Do you find yourself struggling with painting even looking skin tones? Do the skin tones that you paint look blotchy? Yea sounds awful. I used to struggle with this big time.

Through years of practice and hard work I finally mastered both my palette and my brushes. However back in the day when I was learning how to paint there were no online video tutorials. So hopefully this video critique will provide you with a little bit of a head start in the knowledge department.

Once you understand the concept of keeping your lights light and your darks dark everything gets a little easier to understand. You also want to utilize a gradation in the light of your figure or portrait painting. For example the forehead should be lighter than the chin in form light.

Understand that subtle skin tone value shifts are usually surface plane shifts. You want to paint these value shifts less contrasty, especially in the light. This will help you to avoid drastic value shifts in the light. Drastic value shifts in the light cause blotchy skin tones.

These techniques apply to pencil drawing, traditional painting as well as digital painting. Of course practice makes perfect so get at it.
 
 

 
 
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