#blush tutorial

I did this in Sketchbook Pro so that’s gonna be the best app to use but if PS or sai or whatever have similar brushes, you should be good! Here are the tools I use

Step 1: Assemble a test subject. For this, I decided a young babby Strange would have the least distracting facial features. As you can see, I built up a palette based off the skin color, moving inch by inch into a redder tone while also darkening the color, taking me from a peachy pink and gradually into a soft red.

Step 2: Lay down your lightest color. It’s gonna take up the most surface area, around the nose and the entirety of both cheeks. You can do the ears as well but I forgot to here;;;

Step 3: Add your second darker color, taking up less surface than the first. The nose, a little less of the cheeks, tips of the ears.

Step 4: The last color will take the least amount of surface, the nose and half the cheeks. I dont usually put the darkest color on the ears.

Step 5: Here’s where the rough blender comes in. Youre gonna blur the edges around all three colors and then dab it around all over, essentially creating a rough semi-blended texture. This is because when people blush for realisies, it isn’t like an anime with one even tone across the face- skin is textured and blotchy and uneven. This just makes it look a teeny bit more natural.

Step 6: Under all this, youre gonna lay down an airbrush layer using the first and lightest tone. It should cover the area the first color did and even a little bit more. This helps fill in any unsightly gaps the blending may have left.

Step 7: Lower the opacity of both layers. This is gonna require you to use your best judgment, making sure you can still see the airbrush layer and the textured watercolor layer but also making sure both layers arent too saturated.

And there you are! The same rules apply for any any skin tone, the major difference being how you tweak and manipulate the blush colors off the back of the skin tone.

In Photoshop? If so, open up your desired picutre.

I´ll use this one

Now, add a new layer to the photo.

It should look like this now!

Select the Brush Tool or press B on the hotkey ;)

Change the size of the Brush accordingly to the size of your picture and use a soft brush.

I´ll use the color #ffabd8. You can use the color you like.

It should look like this now.

Not really pretty right!?! 

Go to Filter >> Blur >> Box Blur 

You mean these?

Hehe, I just take screenshots from the show and slap blush on them. Here’s the standard blush file I use; it may need to be edited a bit to fit the lighting of the scene -

Erase the blush where needed, like Lemongrab’s nose and Peppermint Butler’s hands. And there you go!

If you have a particular image you want me to do this to, you can just submit to my main blog. I can promise that submit and non-anon ask will always be open there, although I have anon ask closed most of the time because I get anon hate. But that’s not the point.

Anyway, yeah. Enjoy!!

No I am not interested in how to apply blush.

No I am not interested in how to draw cross hatches across an anime character's face.