Study of "Color Mixing Recipes for Portraits" by William F. Powell ( Olive Skin Tone)

2011-09-04T20:33:00.000-07:00

Olive Skin Tone.

Hello everyone,
I came across a book called "Color mixing Recipes for Portrait" by William. F. Powell, and I had to try it on the canvas.
I documented all my actions step-by-step and I would like to share them with you.
I choose to go with olive skin tone recipes.
In the first step, William F. Powell mixed the Master Skin Tone Recipe, so I did the same. He suggested to use Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna, Chrome Oxide Green and Cadmium Red Light.

Here you see already mixed Master Recipe for Olive Skin tone.

For mixing Highlight Value, Warm Shadow, Cool Shadow, Graying Color, you will need Vermilion ( I did not have Cadmium Vermilion so I used Cadmium Red High), Alizarin Crimson, Burnt Umber, Cobalt Blue, and Titanium White.

Highlight Value Mix:

Titanium White + Vermilion.

Warm Shadow:

Master Recipe + Burnt Sienna + Alizarin Crimson.

Cool Shadow:

Master Recipe + Burnt Umber.

Graying Color:

Titanium White + Crome Oxide Green + Cobalt Blue.

In this photo you see the result after I mixing all of the shadows and highlights.
Now I am ready to mix the Skin Tone Value. We are all familiar with a grey scale, in this book the author marks darkest dark under #10 but in gray scale darkest dark under #1.So sometimes it can be confusing, especially if you are just a beginner. I numbered the values in correct gray scale value.
William F. Power starts with a Light Values Mix
Light Values Mix:
#9 Highlaght Value + Master Recipe.
#8 Titanium White + Master Recipe.
#7 Titanium White + Master Recipe + Vermilion.
Middle Values Mix:
#6 Titanium White + Master Recipe.
#5    #6 + #4.
#4    #6 + Moster Recipe.
Dark/Grayed Values Mix:
#3    #7 + Graying Color.
#2  Highlight Value + Master Recipe + Graying Color.
#1    #2 + Cool Shadow.

Now you see it's a perfect Value scale. You have a choice to use Titanium White or Naples Yellow for #10 lightest lights. I used Titanium White

I premixed all the color values, and now I am ready to paint. For my model I used a Styrofoam ball.

I applied all the values to the canvas and I can tell you it is not a bad Skin Tone Mix.

In the next post I will try another Skin Tone Mix. I have space for 8 more Skin Tone Mix examples.

Sveta's Art Blog

Study of "Color Mixing Recipes for Portraits" by William F. Powell ( Olive Skin Tone)