Mixing a Base for a Flesh Tone Oil Painting

Starting with a flesh tone base is key when painting portraits.

Getting the correct skin tone when oil painting can be difficult if you do not start with a solid base. Coating the area with a base color will make shading and highlighting much easier to blend. Oil paints take longer to dry than acrylics, allowing you to blend colors on the canvas for about a week. Starting with a flesh tone base is a key step to making painted skin look more natural. Only a few colors of paint are mixed together to create the skin tone base.

Things You'll Need

• Paint palette
• Cadmium red paint
• Cadmium yellow paint
• Ultramarine blue paint
• Titanium white paint
• Small palette knife
• Old paintbrush

Instructions

1. Squeeze a medium-sized dollop of each color of paint onto the palette. Make sure to leave a large blank area on the palette for mixing.

2. Scoop a small chunk of yellow paint from the palette with the palette knife. Transfer the yellow to the mixing area.

3. Add a small amount of red to the yellow and mix it together with an old paintbrush. Use an old paintbrush, as mixing will grind paint into the base of the brush bristles and shorten the life of the brush. Mix until a bright orange color is created.

4. Dip the tip of the paintbrush into the blue paint and brush lightly onto the palette to remove the excess. Mix the blue paint with the bright orange to create a tan color.

5. Take a small chunk of white paint and transfer it onto the mixing area next to the tan color. Mix the color that is already on the brush with the white.

6. Add the tan paint to the white in small amounts until you have a light tan in the skin tone shade desired. Mix in a tiny amount of red paint to warm up the light tan.

Tips & Warnings

• Experiment when mixing colors for a skin tone base. Sometimes you may want the skin to look rosier, lighter or darker depending on the person you are painting.

• Red is a very strong color. Only add tiny amounts of red at a time until the desired shade is reached.

• Do not mix the white paint in with the tan paint. Instead, add the color to the white.

• For darker skin, mix small amounts of warm black paint until the desired shade is achieved. Do not use a cool or blue-black paint.

References

• Painting Course: How to Mix Flesh Tones