I find the shades of Murdoc green that you use to be very nice to look at. Very... soothing. May I have a tip on how to achieve this soothing colour of zombie flesh
OMG i'd be HAPPY to!! coloring him is one of my top favorite things to do (partly the reason why i draw him so much!)
i don't have a set palette when i color him, like i don't work with color reference sheets since i find them awfully limiting, but as a general rule of thumb i never use outright green when i color murdoc's base. i always start with more of a greyed out, wilted leaf color. lime, ALMOST highlighter yellow in hue, since green by itself would be too cool in temperature and make him look less "alive" (the way i want his "alive" to look like anyhow). the base is smth like this:
i'd go warmer, cooler, darker, or lighter, depending on the mood of the artwork i have in mind. here's one of my pfp art as example with a warmer and darker variation of the previous base:
the color by itself is okay but doesn't make the character look "alive" enough yet. that's where the other colors come into play, with the most important one being the blush!
now, do NOT use a cool-toned red to blush a warm green bc the temperatures would clash and make the skin look too muddy. i always use an orange-ish pink/peach hue, or a brick red color if i want the blush to be more intense. i put the blush where i would put blush on myself whenever i do makeup: cheeks, temples, nose, and the area between the nose and lips. for the drawing, neck too!
now the man looks like he still has some blood pumping in his body yet.
next is shading! the shading is always cooler than the skin, but since i start with a warmer base, my shading tends to have a slight warmth to it still, if that makes sense. i like using a VERY THIN chocolate color on a multiply layer, though sometimes i start with black and adjust the color later on by painting over it with alpha lock enabled
IMPORTANT TO NOTE: the overall temperature of your colors highly depends on the lighting of the environment, which in turn sets the overall mood of the artwork. for example, i can have the same white background but with cooler lighting & shading such as my most recent muh drawing. or i might even combine a warm base with warm yellow highlights and MUCH cooler emerald shading like this bath painting:
the last step is to add an overlay/soft light/color dodge layer to make the face area brighter! whichever blending mode you choose depends on the intensity you want, and i like to use generally warm colors like oranges or yellows to make the face glow. simply airbrush the general face area (thinly!). i also like to add rim lights with the same color as the background to make everything more lively. side note: i also lower the opacity of my lineart (i generally go 80-90%, set to multiply) so the line color fits better with the rest of the artwork
and voilà! we have a complete and rather handsome murdoc in our hands
apologies for the VERY long post but i hope this was helpful!! don't hesitate to ask more about my process if you need to lol i love talking my ass off about how i do things <3
annaxmalina
baratheonpilled
turnnoffyourmind
dededos
ellievsbear
discoholicmusic
jbbartram-illu
