Skin Tones For Beginners

If someone had asked me 15 years earlier about the number of colors used to paint a person’s face, my answer would simply be 1. This is one of the benefits of growing up, realising how WRONG you were :P

Understanding tonal value while painting faces or parts of human body takes a lot of practice and testing of colors. I have only recently learnt some basic colors which are used and experimented them in a portrait of Phoebe Tonkins.

While surfing for some more videos on skin tones, I found this one and to be honest this is by far the best one I have come across. It has been divided into 3 major categories: Caucasian, African-American and Native American, Hispanic & Indian. The ratios for each one of them along with the specific mixes have been laid down very clearly and I also learnt about the existence of physical view finders. (That was a blessing)

Of course they are not the only colors used on a face but I felt pretty confident for bases at least. I also like using payne’s grey or ultramarine blue for shadows because I feel it adds such a dramatic feel to the values. And another great way of making yourself familiar to the battlefield is first trying a monochrome one. It’s works like magic no matter what the field of study is!

Pinterest has served to be a paradise for finding fantastic portrait references either for sketches, illustrations or paintings. If you guys want some good portrait references you can check this link. I will keep sharing my progress on this and at the same time would love to know what methods you guys prefer for portraits :)