Does anybody know how to mix acrylic paints to get the brown skin tones of a person from india?

I am an art student trying to paint a portrait of a woman from india in acrylics and I am having a VERY hard time matching her beautiful brown skin tones. Can anyone give me some tips?|||Every race of people has a myriad of different colors of skin tone. The cardinal rule in color is: %26quot;You can always go darker%26quot;. Lightening up a color is not a problem you want to deal with because your colors will get muddy.





I would start with a pale portrait pink, mix in a minute amount of ochre yellow, a small amount of dark portrait pink, an even smaller amount of a quinacridone violet.


Really blend this well, and then with great restraint try an irridescent gold and begin to slowly darken with bits of taupe. You can always go darker gradually with tiny bits of raw umber. You want the flesh to have some luster to it....so think of how she looks when she smiles...it will brighten up the project.


Afterthought: The skin has many colors in it....depending on her particular tones, if you are working in a thicker more heavy bodied acrylic, you may want to show more flouchetage or brushtroke (therefore, possibly add lots of specks of many different colors to her skin). These portraits resemble more an oil painting kind of presentation. If you view any of the great masters%26#039; portraits, and you go very close up ...you will see more colors than would ever occur to you to use. If you step back to see the overview (which is how we are intended to view these paintings), these colors add to the building or definitions of the different planes in the face.If you are working in a more fluid acrylic or even a hard- edge type of heavy body acrylic approach, you may wish to blend, blend , blend....this is where your choices have to be a little more exacting...experiment on your palate until you are satisfied. But, you can also use many colors when creating with a more fluid approach....especially if you add layers glazing. You will probably notice a much broader variety of color than you realized at first. Good Luck!|||JUST START MIXING UP SOME DIFFERENT PAINTS AND EVENTUALLY YOU WIL COME UP WITH THE PAINT YOU NEED|||Rather than focus on mixing a perfect brown, try to capture the color you see in the light and shadowed areas of her face. Try mixing purplish tones for the darker areas and blend in some yellow for the lighter areas. A little bit of red mixed with yellow and blue will probably also help to bring out the coppery tone of Indian skin.|||Burned umber and burned sienna with some yellow ochre in lighter areas, also use some cadium res midium for the reds and also some blackand paynes grey for the hair.


I hope it helps good luck


Check out my web site http://www.piotrwolodkowicz.com|||Start off by using a brown paint, then add a little red or orange in with the brown to get a better skin tone color. If you need to go lighter or darker add a little white or black.