FLESH COLORS SET

Six oil tones for painting skin

The package brings together six tubes of oil paint which between them cover human skin from the lightest places on the forehead and nose to the deepest folds. The shades are Light Flesh Tone, Basic Flesh Tone, Sunny Flesh Tone, Faded Flesh and Flesh Shadow, to which the dark brown Cassel Earth, also listed under the name Shadow Brown, is added. The shades follow on from one another, so they can be arranged from the lightest to the darkest and blended together.

An oil binder dries over hours and days, and that is exactly where its advantage lies. Paint that has been laid down can still be blended, knocked back or drawn into the neighboring tone long afterwards, so that the transitions on a face arise by mixing directly on the surface of the figure rather than by building up dozens of thin coats. Anyone who builds busts or larger figures will appreciate being able to move the shadow under the cheekbone for as long as it takes to sit exactly where it should.

The procedure is the classic one. The surface is first evened out with acrylic paint, the oil is brushed on in a thin coat and thinned with a thinner meant for oils. It pays to draw the excess binder off on a paper towel before painting, or the surface will stay unpleasantly glossy. Once the work is thoroughly dry, it is best sealed with matte varnish. Anyone reaching for oils for the first time should reckon with the fact that drying cannot be hurried with heat, as the coat could wrinkle.

The uses do not end with figures, either. Flesh tones also serve well on light wood, on the leather of straps and bags or on the dried sand tones of equipment, wherever a warm and slightly dirtied shade without a cold cast is needed.