Here's a color mixing question

[Mark Milburn]

I'm 72, relatively new at airbrushing, really enjoy it and learning a lot from the forum. looking at the picture I am attaching, and at the cheek area just below the right eye (as you look at the pic) and slightly to the right, can someone give me a starting point for Createx illustration colors to make that light area! Just one airbrush cup worth!! Not exact, just a "try this" kinda thought!

I have done all grey scale pics because I keep wasting a lot of paint trying to make samples that always go to far toward yellow, red, etc. I have somewhat of an idea of how to darken, but never get the starting lightest color correct.

I could buy the Steve Driscoll skin tones, but would like to just tray at color a little before I buy the set!

 

[huskystafford]

here are some videos from our forum member Nada
you can also subscribe, good info on his channel

 

[Mark Milburn]

Than you! I need the help!

Mark...

 

[huskystafford]

Than you! I need the help!

Mark...

you are welcome Mark. You are not the only one, I will join the club. More help I get the better Those videos should help you. Nada explains stuff easy enough for new members to understand.

 

[musicmacd]

You don’t need the skin tones if you have the colour wheel set, painting grey first is not the best idea either, I would spend time mixing colours and getting a feel for it, try Sepia/burnt umber/red violet for skin tones

 

[Mark Milburn]

Thank you. I just ordered about 10 more bottle of various colors from West Coast Airbrush! I'm working on all the monochrome parts until they arrive! I should mention the part you see on the pic are on[y about 25% of the total pic.

Mark

 

[Kim McCann]

I'd start with burnt umber and a bit of red violet or magenta and then add drops of sepia to darken to the right value, spray testing lightly on a spare bit of card until I got it. If you can't spray that light, you could try Yellow ochre with tiny bit of red violet and sepia to dirty it up, or clip the saturation (dirty it up a bit).

It would be pretty easy to mix from primaries, but if you have umber and red violet around, it's a bit faster as you probably need only a few drops of each.

My base skin tone, which I lighten or darken with white, or sepia is usually burnt umber 4 to 5 drops to about 2 drops of magenta or red violet, then sprayed very reduced. It will look waaaaaaay to dark in the cup, like an icky purple brown, but sprayed very lightly, you get a reasonably good skin ton that you can adjust with ochre for more yellow, or sepia for darker color.

By playing with the sepia amounts I find I can get most skin tones and shadows. Adding yellow ochre instead if the skin tone is very light, or has a yellow cast.

In your example above, I see the dirtiness is very burnt umber, with a slight yellowish ochre cast, and a touch of violet. I'd probably start with 2 drops burnt umber, 2 drops ochre, 1 to 2 drops red violet or magenta, test a light spray on a handy index card, and then tame down the vibrance drop at a time with sepia.

If you don't have those, you should be able to pick it out on a color wheel like in husky's videos and get the recipe for the colors you do have. It's worth spending time making your own color wheels with your paints to get a sense of how much of each goes into a color.

 

[Leakyvalve]

I've never been a fan of using other's artwork as a reference. Could probably do it if using a Dru painting, but that one above is THAT artist's interpretation. It could be, and most likely is, missing all kinds of subtle details.

So if that artist missed 10% of the fine detail and you miss 10% of that artwork's details, you end up with something recognizable, but not a whole representation.

Which might be all you need and your happy with it.

 

[Mark Milburn]

EXACTLY the starting point I need Kim. Thank you VERY much. I'm just waiting for my new pain order and away I go. I will post my attempt as soon as it is in progress with some color portions!

Mark

 

[Mark Milburn]

I agree with you comment about using others artwork. However, it has less "realistic" skin skin tones! At my point, I'm more concerned about getting the color "close" to accurate and more importantly, making it look reasonably close to the subject. Bottom line, it's easier than a real photo, for me at this point. I have several of the Dru Blair stencils en route, but getting too involved in skin subtleties, and screwing them up, is getting too far in front of my skies at this point!

Mark

 

[Mark Milburn]

Not a good day. When not shopping, I got all the extraneous parts done, ie. bow, arrow and amour etc. I then mixed some skin tone per suggestions from Kim and got to work on the face. Had eyes, nose, mouth and some basic "light " shading done. Then I had erased some areas for highlites and grabbed my scott towel to wipe away the eraser bits. However, I grabbed the scott towel that I use to clear my Iwata and wiped a long streak of black wet paint across the entire face. Up until that point, I was especially pleased with my work. Fortunately, my lacquer thinner completely got the entire face back to white board! The good news is the color mixing for skin tone worked real well. I used (and recorded) burnt umber, ochre, and violet! However, I wasn't sure how to darken properly! I just added a little more burnt umber,but not sure if that's the proper way?

Mark

 

[Kim McCann]

However, I wasn't sure how to darken properly! I just added a little more burnt umber,but not sure if that's the proper way?

I usually use sepia to darken. It kind of makes the color a bit dirtier and desaturates it more naturally than using black. Burnt umber works too, but it stays kind of saturated. So if you want rich darks, use burnt umber, if you want less saturated darks, use sepia.

I think of sepia as a sort of tool to darken and desaturate without the unnatural shadow color shift that comes from black or payness.

Sorry to hear of the disaster, but it sounds like you at least managed to get it cleaned up, even if you need to repaint.

If it's only ever a tiny bit, or can't erase, you can make a good "correction" color by using 4 parts white to 1 part orange. This gives you a more natural white that won't suffer from blue shift when you spray it. I premake a bottle of it to have it quickly on hand for disasters or mistakes.

 

[Kim McCann]

I realized that was a bit confusing. I may have said Burn Sienna instead of Sepia. They are very, very close and behave similarly in paint mixing. If you have the option, use Sepia. Other than that a burnt sienna is a pretty good sub for Sienna, but a tiny bit "richer" in color.

 

[Kim McCann]

I realized that was a bit confusing. Sepia or Burn Sienna are very, very close and behave similarly in paint mixing. If you have the option, use Sepia. Other than that a burnt sienna is a pretty good sub for Sienna, but a tiny bit "richer" in color.

Sorry, autofill on my phone got me again. That should have read "burnt sienna is a pretty good sub for Sepia."

I swear to god, the auto correct on my phone is going to be the death of me one day. It changes whole words. *sigh*

 

[Mark Milburn]

Thank you both! I was really feeling good about my progress before the spill. I had even surprised myself. I have really improved since joing the forum!

Mark

 

[Leakyvalve]

Not a good day. When not shopping, I got all the extraneous parts done, ie. bow, arrow and amour etc. I then mixed some skin tone per suggestions from Kim and got to work on the face. Had eyes, nose, mouth and some basic "light " shading done. Then I had erased some areas for highlites and grabbed my scott towel to wipe away the eraser bits. However, I grabbed the scott towel that I use to clear my Iwata and wiped a long streak of black wet paint across the entire face. Up until that point, I was especially pleased with my work. Fortunately, my lacquer thinner completely got the entire face back to white board! The good news is the color mixing for skin tone worked real well. I used (and recorded) burnt umber, ochre, and violet! However, I wasn't sure how to darken properly! I just added a little more burnt umber,but not sure if that's the proper way?

Mark

I had to laugh, I'm sorry. The look of horror that must have shown across your face. It's all our worst nightmare come true.

 

[JackEb]

I had to laugh, I'm sorry. The look of horror that must have shown across your face. It's all our worst nightmare come true.

I think we’ve all been guilty of laughing at others misfortunes, only because we’ve had the same experience of things turning to poo in seconds and we know the sinking feeling

 

[Mark Milburn]

I'm working on the face (of the pic at the beginning of this thread) after my do-over~ Since this is my first real attempt at color, is the area under HIS left eye done with reduced black or a darkened skin color; or something else. I'm trying to fight the urge to do areas of that type with very reduced black if that is not what it requires.

Although it doesn't impact this issue, I have very light red and green color blindness. I can see those colors but they are often different to me than someone else might describe them! ie., I might say light green and you might say light blue, when they get very light, etc.

mark

 

[Kim McCann]

Not a good day. When not shopping, I got all the extraneous parts done, ie. bow, arrow and amour etc. I then mixed some skin tone per suggestions from Kim and got to work on the face. Had eyes, nose, mouth and some basic "light " shading done. Then I had erased some areas for highlites and grabbed my scott towel to wipe away the eraser bits. However, I grabbed the scott towel that I use to clear my Iwata and wiped a long streak of black wet paint across the entire face. Up until that point, I was especially pleased with my work. Fortunately, my lacquer thinner completely got the entire face back to white board! The good news is the color mixing for skin tone worked real well. I used (and recorded) burnt umber, ochre, and violet! However, I wasn't sure how to darken properly! I just added a little more burnt umber,but not sure if that's the proper way?

Mark

I would use your base skin tone and add a little more sepia. Sepia dirties, darkens and desaturates and gives more natural shadow on skin. You can use very thinned down sepia straight to tint the area, or mix it with your base skin tone. Only a drop or two. It is very powerful and a little goes a long way.

Sent from my SM-N920W8 using Tapatalk

 

[huskystafford]

Although it doesn't impact this issue, I have very light red and green color blindness. I can see those colors but they are often different to me than someone else might describe them! ie., I might say light green and you might say light blue, when they get very light, etc.

mark

You got option to try EnChroma for free somewhere local?

What are color blind glasses?
Color blind glasses are eyeglasses with specially tinted lenses that help a person with color vision deficiency see colors more accurately.

Though color blind glasses will not "cure" color blindness, they give colorblind individuals an opportunity to see the world more accurately and experience a greater spectrum of colors while wearing the glasses.


More info about those glasses here:
https://www.allaboutvision.com/conditions/color-blind-glasses.htm