A Shade of Art

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could draw every subject and just apply blue paint for their skin tone?

Did you say no?

You might be right because if you want to be taken seriously as an artist, you will have to stray away from the cartoonish or anime sketches.

Also, it is very important to understand the concept of skin coloration and how to apply light or dark contrast to any person living across the world!

So, in this blog, I will discuss how to mix skin undertones appropriately.

Let’s get started.

3 types of skin tones

Your skin pigmentation can be categorized into 3 areas.

Cool – The common undertones are pink, red, and blue.

Warm – The common undertones are brown, yellow, and gold.

Neutral – Mixtures of both cool and warm with no distinct primary colors.

Select your medium

Watercolor, oil, acrylics, or watercolor pencils—It doesn’t matter! Skin tone paint doesn’t discriminate.

Select your base colors.

White

Black

Yellow

Blue

Burnt umber

Red

Recommend mixing ratio

I recommend a mixing ratio of 50-30-20 when using 3 colors or 50-30-10-10 with 4 colors. The dominant or primary undertone should contribute 50% of the paint mix, the sub-dominant or secondary undertone at 30%, and the supplemental colors should split the remaining 20%.

Subject: Dark Brown

Common Countries: Senegal, Ghana, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Nigeria, and South Sudan.

Mixture combination

Undertone – Blue

Sub-dominant – Yellow

Added colors – blue and burnt umber. (For darker areas, add a little black)

Subject: Brown

Common Countries: Malaysia, Thailand, North America, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Algeria, and the United Arab Emirates.

Mixture combination

Undertone – Yellow

Sub-dominant – Red

Added colors – blue and burnt umber.

Subject: Light Brown

Common Countries: Peru, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Botswana.

Mixture combination

Undertone – Red

Sub-dominant – Yellow

Added colors – blue and a dab of white.

 

Subject: Ivory

Common countries: Poland, Australia, Russia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Germany.

Mixture combination

Undertone – Red

Sub-dominant – Yellow

Added colors – White

Subject: Light Complexion

Common countries: North and South Korea, Japan, China, and Taiwan.

Mixture combination

Undertone – Yellow

Sub-dominant – White

Added colors – Red and Blue

When you have enough practice, you can add a piece with a little diversity!

So, start practicing today!