Color(s) suggestions

[Bobar57]

Which color(s) will the recommended for using on the skin of Indian people(portraits)???

Bob

[Marcio C]

Do you mean people from India? or Native Americans? I don't know about either specifically... raw sienna, quinacridone burnt orange (rust) and ultramarine blue come to mind.
Mary Whyte says she does most of her portraits, of a wide range of skin color, with very few colors, mostly MG raw sienna, quinacridone rose and ultramarine blue, with some burnt sienna, and cobalt blue and hookers green added sometimes.

[watercolourfanatic]

HI Robert. As you know I follow Charles Reids basic formula of Cadmium Red Light or Pale, Cadmium Yellow Light, and Cerulean or Ultramarine to darken. However my Indian portraits were criticized by my good friend Happhoto as `too pink' . In order to get the required darkness and bronzed appearance I've turned to Quinadicrone Rust (PO48) Graham and also some Burnt Umber, but I suspect the latter is inclined to dirty the colours so has to be used with caution. We recently had an exercise at my Avon Valley Art Group of only using two tubes or pans (not colours). The restriction was to stop backsliders from using say three yellows and three reds! I selected Indigo (Daniel Smith) and Quinacridone Rust (Graham) and the result worked quite well based as it is on the old black and white photos of Edward Curtis that have extreme contrast. I'm not claiming it is brilliant but perhaps points the way. In any event the resulting painting will appear on my blog sometime in the next few days.

Peter

[Bobar57]

Marcio,yes,from India,no native Americans.
Hi Peter,I'll be looking forward to your new post on your blog.
I have the latest Mary Whyte book,duh,I should have perused through it before posting the question.I have to look at it.
I want to start with portraiture instead that with landscapes,these can wait.
Thank you both for the suggestions.I'll probably post in the appropriate forum the steps of the first portrait and the final result.Let's see.I plant to start it tomorrow.
Cheers,

Bob

[watercolourfanatic]

Hi Robert. Sorry I thought you meant Amerindians . If you look at the section on portraits and skin colours in Charles Reids `Watercolour Solutions' he lists all the colours he uses which cover every skin type. Having seen him at work many times he does improvise as he goes along and isn't dogmatic. It does seem though that there are a wide range of different mixes used by Portrait artists. Trial and Error maybe!

Peter

[alansam]

one feels awed in such company ,.to even give reply but,
""my choice of background ,, can change a skin colour..,.often I will think of the background values a head ,and start with a light skin tone,,, if ,using watercolour say. it would be a very thin wash of umber ,with the lightest touch of madder adding the cool tones at a later stage

[CharM]

...just my 2 cents worth...

Caucasian skin has cooler tones, i.e. reds that have a blue bias, yellows that are more neutral and, of course, the blues themselves for shadowing. I always mix my colours and then paint them right onto my arm... if I can't see the paint, then I think I have it pretty close to what I need...

Darker skin toned people tend to have warmer hues... reds that have an oranger bias along with warmer yellows and greens as shadowing colours.

And, I agree with Peter that trial and error is a great way to figure out what you need... make up recipe cards with your test mixes and take notes! Good luck with this and please share your results...

[Bobar57]

Then trial and error will be.

Bob

[WthrLady]

Missed this one.

Azo Yellow (cobalt), Napthol Red, and UM blue. Adding more or less yellow as you need to for any one portrait. It makes a WONDERFUL deep skin tone.
I use MGraham in this color range. If you want me to snatch the pigment numbers off the tubes for a match, just let me know Bob.

[Bobar57]

Originally Posted by WthrLady

Missed this one.

Azo Yellow (cobalt), Napthol Red, and UM blue. Adding more or less yellow as you need to for any one portrait. It makes a WONDERFUL deep skin tone.
I use MGraham in this color range. If you want me to snatch the pigment numbers off the tubes for a match, just let me know Bob.

Thank you Caryl.As of now I have only White Nights pans(Yarka)and was a pain to organize them on the tin palettes.I made a color chart to know which color is where,but without names or pigment info.I have to do it in a trial and error basis until I can afford to purchase M.Graham tubes(my favorites so far).
I will write the "recipe" for future reference.
Thanks a lot.

Bob

[winniety]

You are great!!!
WthrLady choose those colors are nice

[Marcio C]

Originally Posted by Bobar57

Thank you Caryl.As of now I have only White Nights pans(Yarka)and was a pain to organize them on the tin palettes.I made a color chart to know which color is where,but without names or pigment info.I have to do it in a trial and error basis until I can afford to purchase M.Graham tubes(my favorites so far).
I will write the "recipe" for future reference.
Thanks a lot.

Bob

Bob, in case you don't have the information on the pigments used and their characteristics, I found their website lists them under each color, at:
http://www.stpetersburgwatercolours....?idCategory=30