Most people find it hard to swatch a skin so they can paint it
and since it is something that for me is so easy to do,
(because I see swatches in everything)
I share it, so I can help other artists skip the hard part
so they don't waste their time with it and go straight to the painting.

In 2009, deviantART made it a Daily Deviation and more people saw it.
The Daily Deviations show up at the bottom in almost every page in deviantART so everyone sees it.
So the people who hadn't discovered yet, did.

That inspired me to make it better.

I then changed the preview picture for the second version so it would be easier for non Photoshop
users to color pick the colors in the swatch since they can't use the
Photoshop file... (for GIMP and others).


 You can see the blog post about the Daily Deviation here.


After that, many fellow deviantArtists began to adapt it for their programs
and I started to link the swatch files they make of my Skin Color Swatches so people
who don't use Photoshop can use it too.
Color picking is fine, but having a file in a swatch
window in the program you use is much better.
They are linked under the preview picture in my gallery.

Since the first Skin Color Swatches was published in my deviantART
gallery in 2005 and after it made a new preview file when it made it as Daily Deviation,
I have accumulated more skin colors, so I added them to the
existent swatch and I also added some highlights...
I put my Faradriel as the face of it and created the
Skin Color Swatches Epic Edition.


Before anyone asks me, Faradriel is my World of Warcraft
character that I am painting. She is in an artwork I am working on
called Quel'Delar. You can see the progress HERE.

Along the way, many things happened to my swatches.
I sometimes find it in Photoshop related websites and blogs,
in other people's tutorials on how to paint skin...
in wikis...

It is featured in many forums...
and deviantART groups...
and on the first page of most popular of all time tutorials in deviantART
Some still have the old version.

I receive lots of messages everyday thanking me for sharing it.
I feel so grateful that I can help other artists
and I love when they send me links to the artworks they have created
using my swatches.

In January a fellow deviantArtist made a stamp about being a DeviantNep Swatch user


(you can see it here from her gallery)

I use it too =P I love it.
I am still so thankful for that.

You can see the blog post about it here.

But the latest thing that happened to my Skin Color Swatches,
happened today.

A few weeks ago I got a message from the editor of a Japanese Photoshop Tools
magazine, asking me to let them add it to their tool resources.
I said yes but heard nothing after that.

So, today...
I was answering comments and questions about Photoshop in deviantART,
and answering thank you notes from artists about the swatch...
and I received a private message.

It was the magazine again saying it is out and done!
I received a free copy of the magazine in pdf and the link
of where you can buy it on Amazon Japan.
(took a screenshot) 

I am not allowed to link the .pdf file to others
but I took a screenshot of the page it is in...

You can see the link to buy it here.

This is so great!
It made my day.

I am still amazed that something so simple to me
made this far because it helps others.

 

 I was answering comments (all 175 ones)
from deviantART, while I drank my coffee,
and one of them was from Bampire.
I had never heard form that fellow devArtist before,
but she made my day.

She is a digital painter, like me,
and she is one of the thousands of people who use my Skin Color Swatches.

What she did was, she created a stamp.
For others to use wherever they want.


(you can see it here from her gallery)

Stamps were made for people in deviantART (mostly)
to use as "moods", or to show if they belong to a group,
their likes and dislikes...

I used them here on my blog before, about the stuff I like.
Just scroll down to see it.


Well, I have said it to her a bunch of times...
but, Thank you.

It is an honor when someone likes what you created.
I am glad that I can help others paint easier by sharing something
I did for my own use.
I created that because I swatch everything I see,
and I had so many accumulated from painting training
that I decided to share,
but I never thought people would actually use it.
So, thank you.

I also thank my Mikey, because to him,
this isn't surprising.
Thanks Mikey, for believing in me.
I love you.

I posted the Skin Color Swatches here at the blog too.
Click here to see the post.

Last semester I took some art classes.
I took oil and drawing.
The artwork I created in class was on the little art show that
the art department does for the students this month.


THE Apple™



in the galley
Work in progress of THE Apple™

 
 Snow Dream



The Snow Dream is a Christmas Card I did.
It is my first watercolor that Mike Crane thought me.
You can see his version on the back.

in the gallery

 
Paris dans la nuit


I have to take a picture of this one to add to the gallery
and also make the WIP of the pictures I took of it
while I was painting

 
Shoe Apple Study



Key Study

deviantART has what we call: Daily Deviation!

from the FAQ #61 of deviantART
"The Daily Deviation is a daily feature chosen from the galleries here on deviantART.
A small assortment of submissions are chosen each day by a select group of staff/volunteer members who wish to showcase an image which they found impressive or otherwise interesting enough to deserve being brought to the attention of the community-at-large.
The staff/volunteer members responsible for selecting submissions for the daily feature often are open to suggestions and individual community members may direct their attention by noting the appropriate gallery moderator or staff member with a direct link to the deviation which you are suggesting and a brief description about why you think the work in question should be featured."

I have an art gallery in deviantART since Dec 21, 2004
but never had a Daily Deviation!
It means a lot to me!
When I was checking my email, I usually check my updates in
Google Reader and then my message center in deviantART...
I had more than 100 comments and 1500 favs!
it's so awesome!

the DD says:

"Daily Deviation, 2008-12-09
The suggester wrote; Skin Color + Swatches by
*DeviantNep are an amazing resource that can
help many artists by aiding them to learn how
to work with various color shades with the guidance
of Swatches. I like to think of these as the digital
artist's the best friend.
(Suggested by =Derzorvadur and Featured by ^znow-white)"

Thank you =Derzorvadur and ^znow-white
for suggesting and featuring it for the Daily Deviation!

Thanks everyone for all the favs and comments!

I tried to make it easy and simple to pick colors for skin painting in Photoshop,
and because there are some people out there that use
other programs, I also included in the .zip file,
the preview image, where they can color pick...

I am really glad it helps a lot of people!

this made me really happy!

in the gallery