Published October 16th, 2009 at 10:04 am in Figure Painting and Drawing with no comments
Tagged with
Burnt umber is the base for darker skin tones. To that mixture I add cadmium red light and/or cadmium orange along with a some raw sienna. In the shadows, I often add ultramarine blue, perylene maroon, or ultramarine violet in the shadows.
Here is an example of a quick sketch that uses burnt umber, cadmium red light, raw sienna, and ultramarine blue. There may also be some perylene maroon in the shadows.

African American Skin Tone
Read more …
Published January 2nd, 2009 at 6:03 pm in Figure Painting and Drawing, Watercolor with no comments
Tagged with Flesh tones, Watercolor
Just about any combination of red, yellow, and blue will produce a flesh tone in watercolor. Each situation is different and no formula substitutes for your own observation. I will share what works for me.
For average caucasian skin, I use Winsor & Newton Raw Sienna or Yellow Ochre (they’re quite similar), M. Graham Cadmium Red Light, and a blue, violet, or (rarely) green, The blue depends on the subject, the lighting, and the pigments I am using in the rest of the painting. Cerulean blue is probably the easiest to work with and works best for light-skinned subjects. Sometimes I use Winsor & Newton Cobalt Blue and sometimes I use Holbein Mineral Violet.
Read more …
Published January 14th, 2008 at 2:44 pm in Figure Painting and Drawing with no comments
Tagged with
* Learn to draw the head before you worry about portraits. Get a skull — a plastic one from a medical supply house — and study the bones. Find a good anatomy reference. Also, get a copy of one Bridgman books.
* When you’re drawing the head, worry about getting the shape of the head right. Concentrate on big shapes — the cheek bone, the front and side planes of the forehead, and the eye socket. Make sure you make the cranial cavity big enough, and, if you have a 3/4 or profile view, make sure you don’t cut off the back of the head. If you get all that right, the features will usually take care of themselves.
Read more …