Life and handmade watercolors

[eller]

Life's busy but okay. :3

- I had mail! A lovely handmade New Year's card from goss and a letter from yhlee. Also a few cards from postcrossing. They really seem to deliver international mail in batches.

- I've almost finished my Chocolate Box assignment! And I'm even having fun writing it. That's a surprise. :D

- I love my ice cream machine. I made apricot ice cream with yoghurt and it was great!

- Still experimenting with handmade watercolors, the mad scientist way. If I continue this hobby I should probably invest in scales at some point. LOL

So here's my next experiment: skin tones!



These were overdue: I'm super annoyed that, if you try to buy pre-mixed skin tones they always contain opaque white so you can't go as dark as you want with them. Also, I really dislike having to use "earth pigments" like PBr7 or PY42 for brown skin because they look like, well, earth - not skin. (It's the texture.) I wanted transparent and staining and absolutely-not-granulating skin tones that I can use for dark skin and dilute for light skin.

So... I actually produced these from the primary colors. :D All three skin tones contain the same pigments, just in different ratios. I'm pretty confident I can render almost all skin colors with a combination of these three, and maybe the help of an indigo or dark purple (which I don't need to produce: there are enough on the market) - but, importantly, they're not orange-pink-whiteish mud...

Comments

[yhlee]

Those look fantastic! I've never been tempted by premixed flesh tones for precisely the reason you cite - the muddy whites are ugh. I haven't minded using earths for flesh tones, though - I guess I kind of like the granulation, even if it doesn't look "smooth" the way skin does. If I want a really hyper-smooth effect I do digital painting instead...

[eller]

I guess my main problem with the earth pigments is that they rewet so easily, which makes working in layers difficult - they're simply not compatible with my technique, they just get horribly blotchy. XD

[minoanmiss]

I love the skin tones. I just held my hand up to the computer to compare myself to the brown. (I have a little more yellow.)

[eller]

Then you'd have to mix the brown with the peach to get the correct tone? Heh. ^^

[minoanmiss]

I think the peach might add too much pink? Ahahah we should meet in a cafe and discuss. :D

[eller]

Ahaha, color mixing is fun :D

[mekare]

>>>I'm super annoyed that, if you try to buy pre-mixed skin tones they always contain opaque white so you can't go as dark as you want with them.

YES! I bought a Naples yellow that looked like a good fit for white skintones but it is hell trying to work with the chalkiness when I want to combine it with other colours. The peach and brown especially look lovely.

[olivermoss]

Those colors are amazing!

[dhampyresa]

I too share your opinions on pre-mixed"earth" skin tones.

You might be missing a more olive-esque undertone skin tone?

[eller]

Nah, if I need an olive undertone, I can always go to Green Gold (PY129) - that's already there, and it's a great transparent color, so I don't have to make it by myself. :D

[corvidology]

Good luck on almost finishing your Chocolate Box assignment!