Airbrush How-to: Mixing Flesh Tones
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- Опубліковано 6 лют 2025
- In this video I share a basic flesh tone recipe that will get you in the ballpark when airbrushing a portrait. It is a good starting point but realize further adjustment will likely be necessary. I also demonstrate mixing flesh tones with candies and transparent colors.
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Excellent, I look forward to the future vids on this colour mixing subject, thank you.
Thank you!
I enjoy and learn a little ever time I watch one of videos.Thanks .ck,wisc.
I'm glad you find the content helpful!
Great Trevor, thanks for your time.
Thanks for your continued support my friend!
Awesome video mate best explanation I have seen yet 👍
Thank you so much!
Thanks Trevor I purchased the Driscoll color kit with mixing chart wondered why it changed as I sprayed? Then you showed why in the cup😳 Thanks for your help
I'm always glad to help Richard! Thanks for your continued support my friend!
Many thanks for such a great explanation. It did help me a lot to understand how to get a better skin tone 👍👍
Awesome! I'm glad it helped you out!
Hi Trev
Excellent tutorial. I love the circles to test colors, never thought of that. Color theory will make a great lesson.
In answer to your question about the pandemic. Work has gone a bit mental, I suppose everyone is going flat out after not being able to track day for months. A lot of crash damage.
Apart from that everything is all good.
Keep up the nice work.
Guy
Glad to hear everything is good on your end my friend!
Excellent video on mixing your own skin tone color,I use solvent base paint and been lucky mixing skin tone colors especially where the blue comes in to play
I appreciate the kind words Cris!
Excellent tutorial,very useful and helpful, more about mixing color, In HSL color harmony, tips and tricks thanks in advance, and go ahead we support your channel 👍
Thank you my friend! I truly appreciate the kind words and support!
Thanks for informative video!
Thank you for watching and taking the time to leave a comment!
Excellent video, thank you.
Thank you!
Great video, thanks. I find the Wicked Cory Saint Clair universal skin tone is a more neutral flesh tone than the Driscoll skin tone. Also, the illustration Lifeline colors have a lot of great skin colors that are also good starting points to mix a custom skin tone.
Thanks for sharing JT! I haven't had the opportunity to try the Cory Saint Clair flesh tone or any of the Lifeline colors yet.
Thanks!
Thank you!
Great video Thank you.
Thank you!
question is it smart to over reduce wicked , i use gsi micron .18 airbrush
I over reduced Wicked, Auto Air and Illustration colors pretty frequently (anywhere from 100 to 500 percent) and have never experienced delamination or any other issues normally related to over reduction.
Great video Trevor, but real primary color are Yellow, Magenta, and Cyan, just look what a color printer use. 😉
Hi Alden! Technically, we are both correct. At the end of the day, it depends on which color mixing theory you are using, additive or subtractive. This, I think, is where color theory gets very confusing for some. A lot of people use those terms interchangeably as if they are different terms for describing the same thing. They are quite different.
Without getting to in depth here, additive color mixing has to do with mixing colors using light (computer screen, phone screen, projector, etc. are examples). It uses the RGB (red, green, blue) system. When you mix those three colors in groups of two (blue/green, red/blue & red/green, you get the different primaries which are cyan, magenta and yellow. When you mix all three you end up with white. White reflects all colors of light and black absorbs all colors of light. So, white is the complete absence of color and black is the complete collection of color.
The process one is using also determines which primary colors are used. Subtractive color mixing has to do with mixing colors using ink or pigment. In a printer using ink, black ink is also added to the equation. It uses the colors of ink along with reflected white from the paper in order to create the visual spectrum of color. When you mix the three primaries (cyan, magenta and yellow) in printing, you end up with a black. This is why color theory is just that, theory. The results are very different using pigment-based paint. The traditional primary colors for artists using pigment-based paint are yellow, red and blue. Mixing those three colors, depending on the percentages of each color used, will produce either a neutral gray, a neutral brown or a very muddy, ugly color. They will not produce a black.
Trevor, great explanation of skin tones. Now I'm sure I've asked this before but as far as wicked detail and reg createx, is there a difference in pigment size? What im asking is, does the detail paint "work" better than original createx opaque paint?
That's a great question Dennis! I've heard the different pigment size rumor over the years as well. Whether or not there really is a difference in pigment size between the different Createx paint brands, I honestly just don't know.
Here's what I do know: There is a difference in viscosity between Createx Airbrush Colors and Wicked Detail. Logically, that tells me the pigment size is likely different between the two (Wicked Detail being less viscous). Again, that's just my opinion. I have nothing scientific to back that statement up.
There is a spray scale chart you can find here www.createx.de/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Color-Airbrush-Recommendations_rev111418.pdf that shows recommended Createx products for various Iwata airbrushes. The chart is based on performance characteristics of the different paint lines when paired with various airbrush needle sizes. The original Createx Airbrush Colors recommendation begins within the Eclipse series of Iwata Airbrushes (middle of the road so to speak). The Eclipse series needle and nozzle is going to be .35mm or .5mm. The Wicked Detail recommendation begins within the Micron series of Iwata brushes (the precision realm so to speak). The Micron series needle and nozzle is going to be .18mm or .23mm. So, there is an obvious difference between the two paint lines you mentioned. Again, I can't say for certain the difference is due to pigment size, but I'd be willing to bet on it.
Hey Trevor, I posted a comment earlier, but I had Candy 2o on the brain and deleted it. What I really wanted to ask is, can using a flesh tone transparent paint mix over top flesh tone base color, or using a flesh tone mixed Createx sealer under, make painting skin tones easier or add anything to the image quality ? Would it be worth the effort either way ? Thanks.
Hey Mike! Adding a flesh tone transparent mix over the top of a flesh tone base isn't going to add anything to the image quality. For starters, it would be difficult to create a transparent flesh tone because a flesh tone has a lot of white mixed into it which makes it very opaque. You're better off tinting portions of, or the entire portrait with other transparent colors. Using a flesh tone mixed with sealer could be advantageous for quick coverage if you're painting a portrait over a background with several different colors. Honestly, you'd be better off using a plain white sealer for that purpose as opposed to mixing a flesh tone with a sealer though. Once the sealer has been applied, you can start building the portrait with your flesh tone(s). Does that make sense?
I saw your original comment in an email and wish you hadn't deleted it. Those were excellent questions! I'm going to copy and paste some of that original comment in my reply for context. It read in part, "Can the Createx Candy2o paint be used to mix flesh tones, or maybe as a final layer ? If so, what advantage / quality enhancement could it provide on a portrait. Would it add more natural depth or glow to the subjects face, hands, skin ? Would it be worth the effort and / or cost ?"... "maybe you could do a video of how to mix and use it."
I'll address using candy2o to mix flesh tones first. Yes, you can absolutely use candy2o to mix flesh tones. You can substitute candy2o Blood Red for any other transparent or opaque red in your mix. The same applies for adding yellow and brown. Candy2o Lemon Yellow and/or Tequilla Yellow can be used as opposed to any other yellow, and Dirt Track Brown can be substituted for brown. You can substitute one of the colors in the recipe with candy2o, or you can substitute all of them with candy2o. Having said that, you still need to mix all of those colors with a white in order to create a flesh tone. As I mentioned above, mixing any transparent color with white creates an opaque color. So, you're losing the one quality that makes a candy so dynamic in an artwork in my opinion. At the end of the day, using candies in place of regular transparent or opaque colors to mix a flesh tone is really a waste of candy. I would rather use any transparent or opaque color for mixing purposes for that reason. Does that make sense?
Can you use candy2o as a final layer? Now you're on to something! The answer is, yes! This is where candies really shine! I mentioned above that you can adjust hues and tones in a portrait with transparent colors. That adds a realistic value to your skin tones. The downside to using transparent colors is they are pigment based, meaning they are made with finely ground pigment in order to produce the end color. Pigment is not transparent. What makes a pigment-based color transparent is all of the other ingredients in the bottle. If you build up enough layers with a transparent color, the pigment in the mix will start taking over and you will begin covering the underlying layers and detail you've previously created. The underlying layers will still be visible, but it will start to fog up and become hazy. To avoid that, I use extremely light layers of transparent color to tint portions of a skin tone. A very, very light wash can make a big change. It's easy to go too far! On the opposite end of the spectrum, you can completely change the dynamic of a portrait using candy, or candies, in the final stage of a painting. A true candy color is created with aniline dye as opposed to pigment. Aniline dye is one hundred percent transparent, meaning you can apply as many coats as you want and the underlying detail and colors will still be crystal clear. Candy2o is aniline dye based. There is no pigment in candy2o. They are true candies. One thing you need to be aware of when using candies is they will always get darker with each subsequent coat. So, you can completely change the mood or tone of a painting with a wash of candy in the end. You can add a spectacular glow to the subject's skin with a wash of candy. It is absolutely worth the effort in my opinion depending on the end result the artist is looking for. I've intended to create a video demonstrating this for quite a while now. I'll work on getting this done soon.
@@wickedartstudio Wow Trevor, you didn't have to write a book for a reply..LMAO. But I'm glad you did. Now I have to figure out a way to copy and paste this to a text, so I can resize and read it easier. I'll keep an eye out for your video on this. Thanks Trevor.
@@mikes1031 I copied my reply and sent it to you in an email 🙂.
@@wickedartstudio Thanks, Got it and replied
👋👋👋👋👋😉👍 Very good
Thank you!
i understand color theory but im a a african american man and my wife is too, she basically beyonce color , its soo hard trying to match her color for portrait so i always just go black n white
I had more footage that didn't make this upload due to time constraints. In that additional footage I talk about mixing flesh tones for darker complexions and/or African Americans. That additional footage was uploaded in another unrelated video. You can find it here ua-cam.com/video/7KE-RRiqNvU/v-deo.html
@@wickedartstudio thats why i follow you..thank you
Thank you so much, now my character has a real skin tone instead of a Majin Boo pink haha
Thank you! I'm glad you found the content helpful!
These are good educational videos BUT maybe we could make things a little more fun. Some artist seem to take things a bit to serious and some have got really tiring voices.
I appreciate the compliment and I'm sorry if my teaching style doesn't hold your attention. My goal is simply to teach others. I am not an entertainer. Standing in front of a camera and talking to it is a bit of a challenge for some. I think I've gotten better with time, and I hope to continue to improve.
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