Christina French
Artist & Tutor
The Instinctive Artist
Chapter 2
Mixing the Skin Tones No 2 and 5 brushes
Use three separate palettes and keep your water clean at all times. You may have to change the water as you progress. Keep some of the water mix for the lightest tones for the eye whites and teeth.
You can experiment and design your own mixes as your ability and confidence increases.
The most important point is to look and evaluate the tones required by considering:-
- Lights and darks
- Shadows
- Darker areas of the face – under the eyes, chin and possibly forehand (cooler colours, more blue in the mix)
1. White – 80% - all other colours 10% each
2. Cadmium Red
3. Cadmium Yellow
4. Yellow Ochre
5. Burnt Sienna
6. Burnt Umber
7. Ultramarine Blue
For light skin tones use colours 1, 2, 3, and 5.
For medium skin tones use 2, 3, 4 and 5.
For dark skin tones use 2, 5, 6 and 7 and this is what your mixes will look like …
Light Skin Tone |
Medium Skin Tone |
Dark Skin Tone |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |