Help with Skin tone triads

[papabees]

I love the triads because I'm lazy and don't have to think to blend and highlight. I'm a... marginal painter.

 

Question 1 -  I was hoping to get 2 triads to basically cover the "Caucasian" sector. I was thinking of the Bronzed skin Triad and the Fair Skin Triad. That would be 9259 9260 9261 and 9046 9047 9048. Could I blend/shade from 9259 to 9048 and it hypothetically look right? I would likely only use three to four colors but i want to be able to move up and down the six to get slight variances in tone. So I basically want two triads that allow me to do so.

 

Question 2 - Is there a good triad for Middle Eastern/Egyptian Skin tones? Ideally it would be a darker shade of the above, giving me nine paints to run up and down but not as important. 

 

I know little of color theory so please give me your thoughts to achieve my goal.   

[strawhat]

For "generic Caucasian" I use the Tanned Skin and Fair Skin triads.  In my experience those two step up quite nicely. 

 

Bronzed Skin is actually one of the few triads I don't have, so can't really comment.  I can tell you that sometimes paint mixes...oddly.  I once attempted to find a midpoint between the redhead and blonde hair triads...and ended up with something that looked a little too like the "Bright Skin" triad instead of getting me a reddish-blonde.

 

That's just one reason why I don't do much mixing.

 

I like the Olive Skin Triad for a Mediterranean vibe.

[Painting Dog]

I also mostly use the Tanned Skin triad for Caucasian skintones, with the Fair triad mostly for highlighting. I find that starting with the Fair triad makes for a really pasty-looking skin. 

 

I think the Olive Skin triad does well for duskier skin, and I really like the Dark Skin triad for darker skin tones. It's really pretty, and has given me some very nice results. 

 

I am also a "maybe slightly better than middling" painter, so YMMV. 😁

[Auberon]

The Reaper Triads of Fair Skin, Tanned Skin, and Dark Skin make a 9 paint continuum.  You can pick your mid-tone and then proceed up or down the scale for highlights and shadows.  That said, your final product will look lacking if you are aiming higher than tabletop.  You will want a reddish brown to mix into your shadows.  Rosy Shadow, Chestnut Brown, and Mahogany Brown are all good choices, depending on how dark your skin is.

[papabees]

1 hour ago, Auberon said:

The Reaper Triads of Fair Skin, Tanned Skin, and Dark Skin make a 9 paint continuum.  You can pick your mid-tone and then proceed up or down the scale for highlights and shadows.  That said, your final product will look lacking if you are aiming higher than tabletop.  You will want a reddish brown to mix into your shadows.  Rosy Shadow, Chestnut Brown, and Mahogany Brown are all good choices, depending on how dark your skin is.

Thanks for all the replies. Really helps. Auberon I'm curious as to why you think the final product will look lacking. I'm certainly not what I would consider a great painter but I am starting to take strides and want to use "good" tools. What is it about these that would limit me to table top quality in your opinion? 

On 11/20/2022 at 8:01 AM, Painting Dog said:

I also mostly use the Tanned Skin triad for Caucasian skintones, with the Fair triad mostly for highlighting. I find that starting with the Fair triad makes for a really pasty-looking skin. 

 

I think the Olive Skin triad does well for duskier skin, and I really like the Dark Skin triad for darker skin tones. It's really pretty, and has given me some very nice results. 

 

I am also a "maybe slightly better than middling" painter, so YMMV. 😁

I cannot find an Olive Skin triad. Only Olive skin as a core color. Am I missing something?

[Auberon]

19 minutes ago, papabees said:

1 hour ago, Auberon said:

The Reaper Triads of Fair Skin, Tanned Skin, and Dark Skin make a 9 paint continuum.  You can pick your mid-tone and then proceed up or down the scale for highlights and shadows.  That said, your final product will look lacking if you are aiming higher than tabletop.  You will want a reddish brown to mix into your shadows.  Rosy Shadow, Chestnut Brown, and Mahogany Brown are all good choices, depending on how dark your skin is.

Thanks for all the replies. Really helps. Auberon I'm curious as to why you think the final product will look lacking. I'm certainly not what I would consider a great painter but I am starting to take strides and want to use "good" tools. What is it about these that would limit me to table top quality in your opinion? 

 

That range is just missing some colors/tones that are found in human skin.  Aside from the paints I've mentioned you can also do things like mixing some yellow into your highlight or glazing magenta into your shadows.

 

If you look at this gallery you will see some examples of how varied you can get.  Arnau Lazaro

 

Actually this might be a better example, just because I know he uses Reaper skin tones and mixes in the paints I mentioned above. David Powell

[strawhat]

1 hour ago, papabees said:

I cannot find an Olive Skin triad. Only Olive skin as a core color. Am I missing something?

 

Ahh, dangit.

 

It appears that Reaper has discontinued Olive Shadow and Olive Highlight.  There was a big closeout on a number of shades a year or so back (maybe a little longer), and they must not have made the cut.  Sorry about that.

[SparrowMarie]

I really like the Tanned Skin, Rosy Skin, and Bronzed Skin triads.

 

I find the Tanned Skin and Bronzed Skin triads give me a good middle range of general Caucasian tones.

 

Rosy Skin triad gives me a good result for what I normally do when I do Caucasian skin tones on female models. It's got a little bit of life in it but still fairly pale. I used the Fair Skin triad for a very long time and then switched over to Rosy Skin. The picture below is an example of the Rosy triad. I'm not sure if I have pictures of the other two off hand.