How to mix skin tones in oil paint
Skin is not one colour; it is a value scale of oranges and reds greyed by their complements, and every face needs at least three steps of it: a light, a halftone and a shadow. The tubes are ordinary — the difference is in the proportions and in how much grey you are willing to put in.
A base palette that covers most skin
Titanium White, Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Red (or a scarlet/vermilion hue), Burnt Sienna, Ultramarine Blue, and optionally Raw Umber. From these you can mix pale northern skin, warm Mediterranean skin and deep brown skin by changing the ratio of earth to white and the amount of blue used to grey the shadow.
The three steps
- Light. Mostly white with Yellow Ochre and a touch of red: for a fair complexion roughly 10 : 2 : 1 (white : ochre : red). The calculated recipes below show the brand-specific version.
- Halftone. The same mixture with less white and a little more red, greyed slightly with a dab of the blue so it recedes from the lit plane.
- Shadow. Burnt Sienna (or Burnt Sienna + Ultramarine) with little or no white. Shadows on skin are warm and transparent; adding white to them is the quickest way to make a face look chalky.
Deeper complexions
Shift the base from ochre-and-white towards Burnt Sienna, Raw Umber and a red, and reserve white for the highlights only. The halftones in dark skin are often cooler than beginners expect — a touch of Ultramarine or Viridian in the mid-tones keeps them from going orange — and the highlights carry the colour of the light, not pure white.
Common mistakes
- Too pink. Red is strong; the light step wants ochre first and red last, in dabs.
- Too chalky. White in the shadow mixture. Darken with Burnt Sienna and blue instead.
- Too uniform. Real skin changes temperature across the face: warmer at cheeks, nose and ears, cooler around the mouth and jaw. Push each pile a little.
Questions
What colours make skin tone in oil paint?
Titanium White, Yellow Ochre and a red for the light; Burnt Sienna and a touch of Ultramarine for the shadow. The ratio is what changes between complexions.
How do you mix a pale skin tone?
Start with white, add Yellow Ochre until it is a warm cream, then a dab of Cadmium Red or Scarlet. Roughly 10 parts white to 2 ochre to 1 red; see the calculated Winton, Gamblin and Magicfly versions on the Light Skin Tone recipe page.
What do I add to skin tone shadows?
Burnt Sienna and a little Ultramarine Blue, not black and not white. Keep shadows thin and warm.
Let the app do the arithmetic
PaintMixLab photographs the colour and writes the recipe in parts for the paint set you own. Free for 3 days on iPhone.
