In this drawing lesson, I will detail the principles of soft skin painting in any graphic editor.

Step 1

First, you need to sketch the face itself. Be sure to draw on a new layer. I describe this process in detail in some previous lessons.

Step 2

Under the sketch layer, create another layer where we will paint with color. Fill the face area with an average skin tone (in our case, this is a warm beige). If you find it hard to choose colors, you can use special palettes.

Step 3

Take a color slightly darker than the base. Start applying color to the shaded areas with a hard brush, as shown in the image below. In particular, we need to shade the areas around the eyes, on the bridge of the nose, and around the mouth, as well as the lower part of the face.

Step 4

Now we will need an even darker shade for the deepest shadows. Apply it to the darkest areas.

Step 5

Now we move on to the most interesting part, namely – soft blending. We will need a soft brush. Do this by lowering the opacity of the brush to about 20-30 percent, and start brushing along the edges of the colors, gradually changing the brush color to the one that resulted. As a result, the transition should be very smooth, as shown on the side. Practice until you get it right.

Step 6

In the final stage, add light shades, highlights, gradually getting rid of the outline. Work on the details of the skin, you can draw texture, freckles, add moles or scars. Then you can start detailing the eyes, lips, and hair.