Día De Los Muertos by Haleigh Dixon

Día De Los Muertos by Haleigh Dixon

Día De Los Muertos makeup goes by many names. Some people call it Day of the Dead makeup, Sugar Skull makeup, or La Catrina makeup. No matter what you call it, people do this makeup on Día De Los Muertos to honor their loved ones. When creating this drawing, I tried to remember that this image should not reference frightening Halloween skulls. Día De Los Muertos makeup is supposed to represent love and exists somewhere in between the mystical and beautiful. It is a salute to the dead.

Though there are various color schemes you can use for Día De Los Muertos makeup, I focused on using brighter colors. When looking at reference images, I noticed that people typically used the colors blue, red, and black. I chose to stick to a minimal color palette with cooler tones. I tried to keep the image vibrant because Día De Los Muertos is a colorful and spiritual holiday. I brought back some of the vibrance with the warmer tones in the hair. I needed this image to be full of life, and I achieved that by giving the irises a golden shine and tinting the sclera with a slight pinkish color. I also added texture with different brushes and filters available in Adobe Photoshop.

Here is the drawing without any filters or adjustments

I accentuated texture by adding filter

1.) I added the oil paint filter on the fan and the black parts of the eyes and nose.

2. I put a wind effect and then a ripple effect on the hair.

3. The skin has a crystallize effect on it.

4. The background is blurred but beneath it lies a mosaic.

5. Finally, I turned up the sharpness of the flower.

The brushes I used

I grew up sharpening my skills in illustration. I wanted to return to my roots by using a brush with a similar look to that of graphite or colored pencil. Ultimately I selected a brush that mimics the look of oil pastel. I drew the bulk of this piece with a brush called KYLE Ultimate Charcoal Pencil 25px Med2. I also opted to use Kyle’s Ultimate Pastel Palooza to create shadows and highlights.

  • The original

  • Drawing before adjustments and filters

  • The final piece

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