How to Paint Different Skin Tones
To create realistic-looking skin tones in painting, it is important to start with a good foundation. Colors should be well blended into the foundation before any detail work is done. Skin is never one single shade, so it is important to paint skin with multiple shades of paint. Caucasian and dark skin tones should be painted in similar fashion.
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Things You'll Need
- Canvas
- Mixing bowl
- Palette knife
- Dark peach
- Light peach
- Pink paint color
- Paint brushes, various sizes
- Yellow-orange paint color
- Red-violet paint color
- Orange paint color
- Red-brown paint color
- White paint color
Instructions
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Caucasian Skin Tones
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1
Select either a light peach color or dark peach color to paint the foundation of the face. Thin the paint with water before painting for a softer look. Work fast so that the additional face colors can be blended.
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2
Thin the dark purple paint with water, and paint the foundation of the eye sockets. The upper area of the eye sockets and directly below the brow bone should be darker than the lower area of the eye sockets. Mix a small amount of the thinned purple paint with the white paint, and paint the lower area of the eye sockets.
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3
Thin pink paint with water and lightly paint the lips and cheek areas. If the areas are not dark enough, add more paint. More paint can always be applied to any area of the painting, but too much paint is hard to remove.
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4
Paint a thin orangey straight line between the two eye sockets with a medium tipped brush to make the foundation of the nose. Add lighter tones to the sides of the nose and blend the colors well.
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5
Apply light yellow to the forehead and chin area of the face. Blend the colors into the foundation.
Dark Skin Tones
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6
Select a dark red-brown color to paint the foundation of the face. Thin the paint with water before painting, so that the foundation is soft.
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7
Use a lighter shade of red-brown to highlight the forehead and around the eye sockets. The eye sockets will remain the foundation color.
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8
Apply the lighter shade of red-brown to the lip area. Add a small amount of white to the light red-brown and mix well. Use this color to make highlights on the lips.
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9
Paint the cheeks, and the tip of the nose with a dark red shade. Blend it well into the foundation color.
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1
Tips & Warnings
Use pastel paint colors when painting pale skin.
Never use black paint to paint black skin. This color is way too harsh to look realistic.
Mix white paint with the various paints to achieve different shades of color.
