From Marianne Walker s blog

Transcription

1 From Marianne Walker s blog NOTE: The colors as you see them on your computer monitor or printed may be different than the actual pens. Skin Colors - part 1 Since we are going to Anime Expo this week I am going to be covering some topics that are really important not just to stampers, but for the manga artists. The most common question I get asked all the time- What is the best skin color? The easy answer: E00, Skin White The hard answer: It depends on what you consider a skin color. If you haven't noticed, people all over the world have different skin colors. E00 is our most popular skin color in America, since this is a generic pale Caucasian skin. The Natural Blending family for E00 would be E E00 + E02 These examples I'm showing today are from a special color chart I made last year for Anime Expo. At comic shows like this skin tones are VERY important, so it helps to compare and see what feel you want for your artwork. Just a word of caution, these colors look different on your screen than they do in real life. It is nearly impossible to get accurate skin colors on the computer from marker drawings because the skin colors are so subtle. The first color groups are in pairs, so you can see that a good skin image has a highlight and a shadow. Rule of thumb: The trick is to pick a base color, usually ending in 0 or 1, like E00. For a subtle shadow, keep the letter and first digit the same, but go about 2 digits higher, like E02. There are lots of "skin" colors, but here are the most common: The first image shows the sequence E0000 to E04- basic Caucasian skin. See how each combination is just a hair darker than the one before? The pale colors look a little yellow on my screen, but the darker combo, E02 and E04 looks more correct. IRL, I consider these a hair too pink for adult skin, but otherwise, not a bad, all-purpose match for skin colors.

2 The next group are the E11 thru E15. I personally love the E11 as a shadow (see the 3 color combos at the end of this post), but as you can see, it makes a great base color too. It's a little darker than most Caucasians, and it has a bit more deep red, but as you get into the darker combos it looks authentic for Native Americans. This next group includes E21, another good, all-purpose skin color. E25 is the next in the group, which is a large color jump (I really want a E23 someday!) E50 thru E53 are a close match for adult, slightly oliveskinned people. Another sequence I didn't show is the E53 + E55, a good, darker Eastern skin color combo. The E93-E95 group is very pink, so I probably would use these as shadows to other colors, not as skin by itself. They would also make good blush colors that are more earthy than R20 or R30. The last group includes the YR's. The pale YR000 is a great, very light base skin color, but once you get up to YR02 it starts to get orange real quick. R000 also is a great super pale skin color (with the pink tone it almost looks unhealthy, transparent skin colored). Ro2, Flesh, is way too pink to use as a base skin color, though as a shadow, it's not bad. R02 is really close to flesh- not skin, but the flesh underneath. These aren't bad as a quick representation of basic skin color groups, however, many of these look a little flat. To really punch up the dynamic colors in skin it helps to add a 3rd level if marker. This last bunch of faces show how 3 colors make skin really "Pop" Look at the first two faces closely. The first color combo is my current favorite. However,

3 by adding an R20 to the second face instead of the E11 it gives it just a hint of healthy pink, instead of deeper earthy shadows. Look at the E11 + E13 + E15 face and compare it to the E11 + E13 and the E13 + E15 face above. See how using 3 colors makes it more exciting than just 2? E25 + E27 + E29 is a great, deep African skin combo. Compared to the E13/E15 it has much less red. The olive-skinned E50's are really a lot more dynamic when you make a 3 color sequence by skipping one of the shades (E53). Do you see how using darker shadows makes the light seem brighter? Working with your own colors see what combos you can create. So a quick rundown of each color: Light Skin colors (these tend to end in 0 or 1) E0000 (almost clear) E000 E01 E50 (good neutral skin color) R000 (pinkish) R00 R01 YR000 (orangish) YR00 Slightly darker E02 E11 E21 E51 R02 YR01 Darker skin shadows E04 E13 E53

4 Dark African Skin E25 base, E27 shadows Dark Native American Skin E13 + E15 + E17 Eastern Skin E51 + E53 + E55 Pale Western Skin E50 + E51 Light, Pinkish Baby skin E E00 E000 + E01 E00 + E02 (note how these three combos get a hair darker each time) R000 + R01 Cheek Blush overlay R20 or R30 Tomorrow I'll show different ways of coloring faces, from smooth to crisp, faded to sharp. Have a great week! Today we'll discuss ways of coloring once you've picked your favorite skin colors (see yesterday's post). These are only a few simple techniques, and by no means the only way to color. I drew this picture yesterday so I could show you what I mean. I photocopied it onto color laser copier paper, though Manga Illustration paper would be better for this (I just didn't have any loaded into my copier at the time). 2 color skin This first picture is the most basic. I picked a middle/light skin color, E01 and a slightly darker shadow, E11. I left my highlights white, added the midtones with an even layer of E01. I let the E01 dry, then I layered in the E11. This gives the illusion of using 3 colors, but I'm only working with 2.

5 Shadows? I drew the picture with one side slightly darker than the other, giving a hint of where the shadows should be. 3 Color Skin Compare this one to the first one. I started with E000 and completely colored any skin areas, then I added the exact same shadows as the first. She seems much darker skinned, simply because there are no white areas. When you are coloring, you may want to leave your brightest highlights white just so you get more dynamic coloring. The trick to even coloring on the E000 is to color in circles keeping all your edges wet. Then you get very smooth, rich color even though it is so pale. Wet Coloring, 3 color skin The first two examples have very crisp lines between each level of color. the simplest way to keep your edges smooth is by coloring each section individually. In this case, I did the face first. I colored it using the same colors as the second picture, however, while the base color was still wet on my paper I added my darker colors. This simply and softly blended all 3 colors together. To get my deepest shadows back I would have to let it dry, then add the E11 again.

6 Blended, 2 color skin For this last example I used my two darker colors only. I colored evenly with the E01, then added shadows with the E11. Then, starting in the lightest spot on the face, with your colorless blender push all the tone out to the edges of the image. Do this by really juicing the light spot and gradually, evenly expand your blender spot until it goes almost to the edge of your picture (See last week's posts). Do not color all the way up to the line. There is a lot of blender on your paper and if you color up to the line then the color will push out beyond the image. The trick is to carefully follow the contours of the facial features. Then, if you want it even stronger colors, go back in and add another layer of E11. Here is the finished, colored picture. I started with the wet colored picture, but I wanted even darker shadows so I added in some E04 and added a bit of pink to her cheeks with R20. I used the B41 blended out for my shadow areas, and as a base color for her eyes, and the small flower. I wanted her to be a dark blonde, so I chose YR31 and layered on Y28 (this is also a good combo if you want something to look like gold). For her sweater, I dabbed on colorless blender to add texture. Coloring Eyes

7 Short week, wasn't it? Tomorrow, while most of you are enjoying, friends, barbques, and fireworks I'll be down in L.A. teaching coloring workshops at the Anime Expo convention. I love teaching the comic workshops! There are so many enthusiastic people, in amazing costumes that all gather together for their love of Japanese Comics (manga) and Animation (Anime). I'll try to post some photos next week if I get the chance. In our booth we have some wonderful guest artists from Japan, whose work is simply stunning! Every year I wish I could draw half as good as they can. In honor of Anime Expo, and the Japanese comics, or Manga, I wanted to cover an important part of the distinctive look to Manga characters- the big, beautiful eyes. These oversized eyes are stylized, but I want to explain a bit about the idea behind the way they are drawn and how you too can get the cute-eye look. Eyes Eyes are not flat, just like the world isn't flat, or a ball isn't flat. Eyes are also reflective, and have beautiful but complex patterns just below the surface of the lens. So how can we capture all those qualities in one tiny little picture? I want you to try this: stand outside with a piece of white paper and a friend (hopefully it's a bright Summer day). While standing about 2 feet apart, hold the paper just under your chins. Now, look into each other's eyes. Understanding light and reflections Our eyes catch light and bounce it back at the person looking into our eyes. The strongest reflection you see will be from the sun. It is above us, so it hits the top of our eyeball. The next brightest thing we see is the reflection from the white sheet of paper. This is below our eyes, so it causes a smaller reflection on the bottom of our eyeballs. So? What does this mean for how we understand eyes? Understanding Cute Things

8 Cute, innocent things tend to be drawn with eyes wide open. When your eyes are open large people thing you're trusting, sweet, and innocent. Look at these two bear heads. Which one looks cuter and more inviting? The one with reflections! They are identical, except for the light reflections. Understanding how eyes are drawn So a Manga eye is stylized to be cute & innocent (except bad people). The eyes are drawn oversized (eyes open extra wide). There are usually a minimum of two light reflections, and if the character is super-cute, there may be more. In black and white it looks kinda bland though. So how do we color this to really make those glints of light stand out? Coloring Eyes step-by-step 1. Choose 3 colors from a Natural Blending family. In this case I'm using YG03, YG07, and I didn't have a darker shade in YG so I had to use a G09. Color with your lightest color, but leave your white areas white.

9 2. Add your next darker color to the top of the eye. Why the top? Because our eyebrows cast a shadow over the top of our eye, making it look darker on top and lighter down below. 3. Add your darkest color to the very top. 4. Take your lightest color and color over the top of both darker layers. This acts as a blender pen and smooths the colors together. You may have to carefully do this a couple times to get it smooth enough. 5. It's hard to see, but you need to draw the shadow of the eyebrow over your white areas. This is tricky because many times the sides of the eyeball are not defined. In this case I used C1 to add a pale shadow to the top of the eye. 6. Finish by adding skin around the eye. Leave the sides of the eye white to show where the eyeball is. (sometimes I do the skin first, then the eyes, other times it's eyes first and then skin) Adding white If you have a hard time leaving the white areas white, then this is the perfect time to use Copic Opaque White- a thick white paint applied with a paintbrush to add pure white back into a picture. If you have a picture like the bland bear head earlier in the post you can make it cute by using opaque white to add the light reflections on dull, black areas.

10 For my finished artwork today, I decided it was time to show a guy, since my last two manga posts were of girls. Manga guys tend to look a lot like their female counterparts sometimes (i think his bottom lip is too pouty and I messed up on his hair). Otherwise, he looks like a handsome, pleasant, green-eyed boy. I drew this picture in my Copic Sketchbook, starting with a loose pencil sketch, then inking it with a 0.1mm Multiliner. Since the picture was so small, I cut back on my eye colors to the light and dark, no middle color, but I still used the same technique.