Skin color with acrylic paints. flesh color

Every aspiring artist or portraitist should learn how to create realistic skin tones. As you gain experience, you will be able to develop your own color mixing technique that is convenient for you. In general, the ability to correctly select and mix colors is a real art, since each person has his own unique skin tone. By learning how to create a realistic skin tone, you can experiment with surreal hues and images.

Steps

Creating a light skin tone

I'll have to try mixing a few colors. In order to get light skin, prepare the following colors:

Mix these colors. It is most convenient to mix paints on a special palette. If you don't have one, any other work surface will do. For example, you can use a piece of thick cardboard. Put a drop of each color on the palette.

Mix colors in equal amounts. Use the brush to mix equal amounts of red, yellow, and blue paint. Be sure to rinse the brush in a container of water before dipping it into a different color of paint. By mixing the three primary colors, you will create the base.

Compare shades. You should have the skin tone you want to copy in front of your eyes. Compare the resulting base with the shade you are trying to achieve. If you are drawing from a photograph, then consider its lighting.

Lighten the shade. If you want to achieve a lighter shade, then add yellow and white paint. Thanks to the yellow paint, a warmer shade will be obtained, and thanks to the white paint, a lighter one. Add paint little by little, and mix the colors thoroughly before adding more.

Add red. If you've already got a fairly light tone, but haven't achieved a realistic hue, you can add a bit of red. Consider how red changes skin tone. Sometimes there should be more red in the skin tone.

• Don't add too much red unless you're aiming for a shade that you'll use to paint sunburned skin.

1. Adjust the hue. Again compare the resulting shade with the one you want to achieve. Try to correct it again. If the shade is very different from the desired, then it is better to mix the colors again. If it turned out too light, add a little red and blue.

   • You can create several shades and then choose the most suitable one for your painting.

2. Add blue. Gradually and little by little add blue paint to the base. If you want to achieve a darker shade, you can try adding some black paint.

   Compare shades. You should have the skin tone you want to copy in front of your eyes. Compare the resulting base with the shade you are trying to achieve. If you are drawing from a photograph, consider the lighting.

   Add red. If you need to add red, then mix it in a little. It is better to add paint gradually so that you do not have to redo the base later.

   Create a darker olive shade. Mix equal amounts of burnt umber and natural sienna. You will have a dark concentrated mixture. Gradually add the right amount of this mixture to the base. This mixture can be used instead of blue. For a more olive tint, add some yellow mixed with green.

   Try mixing until you get the perfect mix. Mix colors until you have at least five shades that you are happy with. From them you can choose the perfect option.

   Now you can start drawing. Use one or more options for the painting that most closely resemble a realistic skin tone.

Creating dark skin tones

Pick the colors you need. You will have to experiment a bit to achieve the most realistic shade. Prepare paints of the following colors:

• burnt umber;
• natural sienna;
• yellow;
• red;
• purple.

1. Mix colors. It is most convenient to mix paints on a special palette. If there is no palette, then any other work surface will do. For example, you can use a piece of thick cardboard. Put a drop of each color on the palette.

   Make a base. Mix equal amounts of burnt umber and natural sienna. Also mix the same amount of red and yellow paint. Then gradually add the red-yellow mixture to the first mixture.

Every aspiring portrait painter or artist should definitely learn how to create realistic human skin tones. As you gain experience, you will develop your own, convenient for you, color mixing technique.

In general, the ability to correctly select and mix colors is a whole art, because each person has his own individual skin tone. Once you've learned how to create realistic skin tones, you can experiment with surreal images and hues as well. Consider options for how to make skin color.

How to make skin color gouache?

By mixing different shades, you can make the skin color perfectly accurate. But first you need to determine which shade you need, since one or another combination of colors will be used to recreate them.

Create a light skin tone:

• Color matching – you will need to try mixing several colors. In order to get a light skin color, prepare the following colors:
  1. White;
  2. Blue;
  3. Yellow;
  4. Red.
• Mixing colors - paints are most conveniently mixed on a special palette. If you don't have one, any other work surface will do. For example, you can use a piece of thick cardboard. Put a drop of each color on the palette.
• We mix all the colors in equal quantities - using a brush, mix the same amount of blue, yellow and red paint. By mixing the three primary colors, you get a dark base - as it should be, because further you will lighten it.

Important! Before dipping the brush into paint with a different color, be sure to rinse it in a container of water.

• Compare shades - you should have a shade in front of your eyes that you would like to copy. Compare your base to the shade you want to achieve. If you are drawing from a photo, then consider its lighting.
• Lightening - if you need to achieve a lighter shade, then add yellow and white paint. With the help of yellow paint, you get a warmer shade, and with white paint - a colder one.

Important! Paint should be added little by little, and before adding more, mix the colors well.

• Add red paint. If you already have a fairly light tone, but not yet a realistic shade, then you can add a little red paint, but not too much, unless you are aiming for sunburned skin tone.
• Correct the color - again compare the color you have with the one you want to get. If the shade is too light, then you can add a little blue and red. But, if the shade is too different from the desired, it is better to mix everything again.

Important! You can mix several color options and then choose the one that best suits your painting.

Create a medium skin tone:

• Selection of colors of the desired shades. In order to make the color of the skin of an average shade, you should mix more colors. Prepare the following colors:
  1. Yellow;
  2. Red;
  3. White;
  4. Blue;
  5. natural sienna;
  6. Burnt umber.
• Mixing colors - similarly to the previous instructions, apply a drop of paint of each color to the palette.
• Mix yellow and red. By combining the same amount of yellow and red paint, you get an orange color.
• Add blue. Little by little and gradually add blue paint to the base. If you want to get a darker shade, then try adding a little black paint.
• Compare shades. You should have the skin tone you want to copy in front of you. Compare the foundation you received with the shade you want to achieve.
• Add red paint - red is mixed in quite a bit. It is better to add paint little by little and gradually so that you do not have to redo the base.
• To create a darker olive color, mix equal amounts of natural sienna and burnt umber. You should have a dark concentrated mixture. Gradually add the desired amount of this mixture to the base.

Important! This mixture can be used instead of blue. For a darker olive color, add some yellow mixed with green.

• Mix until you get the right tone - combine colors until you have at least five shades that you are satisfied with. From them you can choose one option that suits you.

Important! It is better to use one or two shades.

Create dark skin tones:

• Picking the right colors of paint - to achieve a truly realistic shade, here you have to experiment a little. Prepare the following colors:
  1. natural sienna;
  2. Burnt umber;
  3. Red;
  4. Yellow;
  5. Purple.
• Mixing colors - all according to the same principle as before.
• We make the base. Mix equal amounts of natural sienna and burnt umber. Also mix equal amounts of yellow and red paint. Then gradually add the yellow-red mixture to the first mixture.
• Comparing Shades - Compare your base with the shade you want to achieve.
• Create a dark skin tone. To make the skin color more saturated and dark, you can add a little purple. Here, dark purple is suitable, which can be obtained by mixing dark gray or black with purple. You need to mix until you get the perfect match.

Important! Black paint can ruin the base, so it should be introduced very little and gradually. Try mixing until you get the perfect result.

• Create a lighter shade. In order to lighten a too dark color a little, use burnt umber instead of purple. Take a small amount of the mixture and see what color you get.
• Lighten up the shade. This can be achieved by adding an orange color to the base. Orange will brighten the base well, giving it a natural look, while white can dilute it too much.
• If you have achieved the desired result, start drawing.

Important! Use gray to add shadows and highlights. When drawing skin, it is advisable to use several shades at once.

How to get skin color from plasticine?

In clay animation, live characters are often animated, so to create their hands, faces and other parts of the body, a color is needed that is similar to the color of human skin. Making a leather color from plasticine is actually not so difficult, you just need to show a little patience.

If you could not find plasticine of the color you already need in the store, then it can be obtained by mixing other colors. To get the color of the skin, we need the following colors:

• White - the whole piece;
• Dark pink - 3-4% of the whole piece;
• Other colors - 5% each.

When you knead these colors into a homogeneous mass, you will already approximately see what color is obtained.

In order for a pictorial portrait of a person to turn out to be alive and natural, the artist must be able to compose flesh color well. Each painter has his own secrets, but still there are general rules and patterns, knowing which, you can easily compose any shades. Let's learn this art together!

Let's say you decide to write. What paints do you need to have on hand to get a person out of them? Firstly, you need to stock up on whitewash, but you will need to delicately, in small portions, mix other paints with them. Healthy is always a gentle warm shade, because our entire skin is permeated with the smallest network of blood vessels. For an experiment, take a sheet of white paper, attach it to the face of the palest young lady, and you will see how strikingly even the lightest skin color differs from the lifeless white color of a paper sheet.

So, paints such as ocher, red, and, perhaps, sienna or umber can still come in handy with whitewash. But the last paints can only be used when applying shadows and very carefully. Squeeze a little white on the palette from a tube, dilute them with a solvent and mix in a little bit of ocher, red and yellow. In this case, more ocher should be used, and, of course, less other colors.

Various skin tones

In painting, there are no ready-made recipes for different shades, it all depends on the intuition of the artist and, of course, on the complexion of his model. After all, if you draw a person with dark skin, then his flesh color will differ significantly from the skin color of an untanned pale person.

Then you need to know that women's skin is lighter and more delicate tones than men's. And the flesh color of the torso, arms and legs is also darker than the skin of the face. Different parts of the body may vary in color. In painting there is such a thing as reflexes. This is a reflection on the surface of objects of color spots that are nearby. For example, if your model has a red cap on her head, then a warm reddish glow will certainly fall on the face you want to draw. All this must be taken into account when working on a portrait.

How to Achieve Flesh Color When Painting

With watercolor, everything is much simpler, but for some this material may seem more complicated than oil. The fact is that when working with watercolors, the white background of the paper itself plays the role of whitewash. After all, watercolor is transparent, and it should be applied very lightly so that the lower strokes show through the upper ones.

Now let's start composing the flesh color. Take a plastic palette and put some water on it. Then take a soft squirrel brush, wet it well and lightly, with the very tip, smear it over the red watercolor paint from the box. Then stir with this brush in the palette with water, and you will get a faint transparent pink color. Add a little yellow there, just don't overdo it, you need quite a bit. And you can start painting a portrait.

Examples of portraits in which the perfect skin color. Photos of these paintings

In the history of Russian painting, there were many artists who painted beautiful portraits. Rokotov, Levitsky, Bryullov ... Take a reproduction of the portraits of any of these painters and examine them properly. With what art they managed to convey the most complex bodily tones!

Here, for example, is a portrait of Maria Lopukhina by V. L. Borovikovsky. What a wonderful complexion this woman has and how skillfully the freshness and youthfulness of her skin is conveyed! Try to unravel the artist's secret. What paints did he use to achieve this result, do you think? It is best to fight over the solution of the secret of the great master of painting while sitting at an easel with a palette and a brush in your hands.

Choosing the right shade in watercolor often seems rather complicated, but it is not, and just like in other types of painting (for example, in oil), it is created by mixing different colors. This also applies to how to get skin color from watercolor. In this article, we will try to sort it out.

First, let's mention an important feature of watercolor. Unlike oil, where white is used to lighten the color, in watercolor, paper is used for this purpose, which is visible through the paint layer, as well as water, which dilutes the paint. Therefore, in order to make the skin color watercolor, it is not at all necessary to use white paint.

How to get skin color in watercolor

At the beginning of the work, we will prepare watercolor, water and brushes. As a palette, you can use a paint cap, cardboard or watercolor paper itself - any surface that will not immediately absorb paint.

Next, we apply red color to our palette, and then ocher (or, if it is not there, mix yellow and brown). They can be mixed in equal amounts or with a predominance of ocher, depending on the skin tone.

To make the color less saturated, we dilute it a little with water (but do not make it completely pale, given that watercolor often loses its brightness when it dries). We apply the resulting shade to areas of the skin - this is how we will make a “highlight”, which will shine through the upper layers and set the overall tone.

It's okay if at this stage you can't get exactly the right shade, it's much more important now to set the right tone. The tone can be warm or cold, in a living person it is usually warm, even if the skin is very pale. Therefore, in order to correctly convey the color of the skin with watercolor, it is undesirable to add cold colors at the first stage. To show the lightness of the skin, it is enough to dilute the paint with water.

Further work process (layers)

When applying further layers, you can use other colors: brown, blue, green, earth and their various variations. Cool colors are often mixed with warm colors (brown, ocher, yellow) to create shadows, sometimes they can even be used in their pure form to contrast with warm fragments. In order to write the skin more correctly, you should carefully look at the face of the person, photograph or drawing from which you are writing.

Skin Tone Chart

To make it easier for you to choose the right shade, we have compiled an approximate table of color ratios. Of course, there are many more shades, but using the table as an example, you can get a general idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe patterns of mixing colors. In addition to the flesh color characteristic of Europeans, the table includes others that are suitable for writing the skin of representatives of Asian, African and other races.

How to paint skin color in watercolor
We will teach you how to mix watercolor correctly to get flesh color when painting the skin of the hands and face. We consider all skin tones of people of different races

Good afternoon, friends and guests of my store! I want to tell you about the interesting experience of Alisa Luchinskaya, which may be useful to you. As when mixing acrylic paints from seven colors, you can get 40 shades.

Russian paints were taken as a basis "Ladoga" of the Nevskaya Palitra plant.

Here are 7 primary colors with their numbers as they are written on the tubes: yellow medium (220), red (331), blue "FC" (500), pink light (2204335), burnt umber (2204408), black (810), titanium white (2204101 ).

1. Light colors

Light colors are obtained by mixing primary colors with titanium white.

2. Dark colors

Add some black paint to the main colors:

3. Shades of green

Obtained by mixing yellow medium paint with black or blue "FC". Asterisks "*" indicate colors that are obtained as a result of mixing - and can be used further to obtain new shades.

4. Violet and magenta hues

These shades are obtained when we mix red or light pink paint with blue "FC". Adding white will give lavender or purple hues.

5. Orange shades

Here we mix red and pink light paint with yellow medium. The two bottom colors are already more complex formulas, so it’s probably easier to stock up on ocher paint in advance

6. Earth tones

All of these colors feature burnt umber. The addition of white makes dark earth tones pastel.

Since the paints are mixed "by eye" - it is rather difficult to specify the proportions to obtain one or another color. Anyway, in the process of painting, you will have to mix the shades, listening to your own feelings “Is this color needed now or a little darker / lighter / greener / redder”, etc. Therefore, if you are not yet good at mixing colors, the author recommends investing one evening in training in mixing shades, according to the above formulas, as well as in your own experiments to obtain new colors. After that, you will definitely never confuse the marsh color with emerald green (as often happens), since you will remember the process of obtaining them from your own experience.

And to make it easier for you: print out for yourself such a blank on A4 sheet:

On it you will sign with a pencil all the colors used and the resulting shades.

Mixing acrylic paints (40 shades out of 7), adaptation
Good afternoon, friends and guests of my store! I want to tell you about the interesting experience of Alisa Luchinskaya, which may be useful to you. As when mixing acrylic paints from seven colors, you can get 40 shades.

The artist will be able to draw a natural portrait of a person only when he derives his unique recipe for achieving a natural complexion on canvas from the general rules. The article reveals the question of how to get flesh color from paints, in what proportions to mix them.

General rules for obtaining flesh color

In order to understand how to make flesh color and paint a portrait in oil, you should look for white in the bins, which are then gradually diluted with other paints.

Science classifies a person's color type into 4 types according to the seasons (depending on the color of the skin, eyes and hair).

On paper, healthy skin is soft, warm beige. Even people with the fairest skin cannot say that their face is white: just compare it with a blank sheet of paper - the difference will become obvious.

In addition to white, the palette will feature ocher, yellow and red cadmium, possibly sienna and umber (only for the purpose of shading, apply very carefully). You will need to put a small amount of white on the palette, dilute it with a solvent, then add ocher with red and yellow. In the latter components, the proportion of ocher in relation to other dyes is higher.

Aspects to consider

There is no perfect recipe for this or that shade - the result directly depends on the look of the artist and the complexion of the sitter.

Primary aspects to consider:

• the skin of women is paler and silkier than that of men,
• body, arms and legs - darker than the shade of the face,
• the reflection of a color spot located near the object is depicted on the canvas (for example, the reflection of a hat falls on the face).

Color combinations

Flesh color in watercolor

With watercolor things are easier, but sometimes it may seem that the material is more difficult to work with than with oil. An alternative to whitewash when working with watercolor is the background of the paper, which will show through the strokes.

Color order:

1. Take a plastic palette - put a few drops of water on it.
2. Use the tip of a soft squirrel brush to smear red watercolor.
3. As a result of mixing a small amount of red with water, a faint pink hue is obtained.
4. After getting the mixture - add a little bit of yellow.

The consistency is ready to start painting a portrait.

One of the flesh color blending recipes

In the theoretical works of contemporary artists, there is the following combination of colors.

1. Mix 6 parts of yellow paint with 1 part of red, mix until a uniform yellow-orange consistency.
2. Add ½ part blue. After manipulation, a red-brown tint will appear.
3. Add white dye to the resulting mixture. The proportion is not universal - the amount is directly proportional to the desired color: dark or light.

Examples of ideal complexion portraits in painting

Many Russian artists have found a unique balance to portray the face in a natural manner. Their names are known in the world of painting: Bryullov, Levitsky and Rokotov, as well as many of their colleagues. On the reproductions of their works, the hand of the master is clearly visible in the image of the most complex skin tones.

For example, the handiwork of V.L. Borovikovsky “Portrait of Maria Lopukhina”. The artist managed to depict the girl's youth on paper, with her radiant fresh skin. Experimental artists of our day will be able to repeat the result only by choosing a flower combination with their own hands.

Obtaining flesh color by mixing paints
To obtain a flesh color, it is necessary to observe the optimal proportions of other colors. You will need to apply whitewash, dilute with a solvent, add ocher.

There are several ways to get skin tones by mixing watercolor paints. Unfortunately, when I first started painting portraits, I didn't know about these possibilities. I thought I knew exactly how to achieve a skin tone using only Jaune Brilliant No. 1 and No. 2, but I was always unhappy with the results. The Burnt Umber that I used to create dark and deep shades and added white paint to it made the final look dull and lifeless. I was stuck and didn't know why.

It took a long time to realize my mistake and understand that white will never be the decisive color when mixing skin tones. In fact, over time, I've learned a few ways to bring portraits to life - and none of them used Jaune Brilliant, Burnt Umber, or white paint, which I have appreciated so much over the years.

If you want to achieve a Caucasian skin tone:

• Red cadmium (Cadmium Red)
• Yellow Ocher
• Cerulean Blue

The skin tones are much more complex than the pinks I thought could be extracted from Jaune Brilliant. In fact, the creation of skin tones is based on a combination of red and yellow pigments. By mixing Cadmium Red and Permanent Rose together, you can get a great skin tone that can be used to create highlights, and shadows will deepen with the addition of Yellow Ocher. If you find that the resulting shades are too warm for your taste, then you can always add a drop of Cerulean Blue (Cerulean Blue) to make it a little colder.

As an alternative.

• Cadmium Red Light
• Cadmium Yellow Medium
• Dioxazine mauve (Dioxazine Mauve)

Mixing Cadmium Red Light and Cadmium Yellow Medium also helps create an elegant base shade. To create shades, add Dioxazine mauve (Dioxazine Mauve).

If you want to portray the skin of dark shades:

The last palette mostly used colors in the orange-violet spectrum, and besides this led to really great results, in my opinion the first palette, which mixed Cadmium Red (Cadmium Red) and Permanent Rose (Permanent Rose), is much more versatile . Moreover, it is it that can be easily turned into dark shades.

• Red cadmium (Cadmium Red)
• Permanent pink (Permanent Rose)
• Sienna Burnt (Burnt Sienna)
• Umber Natural (Raw Umber)

Instead of Ocher Yellow or Ceruleum Blue, use Burnt Sienna for darker skin tones. If a dark pigment is needed, add Raw Umber until you are happy with the final result.

Adviсe:

• There is no place for white when it comes to drawing a portrait! If you think the color is too dark, you can be tempted to add some white to lighten the tone. It is the addition of white that leads to uneven color, and the portrait looks flat. It is much better to add a little water until the desired shade is on the paper. If you've already got paint on your brush and suddenly feel the tone is too dark, use water, a brush, and a cloth towel to gently remove the paint from the sheet.
• Use a sheet of test paper to avoid unwanted color. Cadmium Pink mixed with Permanent Pink looks quite dark on the palette, but on paper it looks like a very natural tone. It's not hard to forget that watercolor paints get lighter when they dry. It is for this reason that it is very useful to have a sheet of test paper handy. Make sure the test paper is exactly the same quality as the one you are painting on, as paper quality plays a major role in the final color.
• Work on the painting in layers. Skin is made up of many colors rather than one color for shadows, another for midtones, and a third for highlights. The power of watercolor lies in its ability to create layers that are almost transparent, allowing you to create layers of deeper hue. The gradual overlay of colors will also save you from spoiling the whole drawing, on which you spent about two hours to put a thick layer on paper, which you can later regret.
• Don't forget to add white when drawing the eyes. When you start painting the first translucent base layer of the portrait, don't be afraid to paint white in the eye area. There is no such thing as a pure white eye—in fact, it only appears that way in photographs. You can increase the contrast between the eyes and skin when midtones and details are added later.
• Be mindful of the environment. If you draw an image of someone near a red wall, then there is a chance that the skin will be redder than this wall. Why? The light illuminating the depicted subject is probably reflected from the red wall, absorbing the color. Try it yourself, find a sheet of colored paper or a piece of plastic and stand in front of a mirror in direct sunlight. The closer a colored object is, the more of its pigment is reflected on your skin.

How to achieve skin tones with watercolors
It took a long time to realize my mistake and understand that white will never be the decisive color when mixing skin tones. In fact, over time, I've learned a few ways to bring portraits to life - and none of them used Jaune Brilliant, Burnt Umber, or white paint, which I have appreciated so much over the years. If you want to achieve a Caucasian skin tone.