This is a tutorial on how I vexel skin.
This tutorial is made for photoshop and requires you to have somewhat knowledge on how to use the pentool. If you don’t know how to use the pen tool you should check out this tutorial. This tutorial was made using Photoshop CS2, but should work in other versions as well
You MAY NOT redistribute this tutorial and call it your own.

This is my first tutorial I’ve written, so feel free to give me tips on how to improve or if there’s
something you don’t understand

This is the image we will be using

First you make a copy of the base layer, you right click the layer in the layer panel and choose “Duplicate Layer…” Then we have to make it grayscale, Image > Adjustments > Desaturate.

Then you posterize it, to make it easier to see where to put the shadows Image > Adjustments > Posterize I usually choose something between 10 and 15, this time I chose 12. I noticed however that I maybe should have chosen a higher number because of the low amount of detail, but it’s ok. This is what mine looks like.

Then it’s time for my little trick, to make it even easier to see what parts are darkest and lightest, I make every different shadow a different color! First go to Image > Adjustments > Color Balance pull the bar all the way down to Cyan and up to blue, the picture should have a light blue color now. Then you go to Image > Adjustments > Replace Color, click one of the blue shades and drag the Hue bar either up or down until it’s a color that’s easy to distinguise. Repeat this with every shade of blue. This is what I have now.

Now it’s time to go back to the base layer and choose a skin color, this can be slightly difficult, but just choose the Eyedropper tool and click somewhere in the midtones of the skin, it should not be too pink, too yellow or too grey. The color might not look very skinlike in the beginning but try with a color and it might look good once we’re done with all the shading.

Try with your skin color pick first and when you’re done with the shading and you still can’t find one that looks right you can try with the one I picked #c09a8f.

Now that you have picked your skin color we start tracing the shape of the skin. First we make a new Layer group to make things more organized, we’ll call this group skin. That’s the little folder icon at the bottom of the layer palette. Then it’s just to start tracing the skin with the pen tool. These are my pentool settings.

You start tracing, be sure to make the lines long and smooth.

Now it’s time for the shading!

First you duplicate the colorful layer of the posterized image and move the copy above the skin layer in the skin group. Then you hold the Alt button down and move your mouse to the line right between the two layers on the layer palette until it turns into two circles and a tiny arrow and click, this groups the layers. You should have something like this now.

Then you have to use your eyes and try and see what color on the colorful posterization layer is where your skin color matches best the one on the original picture, with me it was the purple, this means that everything above the purple color layer is lighter than my skin tone. So I start with choosing white and tracing the layer above the purple, in my case it’s green. Click the skin layer before you start the new white layer, the white layer should be between the skin and the posterized layer. It doesn’t matter if you trace outside the original skin layer, since the layers are grouped only what you draw where the skin layer is visible will be visible. (I know that might not be understandable.. lol) Anyways, when I’m done with this white layer my vexel looks like this

Then you continue on the next white layer

Continue with the white highlights all the way to the very lightest part of the vexel, then you start using black tracing all the darker parts. Then you make every layer visible and hide the posterized layer, and make every white and black layer 20% visible and blend with “Soft light” when you’re done you should have something like this

Whew! We have gotten a lot of work done now! You should be proud of yourself At this stage I usually take a break, get some chocolate or a cup of tea or get some homework done

You could choose to just leave the skin like this, if you prefer the simple style with few layers that’s ok. I’ve never been able to make vexels looking good with this few layers, so now I move on to making transition layers! This is what I think makes the vexel go from ok to great. And it is ALOT of work… But in the end, it’s worth it.

Hide every layer exept for the two first white layers you made and trace a new layer between them
sort of like this

Continue with this between every layer, I usually use three transition layers between each original layer, this one though I actually used up to five since there was so little detail and I reduced the opacity to 10 of every layer. This is what it looks like when I have finished all of the white transition layers, as you can see I now have 13 white layers instead of the original four.

Continue with the black layers. I decided to make the black layers opacity only 8%. This is what I
have now

Add eyelashes, lipstick, eyebrows and the diamonds if you’d like. This is only a tutorial on how to vexel skin, because that’s the only thing I feel I’m actually good at and have something to learn other people.

You should be damn proud of yourself now! Show off your finished vexel by submitting it to Deviantart. Also, be sure to show me your results!

This is my finished vexel!