Tips for drawing skin?

Question

Hey there, so I'm drawing a picture of my dad, I've basically got it all sketched in, I'm just a beginner, so it's nothing special, but I want to shade it in and add skin texture, how doI do this? I don't want to mess it up. D: help?

Answer 1

Shading is a good idea. Dont bother colouring it. If you have already, start over. Hold your pencil sideways and shade in the darker spots (shadows) in the face. Dont press hard with the pencil and have a white eraser at hand.

Answer 2

If your just using pencil, then shade in the shadows (lol)  and lightly shade the whole thing, leaving highlights (in the eyes, apple of the checks.. lips) but don't let it get to dark, just enough to make it not-white

If your using colored pencil don't ask my since after YEARS of art lessons, i STILL can't do portraits in color =l

EDIT: hello [=  you happened to ask a question in the one thing other then horses that i know about!

But good, since its just in pencil, lightly shade.. make sure to not make visible lines (like when you draw with markers and go over the line you've already done, it makes it darker..) and then erase the highlights, and continue shading the low-lights.

http://www.barbaragentry.com/images/Grap...

http://www.barbaragentry.com/images/Grap...

and honestly, no matter what you do you're dads gunna love it [=