My Skin Tone Illustration Method

I have to say that in all of my years of doing fashion illustrations in marker, I've managed to develop somewhat of a method. I thought I could share my skin tone method with you all in hopes that I can either help others with my techniques or get tips on marker techniques I may not be aware of that could improve my Illustrations.

First I always start with a pencil drawing of my illustration. The beauty of marker paper is that it doesn't bleed through ( if you get the good quality paper) and it's translucent so you can layout your illustration in pencil and place it under the marker paper as a guide without having the graphite lines on your finished product.

My favorite marker paper is the Canson Marker Pro Layout paper and I work on 14x17" size because it allows me to get in finer details on my illustrations versus when I work on 11x14" size paper.

So the very first thing I do is "wet" my paper with the colorless blender in the areas I'll be markering first. For me this is always the skin tone. Laying down the colorless blender first will allow for greater color blending once you go in with color. I start with my lightest skin tone leaving blank any highlights on the skin. Then blend the skin tone color into the blank highlight area. After this i let it dry then go in again with the same skin tone color which deepens the color a little further, Then blend.

Now I find a darker skin tone color to begin to shadow. Just as before I use the colorless blender first then apply my first layer of the darker skin tone for shadow, then blend again. At this point you give it a minute to dry as before and go in again with the same darker skin tone maker to further establish shadow. After this if you guessed Blend, you're correct! we blend once again to diminish any hard lines in color differences.

Now Most people would finish there but I've learned by studying other illustrators work, that if you add some more shadows with a light grey marker it really establishes a more realistic effect. For instance if you ever looked closely at photographs or if you've ever drawn from life, the shadows are cast in grey tones. This is the most difficult part because if you put the grey shadow in the wrong place it can ruin a great drawing but if done properly It will really give that photo realistic effect to your illustration. This is why I always start with a 10% grey marker and increase as neccesary. If ever you have a doubt of where shadow should go you can find a photo of a model in a similar pose to that of your illustration and lay down the shadows accordingly. Once this is complete Voila! you have a gorgeous skin tone on your figure that will enhance the clothing and overall composition of your illustration.

If I had one very important tip to give is never underestimate the power of the colorless blender! It really makes the difference between having a flat cartoony image to something that has more dimension and weather this is your illustration style or not it's always great to practice different techniques because the more tricks you have in your arsenal will allow for greater ways of expression.