My 5-Tube Skin Tone Palette: A List of Jobs, Not Colors, by Uri Shavit Fine Art on YouTube. 9 min 9 s.
- Video length
- 9 min 9 s
- Time to do it
- 20 minutes
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Steps
- 9
What you need
Steps
Lay out five tubes on your palette: yellow ochre, vermilion, unbleached titanium, burnt umber and lead white. Keep ultramarine nearby as an optional sixth.
Think of each tube as a job, not a color. One sets the family, one quiets it, one darkens it, one lightens it, and one shifts it cooler.
Mix yellow ochre and vermilion to set the basic family of the skin. Start with more ochre than vermilion and adjust until it looks like a warm mid flesh tone.
Add a little unbleached titanium to quiet the mix down. This softens the saturation without making the color chalky.
Darken the mix with a small amount of burnt umber for shadows and the underside of forms. Add it gradually so you do not overshoot.
Avoid black for darkening skin. Black kills the warmth and turns flesh tones grey and dull.
Bring the mix up with lead white for highlights and lighter areas. Add it in small amounts to keep control of the value.
Add a touch of ultramarine blue when the mix looks too orange or too warm. A tiny amount shifts it toward cooler, shadowed skin.
Follow the base recipe from first tube to last: ochre and vermilion, then unbleached titanium, then burnt umber, then lead white. Adjust one tube at a time.
Tips and common mistakes
Add each tube in small amounts and test the mix on the canvas before adding more.
Keep the number of tubes low so you keep control over the mix.
Lead white is toxic, so avoid skin contact and keep it away from children and pets.
Clean your palette knife between mixes so old color does not contaminate the new tone.
Questions
Why not use black to darken skin tones?
Black makes flesh tones look grey and lifeless. Burnt umber darkens the mix while keeping the warmth and color of skin.
Do I need all five tubes to start?
No. Yellow ochre, vermilion and a white will get you a basic flesh tone. Add burnt umber and unbleached titanium as you need shadows and softer tones.
What does the ultramarine blue do?
It cools the mix down. A small touch helps when a skin tone looks too orange or too warm.
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.
