Painting Dark Skin Tones

!! UPDATE: the new anatomy video on skin has some updated additions to this older video !!

This is a video about rendering darker skin tones. I thought mine needed work, so I made a video about my learning process and what I observed along the way. Hopefully this is helpful! I enjoyed making it.

All painting and sketching done in Corel Painter.

Sorry for the background noise, I didn't realize the microphone was picking up computer noises.

[cherish]

Thanks so much...I'm a black artist and had no idea how to render my own skin with is terrible but most tutorials gloss over it lol. This is the best tutorial I've found

[zzdesolatezz]

I'm black I have full lips, the bottom is pink, and my nose is a bit small but yeah its flat and doesn't stick out much. Don't feel nervous when talking about traits because we are all unique. The only time this would be an issue is if someone where to say that these features are inferior

[kiakaha]

Dark skin tones look so satisfying to colour in speed paints

[Pjiggy]

Great tutorial. As a Black artist I had no real idea about how to color my own people's skin. I guess it's that we all grow up drawing the cartoons and comics we love and they don't really look like me. But this was a great tutorial and as someone else said, don't be nervous about discussing the differences, they are important. There is no hate in description...unless there is! You get it! I am more or a golden brown but with a lot of red so I still have to figure out how to render my own color but thank you for this.

[KIMMYKIM]

red, purple and blue undertones are for some darker skin tones while lighter people of color (as well as darker people of color) can have yellowish, orange and red undertones. those of African descent come in a lot of shades and the undertones change along with those shade. I have yellow undertones while my mother has more orangey undertones. thanks for posting and showing how you can paint a type of darker skin.

[neilb]

This takes you to a whole new level of awesome.  Its quite a pleasure to see artists go outside of their usual zone, diversity makes for a much better representation of our world.  *Much respect, grats to you sir.*

[MsTokies]

the secret is a more purplish highlight .. you almost want to do black skin highlights on another layer. .. im a black person i draw a lot of black people and color them. that is the secret sauce . it's a bit like coloring blackwards.

[dragonize]

I think I commented on this video already, but I just wanna say, thanks for actually making this video. I'm black i didn't really know how to paint my own skin tone, and when looking for example often the facial features are more european with darker skin which is....disappointing. Again, thank you so much for taking the time to learn to be diverse and then teaching other people how to be diverse too. It's really refreshing.

[Jazzu]

Thank for making this. Being an African American artist, even I have some trouble getting darker skin tones right. It's very easy to make darker skin tones look ashy if you don't use the right highlights and undertones. Bravo! My Good Man!   

[TheDorreProject]

So informative! As I black person, I found it very hard to color black people. I did it using the same technique for white people, but using darker colors and they never came out looking good. Then again, I'm a nube

[ANewPseudonym]

I almost never see anybody in the online painting community drawing black people so this is really refreshing! Great video, keep 'em coming!

[ReallyRedPanda]

This is so brilliant! It's always so difficult to find any resources for darker skin and stumbling on this video was like finding a diamond when you were hoping for at most a rock. Your work is so gorgeous, I was ooh-ing and aah-ing when you rendered that male character. Watching your process has been invaluable, I'm going to be coming back to this video in the future for help. Thank you!

[Holdsworthands]

the way you draw sinix! you have something magical in your lines

[kampiestarz]

I love how excited you are when painting.

[deen]

Just found this video. You did a great job! It's nice to see examples of dark skin tones. Thank you.

[Demonskunk]

Sometimes African skin tones do go down into the purples. The beginning if this video alone is very helpful.

[chewycat]

I’m white, and I love drawing darker skin tones. I think you can vary them a lot more and it’s really fun to play around with that! (And it’s just also really pretty!)

[Dojobird]

A great episode Sinix. Very helpful  techniques and objective notes, as well as shows development as an artist in drawing different peoples. My favorite is the girl on the right, although I love the realism in the face of the man on the left, especially in the eyes. Excellent vid.

[phoenixrosen]

Oh god finally! I've been having the hardest time drawing dark skin. I'm starting out on drawing a portrait of my boyfriend who is darkskin and I stg this tutorial saved me

[LiamJonesArtist]

This is great. I'm still looking for more of an impressionist-slash-colorist approach such as Van Gogh, using much bolder colors. But this is the best I've seen online so far! You use color very well.