Hobby Hint

My flesh tone technique is a little on the odd side. I undercoat all my flesh tones in Liquitex Deep Portrait Pink for starters. Next, and this is where is gets a little strange, I mix up a shadow color of Raw Umber, Burnt Sienna, and a touch of Alizarin Brown Madder. I cover all flesh areas with that mix, let is sit for about 10 minutes, then take a wide flat brush, and wipe it all off. What I am left with is a very small amount of the shadow color in all the creases, which I blend out to reduce any build-up and a very light sheen on the raised areas.

My main flesh mix is Mars Orange and/or Mars Red, Mars Yellow, and a touch of Titanium White. I lightly apply that mix to all the raised areas, and blend. My first highlight color is the base plus a small amount of Juane Brilliant, and a little more Tit. White. For a head, I do the majority of the highlights while the head is upside down! Pretty weird, eh? I find that I can catch all the highlight areas better painting from the jaw line up. I use an almost drybrush-like technique for highlights, so I blend as I go along. Also, I use flat brushes exclusively for all my flesh tones.

After the first highlight is applied, I'll add a very small amount of Titanium White to the initial highlight mix, and apply the same way. Generally, I'll have between 6-8 different highlight mixes...just by adding small amounts of white to each previous mix. I like to build my highlights up. When I first began painting figures, I made the mistake of doing too much at one time. I find I have better control by building highlights up the way I do.

The last two things I paint are the eyes and the lips. Eyes are base coated with an off-white, iris' are painted in either flat black enamels or acrylics, then the rest of the eye is done in oils. I outline the eyes with Mars Orange for the bottom eyelid, and Mars Red for the top. Corners of the eyes are done with a small amount of Cad. Red. The final touch is a couple of coats of Liquin. Lips are painted with a mix of Cad Red, a touch of Indian Red, and Titanium White.