http://i569.photobucket.com/albums/ss132/Katana_020/001_zpsd321b8ed.png

Any tips for shading/highlighting? I really am horrible at shading and highlighting skin in photoshop. What types of photoshop brushes and tools do you all use? I can do fur and clothing and hair. but not skin.

i use a texture brush from this pack: http://fav.me/d39dpqu and i'll set opacity to 100 and kind of block in my shaded areas. then i'll select a middle color, set opacity to about 50% ish, airbrush to about 40%, and generally blend my way in

When I shade skin I like to keep in mind that skin(especially the face) is made up of more than just peach and lighter or darker tones. There are blues, reds, yellows, greens, etc in the face. Obviously you don't want to use all of those colors because for some styles it's just not appropriate; but I do for example like to use lighter blues or greens for highlights and then reds to purples for the darker areas. I think the goal for the most part is to remember that really the only dramatic shading going on is going to be around the eyes and the nose--the rest should be really subtle. I think a lot of people go overboard with shading and then everything is sort of murky since everything is pretty much the same tone of darkness.

Thanks

even with digital art? I've not heard of doing shading like that with manga-style art, only traditional art blink

The only difference between digital art and traditional art is one is on the computer and one is with traditional mediums. Of course it depends on what style you choose, I didn't know you were attempting manga-style art but the approach can still be the same. For example stuff like this you can see very subtle reds and purples in their shading which really helps to make it pop as just using a darker or lighter tone is not very enticing.

Alright...i figured the link i posted in OP would have told people i'm going for manga style. Shrug Thanks for the example but it seems almost TOO soft for what I'm going for. very muted. But I'll take it into consideration.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/29/BlackBloodBrothersLogo.JPG/230px-BlackBloodBrothersLogo.JPG

Or

http://www.myfconline.com/character_avatars/204741_135807.jpg

This is the style I'm trying to accomplish, something similar to that in shading/highlighting. I know traditional painting and drawing like the back of my hand, I have three art degrees. But when it comes to digitial/anime/manga style art I can't ever seem to get it to look the way I want it.

its just simple cel shading

put all your flat colors on a single layer, duplicate that layer, then adjust the lightness/hue to get the shaded colors your looking for. put that layer under your flat colors (i'd suggest duplicating your flats a second time, just in case) and then using the eraser tool, erase the parts where you want the shadow to come through

its basically the same as cel shading clothes or hair

- sounds alot easier than the way I usually do it. XD

Hopefully you don't mind me putting in my two cents since the thread's been quiet a while, but I just wanted to give you one more option to try~ Ragweed's idea will probably work pretty well, but if you're using Photoshop and you don't want to merge all your flat colors or you think you might want to adjust some of the colors later, you can try this: Create a new layer on top of all your base colors, and set the layer style to "multiply." Then choose a really light hue, like a pale red or blue (depending on if you want your shading to feel warm or cool), and just block in the areas you want to be shaded. Then you can make a third layer, set the layer style to something like "soft light" or "lighten," (you may want to experiment to see which one works best for the colors you're using), and use the same color you used to shade to do the highlights. I did this really quick with your picture just to show you how it works (I'm not great at this kind of cell shading XD). All the variation was done with that one pink that you can see in the upper corner there. Also if you want some parts to be shaded darker than others, you can just make another layer on "multiply" on top of the first, and add more shading over the parts that are already shaded. It'll show darker than the initial shading, but still adjust to the original hue.

Hopefully that all made sense, and might be useful for you!

WHat are you talking about saying that you aren't really good at it?! XD That looks gorgeous what you did XD. And yes, it makes sense. i just have such a hard time placing the shadows and highlights where they belong XD

ahhh yes, that is always the tricky part. I'm not sure I have any good advice for that, other than just studying light/shadows, and especially how they fall on a human face. Maybe look at some tutorials on lighting and shading, just to get an idea from others' work? I'm sure none of that is revolutionary advice. XD

XD The sad thing is,i can do a traditional portrait of a person and have it look almost photo realistic, but i try to do cell shading, and i can't ever get the shadows and highlights whwere they should be.

LOL well... that's unexpected. XD In that case, I guess the only thing to do is go against the usual advice and start studying some good artists that use cell shading! Obviously there's all kinds of anime and manga to use... But if you're interested in some different styles some of my favorite artists on dA that use cell shading are dustyleaves, emruki, rocketshoes, cubewatermelon, and uh... maybe ashley-lee, to some extent... y'know, if you're interested. XD

http://centi.deviantart.com/art/PS-coloring-with-a-Mouse-II-80892554

this is old and awful, however mouse or tablet it still pretty much applies This is the general basics on how I shaded back then. LOL now I just scribble everything in with a spoon pen brush in open canvas but maybe it will prove useful to you.