How to Draw Realistic Skin - Coloured Pencil Drawing Tutorial Video Lecture

hi guys welcome back to my channel so in
today's video we're going to be focusing
on the portrait that we started last
week so last week we did the eyes nose
and the mouth so if you miss that I'll
put a card up above so you can go and
check that one else and this week we're
going to be focusing on drawing the skin
so I'm going to show you how to lay a
skin and also choose the right skin
tones also if you guys over on patreon I
have got the 3 hour real-time version of
this complete with voice over so that
you can follow along with me as you guys
that are interested I do up to 15
real-time tutorials a month for just $5
on patreon so I'll leave links in the
description to where you can find that
anyway let's get on with the tutorial
ok so firstly all of the materials that
I'm using throughout this tutorial are
all listed in the description below
along with links to where you can get
them if you want to buy them yourself
so we're skin is really important to
build up lots and lots of light layers
and also to mix lots of different colors
because if you look at skin you'll
notice that there's lots of colors that
make up skin and a lot of variety of
different colors amongst different skin
tones so you need to make sure that you
are applying lots of layers because
chances are you're not going to just
find one or two perfect skin tones to
create your piece so throughout my
drawing I am just adding lots and lots
of very light layers of color pencils
and as I get towards the final layers I
apply a bit more pressure to slowly mix
all the colors together and get a really
smooth look so the colors that I'm using
are the Karen - illuminants color
pencils and the first color that I used
was the brown ochre 10% it doesn't
matter if you have the exact same colors
that I have you can do this method with
similar colors in just the different
color pencil sets so just pick pencils
that are similar to the curves that I'm
using or just similar to the colors in
your reference photo so I'm just
layering some different variations of
the brown ochre pencil and I'm just
creating a base foundation tone so I'm
blocking in some the darkest shadows and
just getting a first layer down so when
I'm applying the pencil I try to use
circular motions and the
helps get a really smooth coverage of
pencil onto the paper and it also helps
limit and get rid of any of the little
pencil strokes because if you're moving
in certain emotions you don't have any
stop and start points like you might if
you just went back and forth with the
pencil also if you want to limit the
pressure that you apply on to the color
pencil then you can hold your pencil
towards the back and this means that
you're restricting the pressure that you
can apply the pencil and so this will
help you get much lighter layers so I'm
just adding all the different colors in
lights layers and if you want to pick
the right colors you need to make sure
that you're looking at the different
hues and tones in your reference photo
so if you look at the reference photo
you can see that she has some slightly
pink areas and also some more warm
yellow hues to the skin as well so it's
not completely vital that you have
exactly a correct color match it doesn't
have to be the exact same colors but you
do need to get a good contrast between
your shadows and highlights so have some
shadowed colors some dark colors and
then have some brighter colors for your
highlights and the contrast will make it
look more realistic and also more
three-dimensional so as you can see I'm
just building up the layers with these
pencils they blend almost all by
themselves you don't have to put in a
lot of pressure to get these colors to
blend together quite seamlessly they
really do a good job of blending as you
layer but if you want to blend them even
more you can apply even more pressure
but I only recommend doing this when you
get your final layers because if you
apply a lot of pressure to your color
pencils then you can flatten out the
teeth of the paper which means that it
will prevent you applying lots and lots
of additional layers of color pencil on
top so I only really burnish hard into
the paper if I know that I don't have to
apply lots and lots of layers on top so
like you see now I'm adding a bit more
pressure and I'm using the bird okay ten
percent I find that this color is
amazing to blend out all the layers and
I think it's just a really good tone for
a lot of different skin tones so I use
this pencil quite a lot I tend to use
the bird ochres and
burnt sienna is quite a lot in most of
my color pencil work so for areas that
are slightly more highlighted I didn't
apply the burnt ocher with such harsh
matter pressure I did it quite lightly
because I'm going to go and burnish this
area out with white pencil instead
because this will get that nice
highlighted look so using circular
motions also means that you can't really
see where you're doing different patches
of color pencil so it really helps make
everything seamlessly transition into
each other and having your transitions
between your shadows and highlights is
really important in making sure that
your color pencil looks smooth and
realistic so when I'm burnishing I'm
applying a bit more pressure I hold my
pencil more towards the tip and I hold
it upright a bit more and I just burnish
using circular motions and I just want
to mix out all of those little pencil
strokes so it's just really really
smooth it might take you a bit of
practice to figure out what colors work
well and it can be a bit of try and
error just to see which pencils work
while certain skin tones if you do a
little color swatch so make some of your
skin tones onto a newspaper and put them
next to your reference photo this can
help you easily pick out which colors
work best for your particular portrait
so I'm just using the white pencil and
then I'm glazing additional colors over
the top just a few additional colors
just to make you more color accurate to
the reference photo and now once I've
rendered that piece of skin I'm moving
on to the section nearby and as you can
see I overlap some of that color onto
the areas that I've already burnished
out and again this just helps transition
between those areas so you can't see
where I've done the different areas in
color pencil so the color I am adding at
the moment is the burnt sienna temp temp
and this is great for cooler skin tones
so if your reference photo looks like
she has slightly Pinker tones then I
think the burnt sienna is a really good
range so pink tones tend to be like the
cooler tones and if you have orange or
yellow tones then it's more of a warmer
and tone to the skin so
definitely do your color swatches to see
what is the most accurate colors because
if you all have different colored pencil
sets then the names of these colors will
probably different to the names and your
clear pencils to just find the color
that seems the most similar to the ones
I'm using or the most similar to the
reference photo that you're using so now
I'm adding a bit of anthropoid pink just
to give a nice healthy glow to her
cheeks and I'm just slowly building up
the layers of colors it doesn't have to
be perfectly smooth when you apply these
layers as long as you're not applying a
lot of pressure then they will blend out
really really smoothly so even if it
looks a bit messy you can still get a
smooth finish if you're making sure that
you're not pressing really hard on your
pencil because this can push those
individual pencil strokes into the paper
so I'm just continuing to add the
pencils and of leaving the more
highlighted areas with lighted pencils
on and not as many layers so I'll
burnish them out with the white pencil
so now I'm just burnishing with quite a
little pressure onto the paper when you
burnish you create lots of little bits
of color pencil wax onto the paper so
little crumbs of the color pencil can
get in your way and can also distort and
blow your vision of your drawings so I
like to use just a fluffy brush and I
just use that to knock off the bits of
pencil off of the paper and this helps
me to see where I'm drawing better and
just get rid of any of those little bits
that just rest in on the paper
so again I like to overlap that white
pencil into areas nearby the highlighted
areas just to give a nice soft
transition so as you can see I just laid
some of that pink tone over into the
highlighted areas because it is all
about getting soft transitions there's
no really harsh edges with portraits so
you've got to make sure that you're
trying to get everything as smoothly
blended as possible so now I'm just as
in the shadows it's really important to
notice where the shadows and where the
highlights are in your reference photo
so if you're doing your sketch in you're
sketching out the drawing then it could
be useful to block in the contour lines
of where the shadows and the highlights
are so again I overlaid some of that
white pencil onto those shadowed areas
just to again help softly transition
into the areas nearby
so now we'll keep working on the
forehead and I'm using the raw and the
10% so this is a really really good
shadowed color I love using this for
shadows the raw umber range is just a
really good shadow base layer and now
I'm going to go and lay a lots of
additional colors on top so where
there's plinker areas on the reference
photo I am using the bent sienna 10% and
then for the left hand side where it's
slightly warmer I'll use the burnt edges
and brown acres so as you can see this
looks quite messy you can see some of
the lines but because I'm not been
applying a lot of pressure they will
really easily blend out to create a
really smooth finish you can also use
the side your pencil to get some shading
in if you're trying to shade a large
area now I'm adding the bird focus 50%
which is quite an orange II tone I'll
find a bit more pressure on some of the
more shadowed areas and again I'm
looking at the shadows and trying to
notice where the contour lines are I'm
also adding a bit more raw umber and
also a bit burnt sienna 50% and now I'm
going in with the burnt oak 10% which is
the lightest burnt ocher and I'm just
using that to blend out all of these
areas of skin and just to give it a
really smooth finish I'm going in
circular motions and I'm just working in
all of the angles to really blend out
all of those little individual pencil
strokes and really blur all of those
colors together for the lighter area I'm
mixing in some buff titanium and also
some white just to blend that out and
you can see these pencils are so so
creamy they're the creamiest kind of
pencils I've ever used and I don't have
to
really apply a lot of pressure to get
them to blend so I had to do with say
the prism of colors so I just think
there's so much better and it doesn't
hurt your hand as much to burnish large
areas because you don't have to apply a
lot of pressure and so I love using the
count - luminance they are a bit more
expensive but they're definitely worth
it especially because you only need a
small amount of the skin tones to do a
portrait like this I didn't use loads
and loads of colors so even if you just
buy them singly just get a few of the
portrait colors to add into your set of
other particulars then is definitely
worth it anyway guys that's it for
today's tutorial on drawing skin
remember I've done the other tutorial
where I do the eyes nose and the mouth I
hope you found that useful if you're new
to my channel and you enjoyed the
tutorial make sure to hit that subscribe
button because I have new tutorials
every single week and if you want the
longer version then remember that on my
patreon as well thank you for watching
now see you my next video bye