In Reply to: portraits posted by thomas on 10/22/01 at 7:37 PM:

: what are good colors to blend to make facial tones..for white skin with red tints
Hi I think an excellent way to mix skin tones is to begin with a muted palette and then tint with brighter color if it is found to be required. The muted palette used by many 19th century academic painters(they painted very convincing portraits) is very simple. Its basically red yellow and blue. For red a red oxide such as Venetion Red, for the yellow a pale yellow ochre, for the blue a cool black such as Lamp Black. This with white will take you virtually all the way there. Now depending on the colors in the local environment a bright palette might be required to enhance the original mixture. One can mix a full range from Pthalo blue, Cadmium Yellow and Alizerine Crimsen plus White. First get as close as possible with the muted palette then introduce the particular hue needed to refine the mixture. Most of the time bright color is not an attribute of skin tones but in rare cases such as under colored light or if the person is ill bright color can be important. Now a nice radiance can be achieved with the muted pallette with the addition of crimsen as a close standby. This is basically the way John Singer Sargeant mixed skin tones. At one time he was among the most highly esteemed portrait painters.