LISTEN on our player!
Or Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com.au/podcasts/24f85853-5d63-44ac-885f-da23db0a53ad/the-quackcast
Today we're going into another aspect of creating artwork for webcomics! This time it's painting skin, a topic that Tantz suggested. How do you render skin? It's a super common thing in comics and there are many, many ways to do it! We're not experts on all the methods so we just cover what WE do. We all have different approaches and you'll have to listen to the cast to see what Tantz and Banes say.
I'll chat quickly about how I do it here. I have 3 main methods but first up it's important to know some things: There are NO such things as different skin colours, that's a dumb socially constructed myth, skin is all shades of brown from very dark to very light, this is because ALL skin is made up of just four main pigments mixed in different amounts, which you can use to mix any skin tone. There are black, Yellow, red, and white. Melanin is the black tone but can be yellowy and reddish, yellow carotenoids from diet, red from blood, and white from the colour of the skin alone. Mix those colours in varying proportions and you'll get exactly the right brown pigment you need for any skin tone.
My first main way of painting skin is the simplest. I just do cell-shading in two colours. I pick a colour for the person which will be the main tone, then I select a slightly darker version of that same colour, dark enough that you can see the difference but not that it's too different. Then I do their whole bod in the main tone and use the second tone for shadows with a hard edge between them, no fading. It works super well!
The next type is the fake painterly approach. I pick three tones. There's a light tone, a darker tone that is reddish or orangish in colour, and a third tone that is muted purple or blue- this is because it's a generic contrasting colour to the yellow and orange tones in skin. The lighter parts of the skin are all painted in the light colour, the reddish tone fills the shadow and the purple tone is just used as a line between the two tones; a penumbra, which is the separation between light and dark, that can often help shadows look darker and more striking than they are. Fade them a bit at the edges so the separation isn't so harsh. This method can work just as well for much darker skin tones too.
My last method is the real painterly approach where colours on the skin are influenced by environmental colours and coloured light sources. You can use a 3 colour approach like the last method but take the colours from the environment. It could be blue, greens, reds etc. This is great for making your figures a part of the image instead of sanding out unnaturally from it.
Some special notes:
Not everyone has the same skin tone even if they're the same ethnicity, there's a large amount or variation between people even if they're related, although then there will be less. I like to vary my skin tones as much as the hair colours. People also don't have an even skin tone across their whole body, there are lighter patches and darker parts all over the place, whether the person is dark or light, unless they're artificially coloured like models in a magazine or people using filters on social media. commercial comics have their own weird way of colouring skin involving gradients, white highlights and black shadows. its a very standardised method and widely used but I find it a bit dull.
How do you do skin? One single tone, shadows, gradients or something more complex?
Gunwallace was kind enough to give us a theme inspired The Inheritors - An interesting mix! It starts off with a slow, stepped drumbeat, that sounds a bit like the intro to “slave” by the Rolling Stones, then crashes to a dubstep and rayguns and scifi blasters, before moving into a classical music inspired race of synth violins, flutes, cellos and other sneaky instruments, ten arrives at its destination: an electrified barrier where yellow and black diagonal lines bar the way!
Topics and shownotes
Links
Featured comic:
History - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2025/feb/18/featured-comic-history/
Featured music:
The Inheritors - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Inheritors/ - by RymanNoodles, rated T.
Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Gunwallace/
Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/
Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean
Kawaiidaigakusei - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/kawaiidaigakusei
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/
VIDEO exclusive!
Become a subscriber on the $5 level and up to see our weekly Patreon video and get our advertising perks!
- https://www.patreon.com/DrunkDuck
Even at $1 you get your name with a link on the front page and a mention in the weekend newsposts!
Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS 
Quackcast 728 - Skinship
Ozoneocean at 12:00AM, Feb. 25, 2025
Banes,
Drunk duck,
Featured comic,
Gunwallace,
History,
Kawaiidaigakusei,
musical feature,
Ozoneocean,
Quackcast 728,
Skinship,
Tantz,
The Inheritors,
Webcomics hosting
7 likes!
©2011 WOWIO, Inc. All Rights Reserved Mastodon
plymayer at 7:10AM, Feb. 26, 2025
@Ozoneocean: Bedlam_Boy does a good job conveying skin texture in his 2d drawings in "Hentai_Action_Theater". Can sometimes feel the pimples....yuck.
Ozoneocean at 7:05PM, Feb. 25, 2025
@fallopiancrusader Whew that aspect of reflection VS transparency is correct, like it was for water and sky last week too, but we don't normally think about that with skin though it's true! All skin is transparent to different amounts, You have to think in those terms for good 3D art, is that where you picked it up? And things like greasiness and water change the reflection a lot. Caravaggio is who I look up to for skin
Ozoneocean at 6:53PM, Feb. 25, 2025
@plymayer - I'd guess duck skin is usually pink, most animal skin that's covered in something usually lacks much pigment... But uncovered skin on ducks is pretty dark I think? XD Ugh, texture on skin is hard.
Ozoneocean at 6:50PM, Feb. 25, 2025
@PaulEberhardt - That's really interesting! Light matters a lot in those terms then. It always matters a lot in watercolours, You're right. I used to paint in that back in the day, I loved it :) The transparency of the paint makes up for the white tone.
Ozoneocean at 6:46PM, Feb. 25, 2025
@Banes- XD
fallopiancrusader at 10:19AM, Feb. 25, 2025
There are several things that need to be considered when rendering the way in which light interacts with skin. There are environmental influences, as Ozone mentioned above, but the skin's material characteristics are also unique from situation to situation. All skin is a dielectric material, which means that it both absorbs and reflects light. Skin pigmentation will influence the relative dominance of subsurface scattering and Fresnel reflections. As a very simplistic generalization, all skin has Fresnel reflections, but very light skin will be dominated by its absorption characteristics. Very dark skin will often have a discernible Fresnel component. More can be read about Fresnel reflections here. It's a good read for anyone wanting to do realistic rendering. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresnel_equations
fallopiancrusader at 10:05AM, Feb. 25, 2025
As a general rule, people never have the same skin tone everywhere. I start my underpainting with this in mind. In areas where the capillaries are close to the surface of the skin, like the nose, knees, elbows, hands, feet, etc. I will paint in a bright red. In areas where bone is close to the surface of the skin, like the forehead, knuckles, etc. I will start out with a light yellow. In areas where fat lies close to the surface of the skin, like the thighs, buttocks, breasts, etc. I will paint in a turquoise blue. Light effects will then be rendered on top of all that. One of my biggest influences in rendering skin tones is Egon Schiele.
plymayer at 7:53AM, Feb. 25, 2025
@PaulEberhardt, skin tones and texture are much easier for me in watercolor. But nowadays I mostly work with digital color :(
plymayer at 7:51AM, Feb. 25, 2025
BUT I suppose the topic is really about capturing texture?
plymayer at 7:51AM, Feb. 25, 2025
What color is a duck's skin? Is it pink like a chicken? Does it depend on the type of duck or the color of the feathers?
plymayer at 7:49AM, Feb. 25, 2025
Jerrie does great work with varying the color of his characters. It's nothing new or outrageous just good old fashion comic style. I struggle sometimes with the skin tones. Doesn't help that the various programs I use like to change the colors. Wish I could be more like Jerrie in that respect.
PaulEberhardt at 7:49AM, Feb. 25, 2025
Took me quite a while to figure out skin tones with watercolours, but it largely boils down to the same basic colours you mentioned (well, no surprise there). What I was most surprised to find out, long ago, is that I need to dilute it with water a LOT, making it very, very light. This has the upshot of any tiny bit of paint mixture lasting forever. Also the variation between people and their body parts happens more or less automatically, as the tone is almost impossible to keep constant. It doesn't even matter how far South the character is supposedly from (which I do use additions of darker tones for) but I still have to dilute the mix very, very much, or it won't look like skin. I only use the same mix with a little less water for tiger paw pads etc., that are meant to be more thick and leathery, but never for any type of human. Now, I don't know if this information is of any value for digital artists, or anyone else for that matter, but I thought it couldn't hurt.
Banes at 6:32AM, Feb. 25, 2025
One thing about skin - it's generally got you covered. ... *ahem*