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Hi Joan,
I don't know if anyone likes my skin colors but me, but I'll tell you what I do. I first mix up yellow ochre with a little light red to get a sort of brick red-orange, which is my basic source for skin color. For the shadows, I take part of this and add ultramarine blue and indian red to get a sort of purple grey. (I take another part of the original mixture and add white for the light skin color.) I cover every part of the face and other skin with either the light or shadow colors. At this point it looks weird. I use only these colors to blend in the halftones; suddenly it looks a lot better. I use these original pigments, their mixtures, plus burnt sienna to tweak in the variations in hue in different areas of the face. I add white for the highlights, and a black I make from burnt sienna and ultramarine to deepen the darkest shadows.
Obviously, I recommend you do not try this right out on your painting, but experiment on a sketch first to see if it works for you.
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