How to mix skin tones
Almost every skin tone is an earth colour: a muted orange that is lighter or darker, warmer or cooler. So the reliable method is the same for all of them. Mix a base of red and yellow, knock it back with a little blue until it stops looking like orange, then adjust its value with white (for lighter skin) or with more of the base and a touch more blue (for deeper skin).
Mix far more of the base than you think you need, and judge the colour against your reference, not in isolation. A skin tone that looks too orange on the palette often reads right next to the cool shadows and background around it.
Adjusting the mix
- Too orange: add a tiny amount of blue, or its complement, to calm it.
- Too pink: add a little yellow. Too yellow: a touch of red.
- Too grey or dead: you've added too much blue. Rescue it with more of the red-yellow base.
- Olive skin: shift the base slightly towards yellow-green with a trace more blue and yellow.
- Deep skin: build from Burnt Sienna or Burnt Umber with a little Ultramarine, not from white-and-brown, so the colour stays rich.
Shortcut tubes
Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna and Burnt Umber cover most skin tones with very little mixing. Add them to your palette below and the recipes on this page will use them.
Light, shadow and warmth
Skin is never one colour. Lit areas are warmer and lighter; shadows are cooler, often with a hint of the complementary colour; and thin skin over the cheeks, nose and ears runs redder. Mix three values of your base before you start, and paint the lights, the middle tone and the shadows from them.