How to Paint People of Color
- 1). Create a flesh-tone color chart to help guide you in choosing the appropriate tones for your portrait. A full flesh-tone color chart includes colors in the analogous earth palette, modified analogous earth palette, low-key primary palette, cool primary palette, warm primary palette, cool complementary palette and warm complementary palette. All of these palettes contain yellow ocher and flake white. The analogous and modified analogous contain shades of burnt umber and burnt sienna. The modified analogous also contain alizarin crimson and cadmium red. Your low key palette should contain flesh ocher, as well as blue-black, cool primary alizarin crimson and ultramarine blue and warm primary cadmium red and yellow and turquoise blue. You probably won't use all of these colors in any single painting, but creating this chart will help you select the right colors for your subject.
- 2). Paint the flesh-toned areas of the painting first. Begin with lighter shades, then add the darker shades to show texture and shadow. Depending on the setting and lighting, some flesh areas might be left unpainted to serve as highlights.
- 3). Continue to paint additional layers over the skin tone to capture the richness of the subject's flesh. In painting people of color, you likely will be mostly using colors in the analogous earth palette, the modified analogous earth palette and the low-key primary palette.
- 4). Use colors such as yellow ocher and burnt umber to help bring out the depth and warm colors of your subject's skin tone.
- 5). Move on next to hair, followed by coloring in, then detailing, the clothing. Color the background area, then add detail to the background to complete the portrait.
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