel]

This video helped me a ton. Just adding a bit of red or orange just where the shadows start.

It is very subtile but I feel the skin looks more alife with that technique. First pic without, second with.

[JoshRaed]

Do you mean out of the blue?

[JoshRaed]

These pictures look the same to me. Did you pick the right one?

[LunarScyphozoa]

Look at the shadows, there’s a bright gradient where it ends.

[choilyriel]

Tbh for me, you just lack details and need to practice as well.

Btw, this is just my way of doing it. After looking at references photos, I would used 3d model to make it easier for me to sketch. From what I see from your art, you're not adding much of shadows and that doesn't have a light source.

Your reference have a light source. It helps you to place your shadow to make it more realistic (?)

It's better to add texture to your art. Me personally I like adding noise effect (depends on what mood my art is). And as for shades, you can look on Google which shades go on which skin colour. It does help me a lot actually.

This is an example of my art with just base colour Vs details that I add after the base. I actually used 3d model in csp.
- I changed the colour line (so it will compliment the pinkish vibe)
- add shadow
- add subtle light source on the bg
- just add details that I think will suit my art

[river121693]

Just up the vibrancy

If you want the back lit effect, try the ayer settings

Whyt manga has a good video on how he does it

[kalmia]

Like everyone has said, use references. Even color picking from others art to understand the colors they chose can help a ton.

I think you just need to add more saturated colors to your characters skin. With the shading, with the blush, with everything. Higher saturation. = more vibrant. Your blush is very dull and doesn’t add the life to your characters face that blush is intended too. Add some more saturation and even a bit of a red tint to it.
As for your shadows, Try also using a bit of a higher saturation and tint to it. The color of the shadow entirely depends on the color of the lighting and the environment around the characters. But, I suggest messing around with different shadow colors and setting the layer to “multiply” so that you can see how different shadow tints can affect the mood of a piece as well as the look of the characters skin. And also making it darker for harsher lighting.

@feuersichel mentioned subsurface scattering (that’s what the technique they’re referring to is called). It’s essentially what happens to light when it penetrates a slightly translucent or thin surface and happens most noticeably with skin, though depending on the style, a lot of artists like to exaggerate it on all objects, even hair and fabric. It causes the light to enter the surface and then exit at a different point, usually creating a harsh saturated line where the light and shadows meet. This can add a lot of interest as well as color to your characters skin, so once again, high saturation.

[TheLemmaLlama]

It's the same principle as your reference; note there are bits of warm colour in these spots closest to light:

It's more prominent in pictures with bold, heavy shading like your ref and the fist in the video thumbnail; not as noticeable in something with more neutral lighting like @feuersichel's example ^^;

(Again, just colour pick and you'll see :P)