How to Paint Skin Tones
Novice artists sometimes make the mistake of painting all of a subject's skin with one tone of peach or light pink. The result is often an unrealistic, cartoon-like representation of human flesh. Instead, artists should use a combination of light, dark, warm and cool colors to represent a subject's skin tone. Mastering this technique is particularly important for those artists interested in painting portraits or realist pieces that depict one or more people.
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Instructions
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Limit your color palette to four or five colors total. Doing so will ensure that the color of the subject's flesh works in harmony with the background color.
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Cover the entire canvas with a mid-tone of a cool color, such as blue-gray, which will set off the flesh color and make it look warmer. Allow this layer of paint to dry completely before moving on.
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Outline the subject before beginning to paint the flesh.
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Paint the darkest areas of the flesh, for example the eye sockets, first. Use a warm tone for these areas.
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Paint the light areas in warm tones. Examples of such areas include the forehead, which receives less blood supply than other areas of the face and, as a result, is lighter. At this point, some mid-tone areas should stand out against the darks and lights you just painted. Because you have not applied any additional color to these mid-tone areas, they will be filled with the cool background color you initially applied.
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Add a cool white paint to the brightest areas of the flesh. While you are free to apply the white paint as thickly as you like, the total surface area covered in white should be limited.
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Blend the boundaries between different tones together to make the transition from one to another as smooth as possible.
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Tips & Warnings
As you paint, pause and step back from the painting often. Observing your work from a distance will allow you to gauge how realistic the shadows and skin tones look.
References
- Photo Credit Gryffindor: Commons.wikimedia.org
