Human beings have struggled long and hard to create a world with where you can stay dry and warm and look at kittens on the internet. But for some reason some people think it's a great idea to go sleep in a humid tent in the forest. The forest has no internet. It does have bugs.

My wife is one of these people who like camping. I love her, so I camp. I don't hate all of it. I like campfires and drinking wine in the dark. And I do get to take nice photos.

On Tuesday I tried to put my realization about digital color to work. I pulled up a photo of Caroline from a camping trip and referenced it to practice.

I spent several minutes just selecting six neutral skin tones that seemed to match what I saw in the photo. I chose desaturated colors for the highlights and richer browns for the shades. I didn't use these to paint directly, but I plucked out a pink and blue which I could see in reflected light and blushing skin around the cheeks and ears.

When painting I first concentrated on value and shape with my six skin tones. I used ProCreate's airbrush brushes for most of the blocking in, then switched to textured brushes to build up detail.

To get subtle colors, I painted on a new layer, set to the ”color” blend mode. This allowed me fold in tings and hues without making mud. I tried a similar approach to create highlights in the hair.

I'm looking forward to applying see techniques at my next figure drawing session.