7
Found a dumb simple trick for getting skin tones right in digital portraits
I spent like 2 years messing with color pickers and swatches trying to get faces to not look like clay. Then a buddy who works at a small studio in Austin told me to just paint a tiny square of bright red next to the face while I work. Somehow my eyes finally see the warm tones right, and my last 3 portraits actually look like real people instead of mannequins. Anyone else got a weird little visual hack that just clicks for no good reason?
3 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In3 Comments
paige42713d ago
Heard this painter on a podcast once say she keeps a color wheel taped to her monitor for the same reason. Something about having that reference point helps the brain stop guessing.
5
thomas27513d ago
Huh, I'll push back a little on that, @paige427. I've tried keeping a color wheel on my monitor before and it just became background noise after a week. My brain stopped _seeing_ it, you know? For me, the real trick was learning to mix my own colors blind. Like when I'm painting a brick wall, I don't want a reference. I want to force my hand to find that warm brownish red by eye. That muscle memory is way more useful to me than a chart. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.
7
piper_reed13d ago
Well that seems like a lot of effort for something that isn't that big of a deal.
2