Airbrush Artwork Lesson: People Come in the Strangest Colors!

An important aspect of airbrush artwork is to be able to see colors for what they truly are ….

… I know, I know … I harp about color theory all the time! But you have to understand that when the colors are right the end result is SO MUCH BETTER!

I thought to emphasize my point that I would put together a few examples …

Example 1: Flesh Tones at Their Finest

OK… this woman is beautiful… and her complexion is perfect. The tones in her face are the nice peachy color we would all imagine flawless skin should be…

… But notice a few things…

1. Look at the color of the “white” of her eye … it is not white at all, is it? It only looks white in contrast to her skin tone.

2. Look at the color of the shadows…. they aren’t grey or a derivative of black … they are reddy-browns. There may even be a touch of violet in there. Noticing this gives you clues on how to make your shading more realistic.

Example 2: Flesh Tones in Reality

Ha ha …. here is a picture of me with specific colors isolated. I’m practically a GRAPE!

Look how purple the shadows of my face are…. and notice how pink my complexion is – there is not a hint of peach, or tan, or brown.

Now, granted, I am a bit ruddy (that’s when women (or men, i suppose) get red in the face) … so…. I may not be too pleased if you painted me quite this pink…

…women always want to look better in airbrush artwork than they do in real life (that’s why celeb’s photos are always airbrushed!) – but if you go too far in changing the color of the skin tone it will look weird and unnatural.

Example 3: Dramatic Flesh Tones

This example throws all the “flesh tone” rules out the window!

Let’s go through this one in more detail:

1. Again, look at the “white” of his eye … NOT WHITE!!

2. Notice the range of colors … pinks, purples, browns, blacks …

3. Notice how absurd the color of his ear fold is… deep purple! Is that what you would have guessed?

4. Look how pale the right side of his face is…. some of those pinks are barely even there … would you have guessed that?

To Wrap it Up

I hope that surprised you … I know when I first saw this method of color picking and isolating the colors on a white background that this was a bit of shock.

Now, I am fortunate and have photoshop to be able to do all this work on a computer (so cheating!) but you do not need photoshop to do it. Just cut a small hole in a piece of white paper and place it over your image and pay attention to the colors that show through and use what you learn to improve your airbrush artwork.

I think this is such a valuable lesson … maybe I’ll make a series of it?