Mixing recipe
How to mix tan skin tone
Target
#A9775A
Recipe mixes to #A3755B
A tan skin tone is Yellow Ochre lifted with white, warmed with Cadmium Red, and quietened with a part of Ivory Black. The black is what stops it reading as orange: it greys the red and ochre just enough to sit as skin. Four tubes, all from 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 3 parts Yellow Ochrepile #B8813F
- Work in 1 part Titanium Whitepile #D3A060
- Work in 1 part Cadmium Redpile #D27D5A
- Work in 1 part Ivory Blackpile #A3755B
Another route
Burnt Umber in place of the Ivory Black, with more white and red, lands a little lighter and warmer. Use this one if the figure is in warm light or if you keep black off the palette. The black version has a slightly cooler, more olive cast that suits skin in shade.
What goes wrong
The pile swings a long way in the last two steps: the red takes it to salmon and the black brings it back. Mix each fully before judging, and add the black a knife-tip at a time; a part too much turns the skin to khaki. If it does go grey, the fix is more ochre and red together, not more white. Ivory Black (tinting strength 4, where a cadmium is 1) is the paint to be careful with here: it goes 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.