Creating Diverse Skin Tones with Acrylic Paint: A Tutorial, by Acrylic Arts Academy on YouTube. 4 min 22 s.
- Video length
- 4 min 22 s
- Time to do it
- 20 minutes
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Steps
- 9
What you need
Steps
Squeeze small amounts of titanium white, yellow ochre, red, burnt umber and a little black onto your palette. Leave space between each blob so you can adjust the mix.
Start with a base of about two parts white to one part yellow ochre. Mix them fully with your brush until the color is even.
Add a tiny amount of red or burnt sienna to warm the base. Mix it in slowly and stop before it turns too pink or orange.
For a deeper tone, add a small touch of burnt umber. Add it in pinches, since a little dark paint goes a long way.
Test the mix on scrap paper or canvas. Let it dry a moment, because acrylic paint looks lighter when wet.
Adjust the swatch: add white to lighten, umber to darken, red to warm, or a hint of yellow to cool it toward olive.
Make a row of swatches from light to deep. Keep notes of the ratios so you can repeat a tone later.
Paint the skin in thin layers, starting with the mid tone. Build shadows with a darker mix and highlights with a lighter one.
Blend the edges while the paint is still wet, or use a dry brush to soften the transition between tones.
Tips and common mistakes
Add dark pigments a tiny bit at a time, as it is much easier to darken a mix than to lighten it.
Keep your mixes slightly desaturated, since pure bright colors rarely look like real skin.
Let each thin layer dry before adding the next to avoid muddy colors.
Clean your brush between tones so light and dark mixes do not contaminate each other.
Questions
Which colors do I need to mix skin tones?
Titanium white, yellow ochre, a red like burnt sienna, burnt umber and a little black cover most skin tones. You can adjust warmth and depth with small additions of each.
Why does my skin tone look too orange or pink?
You likely added too much red or sienna. Add a little yellow ochre or white to tone it down, and test on scrap paper before painting the face.
How do I make darker skin tones?
Start from burnt umber or a brown base and add small amounts of red and yellow for warmth. Use white sparingly, as too much makes dark tones look chalky.
This guide was drafted from the video's details and general task knowledge. It has not been checked against the full video. Check the video and relevant product instructions before following a procedure. Report a correction.
