A while ago I went to the Guadalajara Zoo in Mexico,
and took some pictures of wild life animals to submit them
to the National Geographic Photo Contest.

Since then, I have been trying to find some time to sit down
and add them to my personal gallery.

Here they are.

in the gallery



in the gallery



in the gallery



in the gallery

 

in the gallery



in the gallery


 I loved that little guy.
I just wish they weren't in cages.

 

After a lot of questions about how to load up
brushes and swatches from the people who download them in my gallery,
I've decided to make a tutorial.
I hope it helps those who are starting.



=D

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.