Tutorials
.: How
to Bring Images to Life:.
| ::
Shading the Flesh! :: |
[current materials] Photoshop (v 6.0), obviously. And we are working with 'Uke Holden ', who was generously lent to us by Kelly of the Arcana online shounen ai manga.
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1) Ready to make him hotter??
Okay, you've probably got the handle of the light source stuff. We're going to begin shading the skin (flesh, as I like to call it ^^), so let's start with the sexiest part, the chest. I'm actually stalling from the face, because that happens to be the hardest part to shade for some. O_o Let's get his exposed torso out of the way..
2) Chest and hands..
Create a new layer. Name it. (Shadows, Flesh Shadows, etc) Use the polygon lasso tool. Select the areas of the chest (and hands) that need shading. Shade them with a darker flesh tone. (I'm using #C5A897) Use more fluid movement, I find flesh a little more dificult to bring to bring to live than hair.
Looking prety good, neh? ^_~
3) The 'hard' part.
For some reason, people find coloring the face difficult. I'll point out every that you really need to pay attention to. See how the image doesn't look complete because we shaded the body but not the head? If you forget one section, it's going to stand out. Continue coloring in the Flesh's Shadows Lyaer.
1.
Pay attention to the shadow caused by the hair.
2. And shadows around the eyes.
3.
Never forget the ears!
4. And shade the nose and pouty mouth..
1. And finally, any shadows caused by the cheeks.
If you are having problem nailing shadows, or aren't sure where to place them, look through magazines or even watch anime. =) There are examples EVERYWHERE. You just have to learn to notice them.
4) Aren't we forgetting something?
Yes we are! It's like algebra.. okay, not really. But when you shade something, there has to be a reason you're shading it. ^_~ That's right, we need equal highlights to bring out the shadows. Try to highlight on a new layer grouped within the flesh. The exact same way you did with the shadow. Because I'm coloring the character's flesh cel-shaded style, there's no need for the dodge tool.
It's coming out pretty good so far, but what if I want to correct the color of the skin? I think the flesh stands out too strong against the background, so I'm going to lighten it. I made it darker originally to make it easier for you to what I was doing. ^^;;
Create another new layer grouped with 'Flesh' and call it 'White'. Fill the entire layer with white, by using either the paintbucket tool or the painbrush. Yes, the entire flesh will turn white. Don't worry about that. Go to the Layer Style drop down box on the Layers Palette, and bring it down from 'Normal' to 'Overlay'. See how much softer the flesh tone got? I think it fits the character more.
lol, Fall says it looks like he needs more sun. ^_~ Maybe so, but let's head over to the clothing folds section of this tutorial and get some depth to the background to finally bring this all together.