How to paint skin that looks translucent

The skin is an important part when drawing a character.
If you can make the skin look translucent, it will greatly enhance the drawing’s attractiveness.
And so, I will be presenting how to draw skin that looks translucent.

How to paint the face

Base layer: Paint on the base for the face

First of all, paint on the base for the face.

Layer 2: Create a gradation with the airbrush

Next, create a new layer, and clip it to the layer that will be the base for the face.
Further duplicate the layer blending.

Next, choose a skin tone with a reddish tinge, and add a gradation to the face with the airbrush.

After using a large brush size to roughly paint the whole face, the point is to remove areas with a transparent color where the light will come through.

Layer 2: Insert a light bluish purple color around the eyes

Create a new layer, and clip it to layer 1 that you created earlier.

 

The skin around the eyes is thin, so the blue color from blood vessels comes through.

That is why even for a drawing, if you paint a light bluish purple color with the airbrush around the eyes, it will make it look translucent.

With a deeper color, adjust it by lowering the opacity.

▼Here is a detailed article about clipping▼
The clipping function

 

Layer 2: Paint the edges of the face

Now to bring out its three-dimensionality.
Duplicate the newly created layer.
Paint the edges along the face with the airbrush as you trace the contours with the same color as base of the face.

I changed the color I painted it with to red in the image below to make it easier to understand.

Layer 4: Add shadows with a bluish purple color.

Create a new layer for layer 4, and add in shadows with a light bluish purple color.

In the image below, it is easy to understand with the painted portions colored blue.

Layer 5: Add a bright color to the edges

Lastly, add a small amount of bright color to the facial contours.

It’s done!

Please use the above as a reference so you can try painting skin!