How to Make Any Skin Tone With Watercolour, by Finelinernerd on YouTube. 22 min 16 s.
- Video length
- 22 min 16 s
- Time to do it
- 30 minutes
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Steps
- 8
What you need
Steps
Pick one red, one blue and one yellow. A warm red, a cool blue and a warm yellow give you a flexible base for most skin tones.
Start with a small puddle of yellow. Add a little red to make a soft orange, then touch in the tiniest amount of blue to neutralise it.
For pale skin, keep the mix watery and lean on yellow and red. For deeper skin, use less water and more pigment, adding blue and red gradually.
Make shadows with a cooler version of the same base. Add a little more blue or a cooler red, but keep some warmth so the shadow does not turn grey.
Try different primary sets. Swap the red for magenta or the blue for ultramarine and note how the skin tone shifts warmer, cooler, pinker or more olive.
Paint a row of swatches from light to dark on one sheet. Label each mix with the colours and amounts so you can repeat the tone later.
Let every swatch dry before judging it. Then tweak the mix with tiny amounts of paint rather than adding a lot at once.
Use the dried swatch as a reference when painting skin. Keep the lightest areas pale and build shadows in thin layers.
Tips and common mistakes
Add dark pigment to a light mix a little at a time; adding water to a dark mix can make it chalky.
Too much blue turns skin grey or green, so add it in tiny touches and test on paper.
Keep separate water for mixing and rinsing so your clean colours stay clean.
Skin has red, yellow and blue in it, so do not rely on a single pre-mixed flesh colour.
Questions
What three colours make skin tones?
A red, a yellow and a blue. Start with yellow, add a little red, then use a tiny amount of blue to neutralise the orange.
How do I make darker skin tones?
Use more pigment and less water, and shift the mix toward red-brown with cool blue in the shadows. Build the depth in layers rather than one heavy coat.
Why does my skin tone look orange or grey?
Orange usually means too much red and yellow, so add a touch of blue. Grey usually means too much blue, so bring back a little red or yellow.
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.
