Painting the human skin can be intimidating, to say the least. There are several things to take into consideration when painting the skin. Light always is the first to consider. Is the light natural or artificial. This makes a huge difference in the colors of the skin. Shadows- -are they cool or warm? Again, this affects the colors seen. What is the base color of the skin I am painting? With Caucasian skin, the base color can be red, yellow or blue. Asian’s generally are yel- low, orange or reddish-brown. African and Middle Eastern people are typically reddish-brown to bluish-black. In this demonstration I will be doing Caucasian skin tones since this will allow you to see more easily just how the colors work together and where the differ- ences are between light and shadow. Once you see how the skin tones are affected by light, shadow, exposure to weather and age, you can adjust these colors to any ethnic group without too much trouble. With a bit of practice doing ‘swatches’ on paper of different


skin types, you will soon build a reference book on skin that will prove invaluable to you as you grow as an artist and do portraits and figures in your paintings.


What I will be using:


Crescent 100 Illustration board 20X30 Paasche AB-Turbo F&W Acrylic Inks (opaque and transparent), Flesh tint, Red Earth, Burnt Umber, Sepia Liquitex Acrylic Paint (tube), Ultramarine Blue, Mars Black, Hansa Yellow Liquitex Acrylic Gesso ( Used as white instead of paint) Prisma-Color Colored Pencils, Various Colors-primarily earth tones, Sepia, Cream, Yellow Oxide, Jasmine, Burnt Umber and Burnt Sienna


Although this demonstration is done the way that I choose to work, the technique used would remain the same for a work done without a comprehensive under-drawing. I will also use the white of the board for the white areas as op- posed to paint. When white is called for, I use gesso instead of tube white since the texture and opacity of the gesso is better and gives a truer white. I am using a limited palette for this painting, however, if I were to be doing a photo- realistic work then the palette would be larger in number of colors. The palette used here is more typical for illustra- tion and pin-up work and not necessarily typical for portrait,


photo-realism or fine art.


It is important to note that your color should be built up slowly and deliberately. Start with a very light application of color...you can al- ways increase the value of a color. Then move on to the next color and, starting lightly, apply the color to the intensity that you want. You should repeat this procedure throughout the painting. Try to avoid going back in with the lighter tones! Spraying the initial light


tones over areas that have already had the deeper tones applied will cause the darker tones to ‘bleach’. That is to say, the darker tones will turn to a bluish gray and will be difficult to over paint to restore the color. For learning purposes, try this on a scrap piece of board to see what this does.


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