Today I want to talk about adding blush to a colored image. I'm not the kind of person that likes applying make-up, so I find that adding a hint of rosy color to a face is a tricky thing to cover. Too much color? too little color? that's a matter of personal taste.
Also, thank you to everyone who sent cards to Kris. She had a fabulous birthday (we have the best cakes when it's someone's birthday down at Copic) and appreciated all the cards. If you would like to be entered in the blog drawing you can still sign up on Wed. post until midnight. However, you don't need to send Kris a card, rather, upload some artwork to the
Copic Website gallery.
Simple BlushI'm going to start with techniques today on a simplified face (I'll cover more detailed, realistic faces later). For this project you'll need some good
pale skin colors (lighter colors are easier to practice over, I'll talk about other ethnicities later). I was about to draw a cute little face to color since I don't own many people stamps with faces big enough, and then I remembered I already had a stamp I could use for just this occasion (silly me, forget that I drew this in the first place). So today I'll be using little
Anna Mae by OCL and talking about blush.
Before we get started, remember a few things
• For soft edges, work wet
• A lighter color will push a darker color out of the way if it is juicy enough
For my examples today I'm using E000 and E11. Each time I colored the face I started with E000 coloring in circles to get a smooth base color, then I added the shadows with E11, then came back with E000 and smoothly colored over the whole thing again to really blend in the shadows. I happen to be using R20, or Blush as my blush (go figure), but you'll want to try your own colors and find a blush that works for you.
Strokes vs. DabsThere are two basic ways to apply color with a marker. You can either stroke it on or dab it on. The key difference is how much ink are you putting down. Color that is stroked on, or one quick overlay doesn't always soak through the paper, rather it is gently resting on the surface and overlays the base color, but you can still easily see the color underneath.
Dabbing, on the other hand, is applying so much ink that it pushes the other color out of the way. You can get this effect easiest with the brush on a Sketch or Ciao because they are so juicy (see diagram), but you can get the same effect with the firm points by coloring in the same spot so much that it soaks the paper and moves the other color out of the way (one upshot of using the brush for dabbing is that if you push straight down you can get a perfect circle each time, no scribbling in a circle and hoping it's the right shape).
Let's look at the difference.
Brushed = SubtleOn my first example I have little Anna Mae with R20 brushed on wet skin. See how soft this is? You can barely see it, but it is subtle and the edges are very soft. The next example I brushed it on over dry skin. The edges are a little more crisp. Either way, I'm not soaking the color all the way into the page, rather, it's one quick stroke to leave a hint of pink over the skin.
If you are trying to tone down any object (if it's too dark and you want to add gray) then this is the technique that will give you the best results. You keep the color underneath, but you can still see the top color you are applying.
Dabbed = StrongerOn this next pair, you see that I dabbed the blush on. Look at how much darker it is. The first example I dabbed it on while the skin was still wet. This gave me softer edges.
The second example I dabbed the blush color on while the skin was dry. Notice how much crisper the edges of the blush are. Either way, the color of the blush is stronger and you see much less of the skin tone through the blush. On darker skin this would really stand out.
I like to use a variation of this technique when I add subtle highlights into hair. If you have colore dsome dark brown hair, try taking a lighter yellow and streak in some juicy highlights. This is easy to do with the fine point on a Copic original marker, just color over the same streak about 3 or 4 times until the darker color moves out of the way. By using yellow it adds tone, whereas blender would just lighten it and not look as interesting.
What if I do the blush first?This is fine to try on lighter skin, since you'll still be able to see the light blush underneath, but on darker skin tones you'll have to make the base blush darker. When you do the blush first it looks a lot like the example of the blush brushed on over wet skin. If you find a color combo that you like then write it down and remember the technique you used.
For something like blush, it's usually easier to do the dark color first then add the light color. that way you can judge better how much color you need to add. When you do the light first, it just gets overwhelmed and you loose it.
Making shiny cheeksIf you remember back to my posts on Opaque white, you'll know that I use white to add highlights back in. This is also a good way to show something is shiny.
Magnolia Stamps suggest adding a dot of white to the middle of the cheeks on their characters. The reason they do this is because the contrast grabs your attention and pulls you into the cute cheeks. Second, it makes the cheeks look like they're shiny and sticking out more (like the extra light shining off your dimples). Here I've added a dot of white to Anna Mae's cheeks. I don't know if I like the look with this particular picture, but again, it's a matter of personal taste.
None of these methods I've shown today are right or wrong- they're just different. You may prefer the look of one method better than another. The trick is for YOU to try it for yourself and get the feel that works for you.
For my final art today I broke down and drew my own picture of little Anna Mae. I added blush both to her cheeks and her bear's cheeks using the dabbing method. See how much the color on the bear was pushed out of the way? Anna Mae looks so cute, it helps me forgive her for the sleep I've been missing as her last few teeth come in.
Coloring Vampire Skin
The perfect pale, sallow, skin color with sparkle combination I found is
Skin colors are hard to scan or photograph, but on my monitor these colors look pretty accurate, though the E70 is more purple in real life (adding to the sleepless look). On paper they are a dead ringer for a vampire out in the sun where you can see their skin sparkle :) If you enlarge this picture and look really closely you might be able to see the flecks of light where the glass flakes from the spica pen is catching the light. I added a few hints of the new Peach Spica pen to the shadows just to deepen them up a bit.
Simple Blush
Strokes vs. Dabs
Let's look at the difference.
Dabbed = Stronger
What if I do the blush first?
Making shiny cheeks
Shadows on Faces
Because the lighting is trickier, we're going to look at shadows coming from up and off from one side. In this picture I'm letting the lines tell me where my shadows are. I drew this face with the line of the nose on one side. This sharp line is perfect for telling me where the most contrast will be between my brightly lit nose and my shadowed cheek on the other side, so I'm going to have my sun shine opposite my nose line. The best way to see if you're shadowing correctly is to look at a photo of a face and see where the shadows and highlights are. Some faces are smoother or flatter, and some are more wrinkled, so this is just a general shadow guide.
For simple shadows let's look at where the sun hits your face first. Nose, cheeks, forehead, and chin catch the light, so those will be lightest. The side view helps us remember which parts stick out the most.
This complex view of shadows on a face shows a progression of white-light-middle-dark-black better. Remember, when you use more colors and more contrast between colors your picture looks more interesting.
On our final image today I chose this picture I drew last week for my father-in-law. He is giving a lecture on Sacagawea, the Native American woman who accompanied Lewis and Clark as they explored the American west (and spent a wet winter in Oregon). I also chose to use this picture because her hair doesn't cast shadows on her face (less to worry about).
Because she is Native-American, a good deep skin color sequence is E11, E13, E15, E18. This has a hint more red in it than the E20's, which is the sequence I prefer for African skin, but is not as olive as the E50's sequence, or as pink as the E00's. See how I followed the rules for complex face coloring- All highlights are E11, then E13 for my first layer of shadows. Deeper shadows get E15 and finally E18.
For those of you interested in the Milwaukee Certification class on July 15th or the Chicago certification class on July 16th, I still have a few spaces, so I'm opening them to the general public. I MUST have your completed applications by July 11th however. Please e-mail me for an application and info sheet. For those of you already scheduled for the Certification classes in July I will be sending out your supply list in the next couple days, so be looking for it.
Today we'll discuss ways of coloring once you've picked your favorite skin colors (see yesterday's post). These are only a few simple techniques, and by no means the only way to color. I drew this picture yesterday so I could show you what I mean. I photocopied it onto color laser copier paper, though Manga Illustration paper would be better for this (I just didn't have any loaded into my copier at the time).
2 color skin
3 Color Skin
Wet Coloring, 3 color skin
Blended, 2 color skin
The easy answer: E00, Skin White
The first image shows the sequence E0000 to E04- basic Caucasian skin. See how each combination is just a hair darker than the one before? The pale colors look a little yellow on my screen, but the darker combo, E02 and E04 looks more correct. IRL, I consider these a hair too pink for adult skin, but otherwise, not a bad, all-purpose match for skin colors.
The next group are the E11 thru E15. I personally love the E11 as a shadow (see the 3 color combos at the end of this post), but as you can see, it makes a great base color too. It's a little darker than most Caucasians, and it has a bit more deep red, but as you get into the darker combos it looks authentic for Native Americans.
This next group includes E21, another good, all-purpose skin color. E25 is the next in the group, which is a large color jump (I really want a E23 someday!) E50 thru E53 are a close match for adult, slightly olive-skinned people. Another sequence I didn't show is the E53 + E55, a good, darker Eastern skin color combo. The E93-E95 group is very pink, so I probably would use these as shadows to other colors, not as skin by itself. They would also make good blush colors that are more earthy than R20 or R30.
The last group includes the YR's. The pale YR000 is a great, very light base skin color, but once you get up to YR02 it starts to get orange real quick. R000 also is a great super pale skin color (with the pink tone it almost looks unhealthy, transparent skin colored). Ro2, Flesh, is way too pink to use as a base skin color, though as a shadow, it's not bad. R02 is really close to flesh- not skin, but the flesh underneath.
These aren't bad as a quick representation of basic skin color groups, however, many of these look a little flat. To really punch up the dynamic colors in skin it helps to add a 3rd level if marker. This last bunch of faces show how 3 colors make skin really "Pop"
