Mixing recipe
How to mix dark skin tone
Target
#64402C
Recipe mixes to #654632
A dark skin tone is a deep red that has been greyed, not a brown that has been darkened. Alizarin Crimson is the base, Cadmium Red brings warmth and opacity, and one part of Sap Green takes the chroma down to the warm dark brown of deep skin. All three tubes are in a common box.
The recipe
Step by step
Build the pile from the biggest, lightest component and work toward the strongest tinter. Check the pile against each swatch before moving on.
- Start with 2 parts Cadmium Redpile #E64333
- Add 9 parts Alizarin Crimsonpile #78363AStrong tinter. Add it in knife-tip doses and mix fully before adding more.
- Add 1 part Sap Greenpile #654632Strong tinter. Add it in knife-tip doses and mix fully before adding more.
Another route
Burnt Umber with Yellow Ochre and Cadmium Red is the earth route, a little further off and a touch lighter and more orange. It is easier to control because nothing in it is a complement, and it suits skin in warm light. The crimson mix has more life in the shadows.
What goes wrong
Alizarin is transparent and looks almost black in a pile, so judge the mix in a thin smear. The green is the complement of the red, and a half part too much turns the skin to a dead grey-brown. Add it a knife-tip at a time and stop as the red turns. If it does go grey, more Cadmium Red brings it back; more Alizarin only darkens it. Alizarin Crimson (flagged by the mixing guide as moving a pile hard for its share) and Sap Green (flagged by the mixing guide as moving a pile hard for its share) are the paints to be careful with here: they go in last, a knife-tip at a time, and a little too much cannot be mixed back out.
Related colors
Results vary with brand, lighting and medium. Acrylic dries a touch darker than it looks wet. Treat this as a mixing aid, not a lab instrument: it tells you which tubes to reach for and roughly in what proportion. Fine-tune the last stretch by eye.