Mixing skin tones can be difficult even with someone giving you a set recipe. Even if you get a good base shade knowing how to push the color darker or lighter takes a bit of color theory knowledge. But, I’m going to give you a skin tone base ratio, here it is… Start with 1/2 oz. white, 20 drops of yellow, 5 drops of red and 1 drop of blue. Now I am using water based paints, Createx to be exact, but for this it doesn’t matter what brand of paint you are using. To push it lighter just add more white, to push it pinker add a little red (be careful, red is a strong color) and to push it darker add brown and some black, it’s a lot of trial and error. Now, my preferred method is to use Detail Driscoll Tone! This was developed by a great airbrush artist named Steve Driscoll, Steve is no longer with us but his legacy lives on. His skin tone system, sold by Createx, is a game changer when it comes to airbrushing portraits. His paint set consists of the Detail Driscoll Tone, Detail Violet, Detail Moss Green, Detail Carmine and Detail Smoke Black. It also comes with a set of instructions and of course you can YouTube it on how to work with it also. The way his system works is the base (Driscoll Tone) is a nice tone for a base, but it is a little on the yellow side (on purpose), Opposite of yellow on the color wheel is Violet (complement color), By adding a few drops of Violet it shifts the yellowish base to a deeper tone of almost a “grape” color, but when you layer it over the base it take on a nice rich skin tone. When you add the opposite color of any color on the color wheel you push the color or “saturate” it towards a darker tone, That’s what Driscoll does, he saturated the tone with the opposite color and then when you want to do the deepest darkest shadows he adds some Smoke Black, he never just uses straight black. By deepening the tone instead of using straight black presents a more natural appearance. Now if you need more of a pinkish tone, start with a few drops of the base tone and then a few drops of Carmine, just using straight Carmine is too strong. If you were to spray this color alone, it would look like a shade you might use for a set of lips, but layered of the base tone it takes on a smooth, light, vibrant pinkish tone. This is truly a great system and I think if you give it a try and practice with how the system works I think you will agree it is the only way to go. Here is a link to a video I made on Skin Tone Basics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kE9QU5Umc4&t=17s or just go to the “Check It Out” tab above for a direct link to my YouTube Chanel.
Dan – The Airbrush Garage