Color for Skin Tones

On the Internet there are many artists who have settled on a combination of colors that look right for their work. The list below is what was found to date. Number 1 in the list is a recipe taught by Alfred J. Tulk in the 1950's at the Saturday morning art classes*

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1. White, Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Red Medium*
2. White, Burnt Sienna, Orange
3. White, Yellow Ochre, Magenta
4. White, Cadmium Red, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber
5. White, Orange, Raw Umber, Burnt Umber
6. White, Cadmium Yellow Medium, Venetian Red
7. White, Raw Sienna, Alizarin Crimson, Sap Green added for shadows

One thinks of skin having the same value all over the body.  The artist, however, sees little patches of shades and tints of various colors.  The tricky part is getting the proportions correct for each hue and value that you see and want to mix.

A tip from an Industrial Designer from the 1960'S was to roll up paper into a small tube and use it to look at the color.  Make the tube narrower so that only the color being evaluated can be seen.  Now you can see the true, isolated color in the tube.

Here is a photographic example of isolated colors from white to black.  If this is your first glance at a young, pale skinned face and see so many dark colors on it, you may be surprised.

Original photo by Beth Shepherd Peters - Color manipulation by Kenneth Peters