Seeking Opinions on PreMixed flesh tone paint

[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.

[Michael Georges]

The most helpful thing to do from a learning and career standpoint is to learn to see, mix, and understand flesh tones yourself.

Like the Flesh crayon in the box of Crayolas, premixed flesh tones are rarely going to match those of your subject. Humans have several differing tones of skin (yellow, orange, red, olive). Further, light plays over the skin and changes and tints its hues.

Learn to see skin and mix tones that match for each portrait you do. There are many books out there that can help you get the basics of flesh tones down. Look also in this forum for some advice.

Hope that helps!

[Darla Dixon]

Thanks Michael...I think it would be wrong for me to use the pre mixed tones also - what would I do if I got used to crutching on those and then they were taken off the market and I had to suddenly learn to mix colors while I had a clientele?!? That's not all that likely to happen, but it sounds like an artist sitcom plotline.

Yep, I think I should bite the bullet and learn to do it myself.

[Chris Saper]

Dear Darla,

I would strongly and absolutely recommend that painters create their own palettes, based on formal, traditional color theory and color wheels (for example, Stephen Quiller's wheel; the Munsell wheel, and Hal Reed's analogous color wheel). You can mix virtually any color (with the exception of some extraordinary man-made colors like the quinacrodones, pthalos and dioxazines)from the six primary and secondary points on the wheel, plus white.

First, I think it's important to become proficient at seeing, deciding on, and mixing the color you are after; then if you want to add "convenience" colors, do so to your heart's content. At that point you will know WHY you are choosing Flesh #34.9 (or whatever)--because its temperature is cooler, the value is lighter, the hue is more saturated, etc. Every lighting situation, skin tone, and ambient color requires unique choices about color mixing. I just think if you get the principles of what you want, why you want it, and how you can get it, it is ultimately easier to solve the questions of color.

Notwithstanding all of this, let me say that I feel John Sanden is an extraordinary, fantastic painter, and I hold his work in the highest esteem.

Best wishes, Chris