How to Mix Caucasian Skin Tones for Portrait Oil Painting
Mixing oil paint colors for skin tones in a portrait can be tricky, but knowing the basic colors can take the guess work out of it. Skin tone is made up of reds, blues and yellows, so experimental dabs of each in a white base will help you create the lightest to the darkest skin tones for Caucasian subjects.
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Things You'll Need
- Raw and/or Burnt Sienna
- Cadmium Orange
- Venetian Red
- Cadmium Red Light
- Yellow Ochre
- Cadmium Yellow Light
Instructions
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Paint the lightest skin tone using white, yellow ochre, and cadmium red light. White will be the highest concentration of oil paint. Add yellow ochre and cadmium red light a little at a time until you have a realistic fair flesh tone.
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Paint the mid-range skin tone using white, yellow ochre, cadmium red light and cerulean blue. Use the colors sparingly to work into the right tone. This combination will give you a basic Caucasian skin tone.
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Paint the darkest skin tone using white, yellow ochre, and raw or burnt sienna. These colors will create a warm, pink flesh color to use on the ruddy areas of the complexion.
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To warm up a Caucasian skin tone, experiment with combinations of cadmium orange, venetian red, cadmium yellow light, yellow ochre, and raw or burnt sienna.
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To cool skin tone, use cerulean blue.
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Tips & Warnings
Experiment with the color mixtures on scraps before you commit to the oil painting portrait on canvas.
References
- Photo Credit Photos.com/Photos.com/Getty Images
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Comments
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I used yellow ochre and alizarin and ultamarine blue and I put aside some white on the palette and add some alizarin red a bit to the white and took some of the skin tone I mixed and added it to the white.
