[Darla Dixon]

John Howard Sanden is one name that has put out a line of pre-mixed flesh tones...I want to begin in portrait oil painting (I am mainly just pencil art now)...so I would like to know if this is a good way to begin or if it would set me up to be stuck 'crutching' on this shortcut?

I have painted landscapes using the 5 basic colors in the water soluble Winsor & Newton Beginner's set, and was able to mix any colors I wanted more easily than I expected.

I also tried (still going to work on it really) a portrait of my daughter using this same 5 color set. I was able to obtain the flesh tones somewhat, but feel it looked so flat after so much effort.

So I'm wondering if I should go with the shortcut method of the premixed skin tones. I don't have the money or the space for 20+ tubes of paint either, so that's also one of my considerations.

Thanks so much for any advice you can give me on this.