What Colors Make Flesh?

This article aims to teach you how to mix flesh colors (skin tones) using different ratios of primary, neutral, and earth colors. The prospect of creating flesh color(s) (skin tones) gives novice artists a shudder.

What Colors Make Flesh?

This may not be an easy task at the beginning, but I am confident that with constant practice, you will be able to create different variants of flesh color with confidence.

Determining Flesh Color: The selection of the colors you will work with depends mainly on the skin tone of the model person or picture you’re painting or replicating. Apart from picking the main colors that determine if the skin is light, medium, or dark, you will also need to consider the undertones of the skin.

It is good practice for you to create a family of flesh colors around your model skin tone so that you can have options and ease of experimenting.

Tricky Tips for Making Flesh Colors (Skin Tones):

• Create a palette with all three primary colors and mix them equally with a palette knife. This is known as the base color. Once you pass the novice stage, you might want to start with more of one color or another because every skin tone contains a little red, yellow, and blue, but in different ratios. Your outcome will be somewhat darker. That is good!
• Now it is time to refine your base color. If you need to make the flesh color lighter, add yellow or white. Add red if you desire to make it more reddish. Once you have done this, you can continue refining by adding little bits of different relevant colors until you have satisfactorily emulated your model flesh color.
• You must have the prospective skin tone that you are trying to emulate nearby. While creating the color, always compare your work with the model color you’re trying to recreate to ensure you are on the right track. If you are using a photograph as the model, be aware of the lighting from the photo and make the necessary adjustments.

Now, let’s get to it! What Colors Make Flesh?

Making Light Flesh Color (Skin Tone):

To make basic light flesh color, you would need red, yellow, blue, and, white colors, a color palette, a paintbrush, and a palette knife.

1. Using your paintbrush, take an equal amount of red, yellow, and red colors and put them on the color palette. Mix the colors using the palette knife. This would result in creating a dark-looking base color, and this is what we aim to achieve.
2. Then you should proceed to lighten the base color. To do this, use a combination of white and yellow. The former will lighten your base, while the latter will create a warmer skin tone. Add a small amount of paint to the mixture with your paintbrush. And use the palette knife to mix the colors thoroughly before adding more.
3. Proceed to add reddish tones. Use the same process you employed in lightening the base color, this time using red. Skip this step if you have already achieved the desired color. Red will sometimes occur more sporadically in skin tones, so be aware of the red qualities of the skin tone you are recreating. Do not add too much of the color red, unless you aim to create a sunburn.
4. Continue making adjustments by adding color(s) in small increments based on the tone you are trying to achieve. If the end color gets too light, add red and blue bit by bit. Be careful because you might have to start over again if you get the color too far off. Create multiple skin tones and use the most similar for your painting.

Making Mid-Range Flesh Color (Skin Tone):

To make mid-range flesh color, you will need to experiment more with color combinations because mid-tone skin contains many color variations. To begin, you will red, yellow, blue, white, burnt umber, and raw sienna, a color palette (you can use a piece of cardboard alternatively), a paintbrush, and a palette knife.

1. Collect equal amounts of red and yellow with your paintbrush and put them on the color palette. Create an orange color by mixing the colors with your palette knife. Make sure you clean the paintbrush with water after taking each color.
2. Take your paintbrush and collect some blue paint. Add it slowly to the orange mixture, in small increments. Consider using a small amount of black paint, but this is entirely dependent on how dark a flesh color you aim to create.
3. Add small amounts of red to mimic the reddish tone of the model color, like you did when creating a light flesh color.
4. You should then proceed to create a darker olive tone by mixing equal parts of burnt umber with raw sienna. This will produce a darker concentration. Add this mixture to your base slowly until you get the desired flesh color. This combination is a better alternative than blue. For a more realistic olive effect, you should add the smallest amount of yellow with some amount of green.
5. Keep experimenting with these color additions until you are satisfied. Create different mid-range flesh colors until you have about five different flesh colors (skin tones) that you like. This is because it will be more convenient for you to have a few colors to choose from than limiting yourself to just one.

Creating Dark Flesh Color (Skin Tone):

To make dark flesh color, you will need burnt umber, raw sienna, yellow, red, and purple colors, a color palette (or a piece of cardboard, alternatively), a paintbrush, and a palette knife. Always remember that you need to engage in consistent practice if you want to create realistic and lifelike colors.

1. Make your base color by mixing equal amounts of burnt umber and raw sienna. On a separate palette, mix equal parts of yellow and red colors. Then you should slowly this latter mixture to the base.
2. Create a darker skin tone by adding small increments of dark purple. Dark purple is better than purple in creating dark flesh color. To create dark purple, add small quantities of either dark grey or black to the purple, and mix until you are satisfied. You should be very careful with black paint because it can ruin your base quickly. So you should use the color black in small increments.
3. To create a dark tone that feels warmer, mix the base with burnt umber instead of dark purple. Compare the result with your model color regularly.
4. Lighten the base color if necessary by adding orange. This will maintain a realistic tone while lightening the base color as well. Orange can easily be created by mixing yellow and red. Lightening with white paint is not advised because it can throw the colors off too much.
5. Paint your picture after creating the required flesh color. Keep gray color around to adjust shadows and lighting. It is also very convenient to keep many variants of flesh colors (skin tones) available for your painting.

Conclusion:

You have now seen how easy it is to create realistic flesh colors using common colors. You should endeavor to create many variations. Although it can be tricky at first, I do hope that you would eventually get the hang of it with consistent practice. Are you excited as I am about creating these beautiful colors? Yes? Then get to it! I do hope to see your mind-blowing work of art soon.

Related Questions:

01. How can I Mix Shadows and Highlights Suitable For My Created Flesh Color?

You can do this by mixing a gradient of variations on your final flesh color (skin tone) with white or back paint (you can now use black paint to your advantage, aha!). This will enable you to paint in various related tones, and give you the ease to create shadows or highlights in your work of art.

02. How Can I Create Blush Tones?

You can create a “blush” tone for your skin by creating a custom blush tone. You can do this by creating a mixture of your flesh color (skin tone) and the color red. Please resist the temptation to simply dab pink or red paint on top of the flesh color (skin tone) you created.

03. How Can I Paint Flesh Colors (Skin Tones) in Tinted Light?

You can paint skin tones in tainted light by creating a mixture of skin tones with each of the primary colors added. These variations will make your final painting more realistic and lifelike.