The Skin Palette

• If you are going to paint flesh tones then what you need on the palette are only those paints that apply. Don't load on shocking colors like electric blue or Day-Glo orange. A traditional skin palette may contain these paints, among others: Raw umber, burnt umber, burnt sienna, and raw sienna. Also, these may be added for different tones: Alizarin crimson, cadmium red light, cadmium yellow, Naples yellow, and yellow ochre to be mixed with ultramarine blue, zinc white, ivory black, and neutral greys. These colors are used in various admixtures to paint not just the flesh per se but the light and dark areas that are found in skin tones.
  
  

Dark Skin

• Artist Al Stine, in his book "Painting Watercolor Portraits" (1997; North Light Books) reveals his palette for the darker skin tones that might be found on African Americans, Africans, and Asians. He uses cadmium red, raw sienna, cobalt blue,and Hooker's green dark. The green dark is used sparingly as an accent and is difficult to remove once applied. Alizarin crimson is sometimes used in place of the cadmium red for darker value. The same applies to raw umber instead of raw sienna.
  
  

Fair Skin

• Stine's board for fair skin portraits will include cadmium red again along with cadmium yellow pale, and cobalt blue. The blue, used lightly, will strengthen the beauty of fair skin but he cautions against letting it mix with the yellow as this will produce green, an undesirable skin tone. Again, substitutions may be made for value differences: Raw sienna instead of the yellow or alizarin for cadmium red.
  
  

Ruddy Tones

• Want to capture the face of an otherwise light skinned individual who spends hours outdoors? Use raw sienna, alizarin crimson, and cobalt blue. Use substitutions cautiously depending on the opacity of the colors and the desired tone. For instance, cadmium red could replace alizarin but it is more opaque than the crimson.