These were a few of our favorite colored pencil sets for coloring skin tones. However, this list is by no means exhaustive. If you have a nice selection of starting colors, a pencil with good blending ability, and a steady hand, then you can begin producing great skin colors!

Note: Yellow has the same hue here. In theory BYR yellow leans more towards the red and the CYM yellow towards the blue. The slivers I made should be moved a tad to the sides! Warm colours We start with swatching our colours so we know what we’re working with. Next, we’ll try 3 techniques. The first one (we’ll use the middle circle for this, so we can compare easier) we’ll use the 3 pencils only. Let’s do it! Remember those specific pencils that you put to the side in anticipation of using for the skin colors? Grab your lightest one and create an extremely light outline. This will create the boundary of your skin. Keep in mind that if the portrait you are working on has bright reflections from lighting, there may be areas of the skin that end up being completely white. Take this into consideration when producing your outlines. There are some specialized sets of colored pencils that have been sold that are designed to focus on skin tones and other natural colors. A good example of this is Derwent Coloursoft Skintones Colored Pencils. This small set of 6 pencils all come in skin-colored gradients. They can create a great starting point but you will likely have to go in and make tweaks as necessary to get that perfect color. Magenta, yellow and cyan are very similar to red, yellow and blue. The main reason I’m going for MYC is because they are lighter in value. Meaning it’s a lot easier for them to create vibrant light colours, whereas if you would use regular RYB it would be harder to achieve that. The outcome of these colours would result in darker values. You could add white, but you’d have to add a lot. Pencils are already a slow medium to work with so this would only add to the time. Warm VS cool colours

African Mask Examples

Vibrant 24 Color Set: Colored pencil set includes 24 of the most popular Skin and Hair tone color shades. That's 24 unique, vivid, richly pigmented light-fast premium color pencils at your disposal. Professional superior artist quality premium colored pencils that are perfect for the beginning to the advanced artist's needs for drawing, sketching, and illustrating realistic portrait art. When I started drawing, I remember searching and searching for tutorials, tips or methods, and never finding exactly what I was looking for. Especially for drawing skin. Even though there is a ton of “tutorials” on the internet, they are either too complicated, or missing crucial points (intentionally or unintentionally!). Or they are not about photorealistic drawings. So, I decided to share all my personal tips, most of which I found out by myself, through trial and error. I strongly believe that knowledge should be shared and not kept to ourselves, so here we go! We learnt we need orange. So let’s start by colouring a layer of magenta. Next, we lay down a layer of yellow. Do you feel like the orange is too light? Use another layer of orange. Next, we’ll add a layer of blue to desaturate that orange. Start light so you don’t overdo it.

But remember the light source. When creating a portrait, having that identified light source breathes life into the picture. And you can’t achieve accurate highlights and shadows without bright lights and deep darks. Aside from all the undertones, this set boasts the largest variety of skin tone options. If you’re willing to invest in your art career or hobby, this set just can’t be beat. 3. Castle Arts Portrait Collection TIP: When blending colored pencil with colored pencil, be careful to match pressure with sharpness. The sharper your pencil, the lighter the pressure. Using heavy pressure with a sharp pencil is likely to either break the tip off the pencil—possibly leaving an unsightly mark—or tear the paper. If you want to burnish, it’s best to use a blunt pencil. Dry BlendingIf you noticed some undertones (blues, greens, etc.), this is the time to add them. LIGHTLY apply these undertones in the necessary areas. Your portrait may resemble more of a Halloween mask than a realistic portrait right now. That is OK! You will start to blend in these colors in the later steps Many of you are likely familiar with the Polychromos series. It has a storied history as being one of the best all-around sets of colored pencils that money can buy. On top of that, it is oil-based which allows you to produce unique textures that your typical wax-based colored pencil would be hard-pressed if not impossible to emulate. The best thing I can tell you is to build color and value layer by layer. Begin the initial layers with light pressure (the lightest you can do and still put color on the paper.) Gradually increase the pressure and burnish the final layers. Using another highlight color, this time a light yellow, paint around the lightest area where the light reaches the body. Step 5:

IDEAL FOR BEGINNERS AND ARTISTS: the colored pencils are perfect for office, work or home, ideal for blending and smudging, convenient and easy-to-carry, especially suitable for Adults and beginners' creativity and imagination in different agesIt is best to work up a painting with multiple layers of soft pencil strokes. Apply all your colors (highlights, midtones, shadows) in four to six layers of soft shading. Once you are close to the look you are aiming for, apply one last layer of colored pencil, but this time press hard on it to seal the colors and blend all of the layers underneath together. This is the secret to creating a smooth look. Pencil strokes