Mixing recipe
How to mix light skin tone
Target
#EBC2A8
Recipe mixes to #E4C2AB
A light skin tone is white warmed with Yellow Ochre and pinked with Burnt Sienna, one part of each in ten of white. The ochre carries the yellow undertone most light skin has and the sienna carries the red. Burnt Sienna is outside the common 10-tube box, but it is a tube most painters own.
The recipe
This one reaches outside the common 10-tube starter box. The paints above are from Masstone’s full pigment library.
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 10 parts Titanium Whitepile #F6F6F4
- Work in 1 part Yellow Ochrepile #F5DEBB
- Work in 1 part Burnt Siennapile #E4C2AB
Another route
Raw Sienna in place of Yellow Ochre, with a bit more of it, gives a slightly duller and more golden version. Use it for skin in warm indoor light. The ochre mix is cleaner and better for daylight.
What goes wrong
Ochre and sienna are both earth pigments and go muddy if the pile is overworked with more of either. Get the value right with white first, then adjust the hue in small amounts. A common mistake is reaching for Cadmium Red to add more pink; it is far stronger than the sienna and turns the mix to peach in one stroke.
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.