Painting 101: Portrait Palette Recipes
A portrait can be one of the most, if not THE most challenging thing to paint. I get asked frequently, "What colors do you use?" What color is "flesh". Well, it's made up of many colors, but you will be better suited to try and capture the correct value of a color rather than trying to find the exact color match. If you get the values correct, you could paint a person purple and it would still look right. So, having said that....you may still want to get the color close...right? I have searched high and low for color recipes for portraits and the following are the ones I have settled on and found to be pretty effective. This palette may be set up in any order you wish, just make it comfortable for you. If you prefer an oval palette to hold in your arm, then by all means use one. I prefer a glass rectangular palette and that is what I will show you. The image shown is pretty much how I set mine up.
The colors represented are approximate and used as placement reference only. Your color may mix up differently than what I have shown here. Don't worry about it. Mix to the ratios given, regardless if it looks like my little color circles. You may modify the following recipes to suit yourself, but these formulas will get you close to what you need to paint a portrait of most any race.
1: White. This may be whatever white you are most comfortable using. I find that Flake White gives a good opalescent quality to the skin tones. Pure Titanium may be a bit strong used by itself. Zinc White should not be used for oil painting since it compromises the paint adhesion. 50/50 Flake/Titanium is a good blend.
2: Ivory Black: This could also be a mixture of Permanent Carmine and Pthalo Green, or whatever black you are comfortable using. Ivory is semi-transparent and a good choice for black.
3: Blue: This may be Prussian Blue, or Ultramarine Blue. I prefer Prussian as it is a bit cooler and more intense. Heck, put both of them out there if you want to.
4: Raw Sienna
5: Yellow Ochre
6: Naples Yellow
7: Cadmium Yellow Medium
8: Cadmium Red Light
9: Winsor Newton Permanent Carmine or Quinacridone Red.
10: Burnt Sienna
11: Raw Umber
12: Burnt Umber
13: Sap Green
14: Pthalo Green
Here is where the mixing begins. We will mix color strings from dark to light for many of our puddles of color. Others will be single puddles. 15 and 16 are shadow tones mixed
in color/value strings.
15a is Winsor Newton Permanent Carmine with a touch of Sap Green to make a dark red/brown color. 15b is Cadmium Yellow Medium. Add a touch of yellow into the brownish mixture. Add more yellow to mix a string of values.
16a is Sap Green with a little Winsor Newton Permanent Carmine to make a dark greenish-brown mixture. 16b is Cad Yellow Medium. Mix the same way as before to create a color/value string
17 thru 20 are optional colors and are traditional dark values used by Dutch artists of old.
17: One part Raw Umber/One part Burnt Sienna/Two part
Yellow Ochre
18: One part Raw Umber/One part B.Sienna/ One part Y. Ochre
19: Two Parts Raw Umber/One part Yellow Ochre
20: Four Part Raw Umber/ One part Yellow Ochre
The following mixtures are our "flesh tones". I will give you the base mixture recipe, then mix your chosen white in increments to create a color/value string.
21: Cadmium Red Light and just enough Raw Sienna to dull the red a bit --->white
This color is very useful for the warm, ruddy colors on areas such as lips, cheeks, ears, and other warm areas of flesh.
22: Yellow Ochre ---> White
23: 50/50 Burnt Sienna/Yellow Ochre ----> White
24: Burnt Sienna ----> White
These next two colors are mixing grays. 25 is warm, 26 is cool.
25: Raw Umber -----> White
26: Two parts Black/ One part Raw Sienna ----> White
Use the colors around the perimeter of the palette to influence these color recipes as needed, or to paint other parts of the painting and clothing. There are many other color recipes out there, and you may elect to add them to this list. You may also delete some of the colors from this list if you find them less than useful. Each artist will paint differently. These mixtures will get you started though! Please share with me any color recipes you like to use in your portrait painting and I'll share them here so that others may benefit also. Thanks for looking!
The colors represented are approximate and used as placement reference only. Your color may mix up differently than what I have shown here. Don't worry about it. Mix to the ratios given, regardless if it looks like my little color circles. You may modify the following recipes to suit yourself, but these formulas will get you close to what you need to paint a portrait of most any race.
1: White. This may be whatever white you are most comfortable using. I find that Flake White gives a good opalescent quality to the skin tones. Pure Titanium may be a bit strong used by itself. Zinc White should not be used for oil painting since it compromises the paint adhesion. 50/50 Flake/Titanium is a good blend.
2: Ivory Black: This could also be a mixture of Permanent Carmine and Pthalo Green, or whatever black you are comfortable using. Ivory is semi-transparent and a good choice for black.
3: Blue: This may be Prussian Blue, or Ultramarine Blue. I prefer Prussian as it is a bit cooler and more intense. Heck, put both of them out there if you want to.
4: Raw Sienna
5: Yellow Ochre
6: Naples Yellow
7: Cadmium Yellow Medium
8: Cadmium Red Light
9: Winsor Newton Permanent Carmine or Quinacridone Red.
10: Burnt Sienna
11: Raw Umber
12: Burnt Umber
13: Sap Green
14: Pthalo Green
Here is where the mixing begins. We will mix color strings from dark to light for many of our puddles of color. Others will be single puddles. 15 and 16 are shadow tones mixed
in color/value strings.
15a is Winsor Newton Permanent Carmine with a touch of Sap Green to make a dark red/brown color. 15b is Cadmium Yellow Medium. Add a touch of yellow into the brownish mixture. Add more yellow to mix a string of values.
16a is Sap Green with a little Winsor Newton Permanent Carmine to make a dark greenish-brown mixture. 16b is Cad Yellow Medium. Mix the same way as before to create a color/value string
17 thru 20 are optional colors and are traditional dark values used by Dutch artists of old.
17: One part Raw Umber/One part Burnt Sienna/Two part
Yellow Ochre
18: One part Raw Umber/One part B.Sienna/ One part Y. Ochre
19: Two Parts Raw Umber/One part Yellow Ochre
20: Four Part Raw Umber/ One part Yellow Ochre
The following mixtures are our "flesh tones". I will give you the base mixture recipe, then mix your chosen white in increments to create a color/value string.
21: Cadmium Red Light and just enough Raw Sienna to dull the red a bit --->white
This color is very useful for the warm, ruddy colors on areas such as lips, cheeks, ears, and other warm areas of flesh.
22: Yellow Ochre ---> White
23: 50/50 Burnt Sienna/Yellow Ochre ----> White
24: Burnt Sienna ----> White
These next two colors are mixing grays. 25 is warm, 26 is cool.
25: Raw Umber -----> White
26: Two parts Black/ One part Raw Sienna ----> White
Use the colors around the perimeter of the palette to influence these color recipes as needed, or to paint other parts of the painting and clothing. There are many other color recipes out there, and you may elect to add them to this list. You may also delete some of the colors from this list if you find them less than useful. Each artist will paint differently. These mixtures will get you started though! Please share with me any color recipes you like to use in your portrait painting and I'll share them here so that others may benefit also. Thanks for looking!