Burnt Sienna Is Not a Skin Color - Do This Instead
Mix the family first, then move the value until it sits right on the skin.
When you start looking up how to mix skin color, one of the first recipes you'll come across is burnt sienna with a little white. It's simple, and it's quick. So you mix it, and that's the color that goes on the face.
Well, put some on your hand. Nobody's skin is this color. It just doesn't belong there. As a skin color, it just doesn't work.
The problem isn't that you mixed it badly. The recipe itself is the problem, and no amount of care with the knife will fix it.
So I mix one that sits right on my hand instead. One skin color, made lighter with one tube and darker with another, and dabs on the hand: too light, too dark, and just right.
I made a video about it. Every mix goes onto the back of my hand, right next to my skin, so you can judge it the way I do.
How to mix skin color: start with the family
I start with a general skin color. Not a finished one, not a color for one particular face. A starting point.
First yellow ochre. Then vermilion red, right next to it on the palette.
Together these two are the family. That's where the skin starts.
I mix them well, until it's one even color and there are no streaks left. I want one color in the pile before anything else goes in, because everything that follows is about judging that one color.
Bring the chroma down
Then unbleached titanium dioxide, to kill the chroma.
On my palette, ochre and vermilion on their own are too strong for skin. The unbleached titanium brings them down to something that looks like a person.
Then a little white, to raise the value.
And a little burnt umber. Just a touch on the knife. Umber is strong, and a little goes a long way. I'd rather add a second touch than try to climb back out of too much.
That pile is my general mix. Notice the order it was built in. The family first, then the chroma, then the value. Ochre and vermilion are the family. Everything after them adjusts that family, it doesn't replace it.
I'll come back to this pile more than once, so I keep enough of it on the palette.
Put it next to the burnt sienna
Now the test. Some of the general mix goes on my hand, right next to the burnt sienna and white.
Both go on the same hand, a short distance apart. Same skin, same light, two piles of paint. That's what makes the comparison fair.
Look at them side by side. The burnt sienna sits on top of the skin. The general mix is already in the family.
But close is not the same as right. To be sure, I need to test the value.
A recipe on its own can't tell you whether it's right. The pile on the palette can't either. So I don't judge the paint on the palette. I judge it next to skin, because that's where it has to belong.
And the way I test the value is to make the mix wrong on purpose, in both directions.
Too light: titanium white
I take part of the general mix and add titanium white, to make it lighter.
Not lead white. This one goes on my skin, and lead white is toxic. When the paint goes on the hand, it's titanium.
A bit more white, and I mix it in until it's even. Then on the hand.
That's too light. Next to my skin, it's lighter than everything around it. You don't need to measure anything to see it. It simply stands out from the skin it's sitting on.
Look at it next to the general mix and the burnt sienna as well. Several piles on one hand, and the lightest one is already out of place.
Now I know where the top is. That's one dab. Two more to go.
Too dark: a little more burnt umber
Now the other way. I take another part of the general mix and add a bit more burnt umber.
Not a lot. Just enough to take it down one step.
On the hand, and now it's too dark. It's darker than my skin. It looks like a shadow, not like skin in a light.
One step down, and it reads as something else. That's how much the value decides. Now I know where the bottom is too.
The family gets you close, the value gets you there
So here they are, side by side on my hand. Too light. Too dark. And the burnt sienna and white, which still doesn't belong.
The general mix sits right in between. It belongs there. That's how you know the value is right.
This is what I mean by belonging. Not a match you prove with numbers. Just a dab that sits in the skin instead of on top of it.
The too light dab and the too dark dab aren't wasted paint. They're what let you see the right one. On its own, the general mix only looks close. With one dab above it and one below it, you can see it sitting in between.
So the family gets you close, but it's the value that gets you there.
That's the whole test. Put the mix next to the skin and move the value until it belongs there. Titanium white to go up, burnt umber to go down. If it doesn't belong yet, you move the value again, until it does.
The recipe isn't the answer. The test is. Burnt sienna and white is not a skin color. Mix the family first, then move the value until it sits right on the skin.
What to do with this
At the easel today, mix yellow ochre and vermilion until there are no streaks, bring it down with unbleached titanium dioxide, then add a little white and a touch of burnt umber. Take one part lighter with titanium white and another part darker with a bit more burnt umber. Put the general mix and both of those on the back of your hand, next to a dab of burnt sienna and white, and find the one that belongs.
I hope this helped. Tell me in the comments under the video: what was the first skin recipe someone taught you? The next episode is the palette. And you're welcome to subscribe to the channel.
Visit the Color Mixing Book Library. The recipes behind my own portraits and the old masters' faces, written down recipe by recipe. See the library
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