Light Flesh Tones

[Enzie Shahmiri]

I have been working alla prima, a departure from my much cherished glazing technique, but I seem to be going around in circles. One moment my light flesh tones are glowing, in the next they have turned pasty. I have followed John Howard Sanden

[Mike Dodson]

Enzie,

I use John Howard Sanden's "Pro Mix Colors" from time to time (when I get lazy) and experienced the same "pasty" appearance. I started applying a retouch varnish once the paint was dry to the touch and discovered it returned my colors back to thier original vibrancy.

I discovered later that this is also John Howard Sanden's approach.

[Enzie Shahmiri]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the hint I will give it a try. I am now trying to mix the paint directly on the canvas rather than mixing it on the palette. It seems to work out a bit better.

[Mike McCarty]

Enzie,

I copied this from the forum a while back. It was in response to a similar complaint.

John de la Vega wrote:

My suggestion is that you do another portrait, in which you could also add a bit more contrast, with brighter lights (start with, say, a Naples yellow light or deep -Old Holland Naples Yellow Deep Extra is a fabulous basic flesh tone- mixed with another Old Holland, Brilliant Pink, both great hues that keep you from having to use too much white, thus avoiding the 'chalky' look. Keep the non-light area clean (don't use browns or greys, just mix the shadows from deep rose and a bit or raw sienna, adding maybe a smidget of 'darker' yellow-green).

[Timothy C. Tyler]

The placement and relationships of all colors is the essential thing. If you take a square of paper and cut out a one inch square hole and hold it up to one spot on a Bouguereau or Sargent (especially the former) the color can look pretty unimpressive. I've found that often when you think you have the wrong color (value, intensity, hue, etc) it may be something else like drawing, form, edges. We painters can chase our tails endlessly. I suggest painting wholistically and getting everything close as you go and slowly adjusting all things against each other. I have lately begun to do really finished cartoons (which removes one thing). Whether it's called "mixing" or "adjusting" once the paint is on the canvas, you must adjust those colors per your reference. No one can hit the colors right on w/o doing that.

[Chris Saper]

Dear Enzie,

Without actually seeing the painting you discuss, there are a couple of thoughts that come to min. Although I haven't ever used the Pro-Mix colors, I have the Sanden book, and I think that the Pro-Mix palette is fundamentally very similar to Daniel Greene's palette. Before getting too far down the "What color is that?" path, Dan asks himself a basic temperature question: is the color warm? cool? or neutral?

Sometimes "pastiness" can be the result of adjacent colors or neutrals where one of the temperatures is wrong, particularly if the colors are close in value. After my experience in the Whitaker class, I have also found that (at least in my own experience) too much blending of color, once on the canvas, diminishes its strength. Going too light too soon is another culprit. Painting from photographs makes decisions on temperature terribly difficult because film won't be able to show subtle temperature shifts.

The other thing you might consider is mixing your strong colors and then using the Grumbacher Thalo Yellow-Green on your palette to desaturate skin tones that are too warm. The TYG is a brilliant shocking green, which, when you first squeeze some out of the tube, makes you think, "This can't possbily be right!" It doesn't darken the original color the way, for exambple a Viridian or Thalo Green will.

I hope this is helpful.

[Enzie Shahmiri]

Thank you all so much for your advice. I will try to make sense of it as I use it. The painting in question is of "Natasha". Sorry I don't have a reference photo - the dog ate it

No, actually there never was one. This is a painting done after having seen the "Sargent in Italy" exhibit. I loved those colors and had to somehow use them in a portrait.

[Timothy C. Tyler]

Enzie, there are key spots that I look for in paintings. You'll note this with other painters' work...Sargent is a good one. Note how the color at the edge of the lower lip in the shadow fades away into the skin tones just below...very softly.

Another point you'll want to think on is that be careful that you don't get the key (Or intensity) too high in stuff like the headdress. It would be helpful to see the Sargent you ref.-I expect there is less chroma in his work in places like the dress and hat. Light unifies stuff and he painted sight-size from life.

These are delicate things, and to quote Sargent, "In the really delicate passages one must work really hard to get those right.". (That's very loosely quoted.)

[Enzie Shahmiri]

Dear Tim,

Thank you for your kind observations. The Sargent painting that influenced my color choice was actually a landscape painting. It showed a building by the canal in Venice.

I have no reference for this piece since it is all my own creation. You are absolutely right though, the flowers have to be toned down and the corner of the mouth should blend into the skin. I also noticed that her rib cage is off and needs correcting. It always amazes me how the errors make themselves known, once you look at the work on-line. Since I had originally posted this thread, I have been working on the face and wonder if her skin is less pasty looking now?

[Timothy C. Tyler]

They are not pasty. In my work, my skin goes from too intense to too dull, back and forth until I feel I get the correct color. Those non-flesh things around the skin are great to judge against. As the work is coming together, you will find you have a part here and there that is spot on. Leave that and compare the other passages against that.

At this point in your work, I'd adjust the "other" stuff then come back to the flesh and knock it back a bit.