How I Make Fleshtone

Linda Friedman has asked what inks I used to make the flesh tones on my Diva piece, so I'm going to address that in this post. The first thing I need to say is the inks I list below are for Caucasian skin. I am in the process of making a series of art quilts depicting people doing something that to me says "attitude". When I paint someone with other skin tones I will state in this blog what inks I have used to get that skin tone. But, here are the Tsukeniko inks I used for the Diva piece:

Skin tones not in shadow:
95 - Tuscan Beige
92 - Red Delicious
53 - Autumn Leaf



I mixed these three colors together in differing ratios until I get the shade I am after.  As usual, I mix the inks with aloe vera gel. I create lights, mediums and darks (redder tones) from these three and apply them based on the appearance that I am trying to achieve. They give me a yellow to red color, depending on the amount of each ink. I use the photo of the person as my guide to help me decide what color to paint an area.

The colors listed above are good for the skin that is not in shadow. I will paint the entire body part with the shade I create from the three colors, and then I mix together a "shade" color.

The colors that are used to make "shaded flesh tones" are those listed above plus:

19 - Cerulean Blue
62 - Midnight



These are mixed with the flesh tones at times, and at other times I will use the Cerulean on top of the skin tone colors after they have dried. .

If I was trying to create an olive skin tone I would probably use a green instead of a blue for my shadow color.

I hope this is not too confusing, but I make various shades of a yellow/red tone and add blues to make them darker for the shadow areas. Feel free to ask another question if you have one. I'll do my best to answer your question.

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Painting Flesh Tones

The Urban Graffiti piece has five kids in it, and its time to paint them!  I'm starting with the skin tones.

For Caucasian skin tones I mix together the following Tsukeniko inks: 

95 Tuscan Beige

53 Autumn Leaf

92 Red Delicious

18 Ultramarine

inks used for fleshtones

I do a few different mixtures, some with light values, some with more reddish tones, some with more brown tones. It all depends on the coloring of the person and the lighting or shadows. 

I apply the mixtures going from light to medium values. For dark values/shadows I mix the medium reddish colors with dark blues. 

Here are some pictures of the painting of the flesh tones in progress.

fleshtones

flesh tones

blue used in shadow areas

To add some fine line details around the eyes, lips and nose I used a black micron pen. I got that tip from Deborah Stanley (thanks Deborah!)

micron pen details

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