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Where I'm having trouble, and you picked up on it immediately, is translating the black and white values to color, I don't really know how to adjust the values of a color without changing the color to something that looks like mud.
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Hi Dan,
I struggled with the same issue for the longest time as well. People would tell me:"I see this color, that color, etc." - and I felt like I was color blind, because I couldn't make the distinctions. After taking Marvin Mattelson's class and becoming familiar with his palette, I learned what to look for and how to recognize it. Now I often sit at meals and look at people saying:"Wau, this is a beautiful shade of value x of Venetian Red! "
The gradient scale of Misha is a great crutch, because it shows not only the light, but the different values simplified in gray tones as they relate to the head. Considering that there are 9 values of gray plus white and black, you will need the same number of values for your warm and cool flesh tones. Mix them out and place each color value below the correspondent gray value. Mixing the right values is the hard part, from then on you match each gray value you see to the color that you placed under that same value. When looking at the reference ask yourself, is the color you see cool or warm, high chroma or gray and adjust accordingly.
I am still more comfortable with gray underpaintings than raw umber washes, but in essence if your underpainting is correct in it's values, load your brush with the desired color and place it on the intended spot. Another valuable lesson learned from Peggy Baumgaertner is: "SQUINT! If your color is correct than it should blend nicely into the value that you placed it on. Otherwise it will look too light or too dark and needs adjustment. "
I hope this will help you. There is hope, although the struggle never seems to end!