Soft materials: cloth, skin, hair, fur, leather, scales, slime

1. Soft = low contrast, gradual steps, little or no specular. Soft flesh stretches over hard bone: soft forms get gradual steps, bone landmarks (cheekbone, knuckle, kneecap, collarbone) get abrupt light/shadow steps. Without landmarks a figure reads as a blob.
2. Texture is not a gradient. A hand-placed patch or a restrained dither describes a material without any light-to-dark ramp. Put texture in the half-tone band only; keep highlight and core flat (rules://13-dithering-and-texture).
3. The silhouette says the material first: zig-zag edge = fur, soft scallop = cloth hem, smooth round = slime or skin, repeated arcs = scales.
4. Cloth takes soft shadows and no highlight. Exception: a 1 px edge catch on satin or leather. Three tones — lit, shadow, fold crease — hue-shifted cool (derived ramp below: H 262 → 250 → 238, V 78 → 58 → 40). Dark regions get less detail.
5. Folds. Parallel where tension is high; radiating from a compression point (elbow, clasp, pinch); perpendicular where tension is low. A fold shadows the cloth beside it. Shade the body underneath first — cloth respects the anatomy. Prints and emblems are displaced by folds. Too many folds = noise: 2–3 at 16 px. Wind moves cloth as a sine wave offset along the wind; light and shadow travel away from the source.
6. Skin zones (32–64 px head). Forehead warm yellow-peach (H ≈ 35, S ≈ 30, V ≈ 90). Cheeks, nose, ears reddish (H 10–15, S ≈ 45, V ≈ 80). Mouth-to-chin cool or grey (H ≈ 0 → 330, S 20–25, V ≈ 72). 16–24 px heads: two bands only, warm top and rosy-cool bottom. Add a 1–2 px red accent on the nostril wing, ear rim, cheek apex; knuckles and knees take warm reds, bony landmarks cooler tints.
7. Skin shadow is redder first, cooler second. Measured pairs: the first shadow step turns 10–22° toward red, S +19…+26, V unchanged or slightly lower — this is the terminator band, the most saturated warm step. The deeper core step goes cool and desaturated (violet-brown) (derived, reconciling the measured pairs with Gurney). A blue shadow on skin reads as dead.
8. Skin gets more colours and tighter steps than other materials: 3–4 skin colours, 15–25 % V gap between base and first shadow. Light skin travels +35…+60° over its ramp; deep skin travels only ≈ +18° — it needs a long value range (V 10 → 86) and almost no hue travel. Eye whites are the lightest skin tone or a cool off-white, never #ffffff.
9. Light through thin flesh. Backlit ear edge, fingertip, nostril, a terminator near the light: use the warmest, most saturated skin entry (translucency), one step wide.
10. Hair is a mass, not strands. 3–4 entries: undercoat, base, mid-light, highlight band. The band is 1–2 px wide, curved over the skull, offset toward the key light, at the top of the skull — not at the hairline. Hair is a colourless volume extension of the head: even black hair needs form shading (blue-black ramp).
11. Hairline and parting. Hair at least 2 px wide; separate from skin by colour contrast, not a black line (except at ≤ 16 px). Soft edge: one dither pixel or a one-step-lighter edge. A parting is an omitted outline pixel; strands over the face are dark colour, not black lines. At 16 px the hair silhouette is the main differentiator of characters.
12. Fur: shade smooth first, carve tufts after. No pillow shading; cut triangular or square tufts where they show (cheeks, top of legs); sparing checker dither where there is no room for a tuft (< 10 % of the area); stylise, do not copy photo texture. Stripes and spots wrap the contour; texture follows the form.
13. Leather: slight gloss, not a ramp. 1–2 px highlight on the lit edge, S ≈ 45–56 (duller than cloth, never saturated), darker toward creases. Stitches (derived): 1 px lighter dots every second pixel; wear (derived): lighter pixels on corners and edges. Leather, wood and stone are one family — rugged, no true specular.
14. Scales (no note covers them directly; derived from the pattern studies): cells of one entry each, not per-scale gradients. Light rim on top, dark arc below, rows offset by half a cell, cell size shrinking toward the silhouette (foreshortening, derived). Light zones shift the whole cell up or down the ramp. Do not draw every scale below 32 px — suggest them.
15. Slime: four swatches — small hard specular, base, reflected light, shadow — plus a darker coloured outline. The reflected patch sits on the side opposite the specular (light passing through). Round shapes, no sharp corners (it resists breaking); start asymmetrical. Hue steps 15–20°, as for foliage and crystal.
16. Snow, blood, guts (brief). Snow: warm white key, near-white light blue half-tone, blue-violet shadow (S 25–40, V 55–70), deep blue core (V 40–50), one blue-green pixel in hollows; cast shadows take the sky colour. Blood and guts: round shapes, hue variation in one material, small shiny spots for wet; orphan pixels only at very low res or on a particle's last frame.

Light upper-left. Roles map onto your own ramps.

O = outline      #1c1a45
L = cloth-lit    #8863c7
S = cloth-shadow #504394
D = fold-crease  #292b66
---
OOOOOOOOOOOO
OLLLDSSLLDSO
OLLLDSSLLDSO
OLLLDSSLLDSO
OLLLDSSLLDSO
OLLDSSLLDSSO
OLLDSSLLDSSO
OLLDSSLLDSSO
OLLDSSLLDSSO
OLDSSLLDSSLO
OLDSSLLDSSLO
.OOOOOOOOOO.

Hanging cloth: two fold creases (D) with a shadow flank (S) on their right, drifting one column left every four rows as they descend (a 1:4 slope, so they read as hanging, not diagonal); no highlight pixels.

O = outline         #4b2a3a
H = highlight       #f9e6cf
A = light           #f6ca9f
B = mid             #e69c69
C = terminator-warm #d4624a
D = shadow-cool     #8d4a4e
R = bounce          #b8654f
---
....OOOO....
..OOAABBOO..
.OAHAAABBCO.
.OAHHAABBCO.
OAAAAAABBCRO
OBAAAABBBCDO
OBBAABBBBCDO
OCBBBBBBCCRO
.OCBBBCCCDO.
.ODCCCCCDRO.
..OORDDROO..
....OOOO....

Light skin: highlight → light → mid → terminator in saturated red-orange → cool red-brown shadow, warm bounce on the contour.

O = outline         #1a0f0c
H = highlight       #dbb894
A = light           #c2936b
B = mid             #a3734f
C = terminator-warm #8c5030
D = shadow          #472a1c
R = bounce          #63402a
---
....OOOO....
..OOAABBOO..
.OAHAAABBCO.
.OAHHAABBCO.
OAAAAAABBCRO
OBAAAABBBCDO
OBBAABBBBCDO
OCBBBBBBCCRO
.OCBBBCCCDO.
.ODCCCCCDRO.
..OORDDROO..
....OOOO....

Deep skin: the same bands, long value range, tiny hue travel; the highlight is a muted tan, never white.

O = outline        #1e1424
U = undercoat      #3a2430
B = base           #6b4333
M = mid-light      #8f5f3f
H = highlight-band #c08a55
---
....OOOOOO....
..OOBBHHBBOO..
.OBBHHHHHHBBO.
OBBHHBBBBHMBBO
OBHHBBBBBBMBBO
OBHBBBBBBBBBUO
OBBBBBBBBBBUUO
OBBUBBBBBUUUUO
.OU..UU..UU.O.

Hair cap on a skull: highlight band curved over the crown and offset to the lit side, mid-light shoulders, base, dark undercoat low and right; three fringe tips.

O = outline    #2b1d26
A = fur-light  #d9a066
B = fur-mid    #a8683f
D = fur-shadow #6b3a36
---
OOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OAAAAAAAAAAABO
OAAAAAAAAABBBO
OAAAAABBBBBBDO
OAABBDBBBBDBDO
OBBBBDBBBDDBDO
OBDBDDBBDDBDDO
ODDBDDDBDDBDDO
.OD.ODD.OD.OD.
..O..OO..O..O.

Pelt edge: smooth shading first (light top, mid, shadow), then dark notch lines (D) that break the lower half into tufts and a stepped hem.

O = outline      #2a1c1a
G = gloss        #c89a6a
L = light-edge   #a8764a
M = body         #7c4d36
S = stitch       #d9b98a
D = shade        #4f3029
B = buckle-steel #8b9bb4
---
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OGGLLLLLLLLLLLLO
OMSMSMSMSMSMSMOO
OMMMMMMMMMMMMBBO
OMMMMMMMMMMMMMBO
ODDDDDDDDDDDDBBO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Strap: 1 px light edge with a 2-px gloss, stitch dots every second pixel, dark underside, steel buckle (the only hard-edged part).

O = outline-shadow  #193c3e
D = scale-shadow    #265c42
B = scale-body      #3e8948
L = scale-rim-light #63c74d
---
LLDDLLLLDDLLLLDDLL
BBDLBBBBDLBBBBDLBB
BOOLBBBOOLBBBOOLBB
OODDOOOODDOOOODDOO
DLLLLDDLLLLDDLLLLD
LBBBBDLBBBBDLBBBBD
LBBBOOLBBBOOLBBBOO
DOOOODDOOOODDOOOOD
LLDDLLLLDDLLLLDDLL
BBDLBBBBDLBBBBDLBB
BOOLBBBOOLBBBOOLBB
OODDOOOODDOOOODDOO

Scale field 18×12: each cell is 6 px wide and 4 rows tall — light rim on top, body, dark lower arc (O), a D gap at the corners; rows offset by half a cell so the gaps form a diamond lattice.

O = outline   #134c4c
G = base      #5ac54f
W = specular  #ecffd0
R = reflected #a5de5f
S = shadow    #33984b
---
....OOOOOO....
..OOGGGGGGOO..
.OGWWGGGGGGGO.
.OGWGGGGGGGGO.
OGGGGGGGGGGGGO
OGGGGGGGGGGGGO
OGGGGGGGGGGRRO
OSGGGGGGGGRRSO
OSSGGGGGGGSSSO
.OSSSSSSSSSSO.
..OOOOOOOOOO..

Slime: hard 2-px specular upper-left, reflected patch lower-right, coloured dark outline, flat bottom with a shadow rim.

1. Choose the material row from the table and set its ramp with palette op set; decide the light (rules://24-lighting-scenarios).
2. Draw the silhouette with the material's edge signature (rule 3); look op preview.
3. Fill the base tone; add one shadow step in the shadow side; for skin make that step the terminator (rule 7).
4. Add the material's structure: folds (cloth), highlight band (hair), tuft notches (fur), stitch row (leather), scale cells (scales), spec + reflected patch (slime). Draw with draw ops polyline/pixels, or transcribe a template with op grid.
5. Add the deep core step and bounce only if the size allows (see By size); no highlight on cloth, fur, scales.
6. For skin add the warm accent pixels and the eye-white check (lightest skin tone, not white).
7. look op ascii: no orphan pixels, no 2×1 dither pairs, folds not parallel everywhere. validate.

• No specular on cloth, fur, scales, hair (a band is not a specular); leather has at most a 2 px gloss.
• Skin shadow is redder than the base before it is cooler; no blue or black skin shadows; eye whites are not #ffffff.
• Dark skin shows a long value range, not a hue rotation.
• Hair highlight sits on the crown on the lit side, ≥ 2 px thick hair, soft hairline; the silhouette is distinct.
• Fur edge zig-zags in ≥ 2 px steps; interior dither < 10 %.
• Slime has all four swatches and a coloured outline.
• Folds radiate or run parallel for a reason; no uniform stripes.

• Gurney, Color and Light (skin zones and translucency, hair as a mass, snow, transmitted light, pp. 152–159, 198–199); Solarski, Drawing Basics and Video Game Art (hair volume, skeletal landmarks).
• Saint11 (Pedro Medeiros) tutorials: Fabric, Goo, Blood; yamsdev's fur tutorial; Arne's painting tutorial (cloth, leather, subsurface scattering); Pixel Logic (pp. 108, 126: hair/skin separation, texture vs gradient); Silber, Pixel Art for Game Developers (skin ramp, pp. 59, 85–87); Dawe, Make Your Own Pixel Art (eyebrows, soft-material damage, pp. 120, 158–159).
• Measured skin and hair ramps: Endesga 64, Apollo, AAP-64, Resurrect 64, MagicPixel (Lospec JSON); BJG palette slide (shadow shift), art-pia (face colour budget), Tsugumo ch. 8 (hair silhouette) as read in the notes.