Quick answer
Start with yellow ochre + red (cadmium red light). For lighter skin add titanium white, and for deeper skin add burnt sienna and burnt umber instead. Then tune the undertone: a touch of blue or green calms a mix that looks too orange, and a little more red warms it. Match value first, then hue.
On this page
The method: value, warmth, undertone
Skin is mostly muted orange, in the same hue family as brown but in a much wider range of values. Light, medium and deep skin tones share the same basic ingredients. What changes is the proportion of light to dark, and the subtle undertone that keeps a face from looking flat. Work in this order:
- Value (light or dark). This matters most. Get it right and a slightly-off hue still reads as skin. Get it wrong and no hue will save it. Squint at your reference and match how light or dark the area is.
- Warmth (the orange base). Mix a red and a yellow into an orange. Yellow ochre with cadmium red light, or burnt sienna, gives a natural, slightly muted base.
- Undertone and saturation. Skin is less saturated than pure orange. Calm it with a very small amount of its complement: blue, or green for very red mixtures. A touch of crimson adds a cooler, rosy undertone. A touch of green or raw umber suggests an olive undertone.
Try it: Mix a skin tone
Open full mixer →A base mix for any skin tone
A practical starting palette is titanium white, yellow ochre, cadmium red light, burnt sienna, burnt umber and ultramarine blue. From these six paints you can reach nearly every skin tone.
- Lighter skin: mostly white, with a little yellow ochre and a smaller touch of red. Add the color to the white, not the other way around, so you don't overshoot.
- Medium skin: yellow ochre and burnt sienna with some white and a touch of red. Calm it with a speck of ultramarine if it looks too orange.
- Deeper skin: burnt sienna and burnt umber as the base, cooled and deepened with ultramarine. Add a little red or crimson for warmth. Deep skin often carries beautiful blue and violet notes in the highlights and reflected light.
Avoid the "plastic" look: white plus red makes pink, and white plus orange often looks like a mask. Real skin has variation. It's warmer and redder around the cheeks, nose and ears, more yellow on the forehead, and cooler or greener where it's thin over veins or shaded by a jaw.
Skin tone mixing chart
Starting points in parts. No single mix represents anyone: compare with your reference and adjust.
| Tone | Result | Adjust it |
|---|---|---|
| Light | White 6 : ochre 1 : red 1 | More ochre for golden, more red for rosy |
| Medium | White 2 : ochre 2 : sienna 1 : red 1 | A speck of blue if it turns orange |
| Olive | White 3 : ochre 2 : red 1 : sap green 1 | Less green for a warmer olive |
| Deep | Sienna 2 : umber 2 : ultramarine 1 | Add red for warmth, ochre for gold |
| Skin in shadow | Medium base + a little ultramarine | Or use burnt umber + alizarin crimson |
Skin in light and shadow
Don't make skin shadows by adding black. Black greys skin into an unhealthy tone. Instead, darken the base with burnt umber for warm shadows or with a little ultramarine or the complement for cool ones.
Shadows on skin also tend to be slightly more saturated and warmer at the edge where light turns into shadow (the "terminator"). For highlights, lighten with white plus a touch of yellow ochre or Naples-type yellow under warm light, or white with a hint of blue under cool daylight. Keep highlights small and slightly cooler than the lit skin around them.
For more on darkening without black, see how to mix shadows without black.
Practise with a limited palette
A classic exercise is to paint portraits with just four colors: yellow ochre, a warm red (cadmium red light or vermilion), ivory black and titanium white. It's often called the "Zorn palette" after the Swedish painter Anders Zorn, who is associated with it. In mixtures, ivory black behaves like a dull blue, so this tiny palette can still make convincing cool notes, greys and greenish half-tones alongside warm flesh colors.
A limited palette forces you to think in value and temperature rather than reaching for a new tube, and it keeps every mixture harmonious, because everything comes from the same few pigments. Once you're comfortable, add a true blue such as ultramarine for cooler shadows, or a crimson for richer lips and cheeks.
Matching a reference
To check a mix, hold a small dab of paint at arm's length next to the area of the reference and squint. Ask three questions in order: Is it lighter or darker? Is it more orange, more red or more yellow? Is it too intense? Adjust only one thing at a time. A neutral grey card with a small hole punched in it helps isolate a color from its surroundings, which otherwise shift how you see it.
Remember that the swatches on this page are digital approximations. Brands vary, and wet paint can dry slightly darker (acrylic) or shift in sheen (oil), so test on the same surface you'll paint on.
Recipes by medium
Proportions are starting points in parts by volume. Pigment strength varies by brand, so add strong colors gradually. The swatches are computed with Pigmento's pigment-mixing model and are approximations.
Light skin base
6 Titanium White + 1 Yellow Ochre + 1 Cadmium Red Light (parts). Acrylic darkens slightly as it dries, so mix a touch lighter than you think.
Medium skin base
2 Titanium White + 2 Yellow Ochre + 1 Burnt Sienna + 1 Cadmium Red Light (parts). Calm an over-orange mix with a speck of ultramarine.
Deep skin base
2 Burnt Sienna + 2 Burnt Umber + 1 Ultramarine Blue (parts). Add crimson for warmth or a little white for the lit planes.
Warm light flesh
5 Titanium White + 1 Yellow Ochre + 1 Cadmium Red Light (parts). Classic flesh base. Keep a second pile slightly cooler for transitions.
Olive medium
3 Titanium White + 2 Yellow Ochre + 1 Cadmium Red Light + 1 Sap Green (parts). The green both mutes the mix and gives an olive undertone.
Rich deep tone
3 Burnt Umber + 1 Alizarin Crimson + 1 Ultramarine Blue (parts). Glowing and transparent in thin layers. Add white sparingly for highlights.
Light wash
1 Yellow Ochre + 1 Cadmium Red Light (parts). Dilute heavily. The white paper does the lightening.
Medium wash
2 Burnt Sienna + 1 Yellow Ochre (parts). Lay it down, then drop a little crimson into the cheeks while it's wet.
Deep wash
1 Burnt Sienna + 1 Burnt Umber + 1 Ultramarine Blue (parts). Build in glazes rather than one heavy layer, so it stays luminous.
Paints used in this lesson
Shop links coming soon- Titanium White
- Yellow Ochre
- Cadmium Red Light
- Burnt Sienna
- Burnt Umber
- Ultramarine Blue
- Sap Green
- Alizarin Crimson
Student-grade paints work for every recipe here. Single-pigment artist paints mix cleaner and stronger. We may add affiliate links to paint sets later, and they will be clearly marked.
Frequently asked questions
What colors make skin color?
Skin tones are mixed from red, yellow and white, muted with a small amount of blue or green. Earth colors such as yellow ochre, burnt sienna and burnt umber make it faster and more natural. Vary the proportions to go from light to deep.
How do you make skin color without white?
In watercolor you lighten with water instead of white. In acrylic or oil you can mix deeper skin tones from burnt sienna, burnt umber, red and a little blue with no white at all. Lighter skin generally needs white, or a light yellow and the paper, to reach its value.
How do I fix a skin tone that looks too orange or too pink?
Too orange: add a speck of blue (the complement of orange) or a little white and ochre. Too pink: add yellow ochre to shift it toward a natural warm tone. Make small adjustments and compare to your reference after each one.
Should I use black for skin shadows?
It's better not to. Black greys out skin tones. Darken with burnt umber, ultramarine or the complement instead, which keeps shadows warm and alive.
What colors make dark skin tones?
Burnt sienna and burnt umber make a good base for deep skin, with a little ultramarine to cool and deepen it. Warm it with cadmium red or alizarin crimson, and add yellow ochre for golden undertones. Use white sparingly: it's for highlights, not for the base.
How do you make skin tone paint lighter?
Add white together with a little of the base color's yellow, such as yellow ochre. White on its own cools skin and can make it look chalky or grey, so keep the warmth as you lighten.