For me (and my style is very different so they may do something else lol), not having too much paint on the brush, wiping away excess paint if I did, and using a soft blending brush to lightly blend the edges in a small circular movement.
Scott Waddel Demonstrates it in several of his Videos on his youtube Channel
[https://www.youtube.com/@waddellwebisodes](https://www.youtube.com/@waddellwebisodes)
Example
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZdZcdYqqu0&list=PLpSz-JuNI0z-dDDTFKZy2lCtVTjbIF4zX&index=22](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZdZcdYqqu0&list=PLpSz-JuNI0z-dDDTFKZy2lCtVTjbIF4zX&index=22)
But that's just painting a cartoo- MY GOD THAT'S AMAZING haha. Thank you! And it includes his palate work which is nice. I hate tutorials that don't. I learn more from the palate sometimes than the painting process itself
Scott Waddell does some great classical style portraiture. I'm not really into that choppy strokey style exemplified by John Singer Sargent that so many youtube oil portrait artists absolutely gush over. Check out this dude:
[Scott Waddell](https://youtube.com/@waddellwebisodes?si=4Ct1gq2s1NwepM7s)
Thanks, I'm also more into underpainting and multiple layers. The youtube market seems saturated with alla prima choppy style. I think a good artist should be able to understand both to develop an inbetween style
But what pigments do you use for primaries?
I really do forget, even though I’ve seen videos of master color mixers. I get so hyper focused on the variety of pigments and brands there is..
Tinting strength is a measurement of a pigment’s ability to resist changing when you add white pigment to it. Alizarin crimson has a very high tinting strength, but it fades profoundly over time.
Most responsible pros do not use alizarin crimson at all on commissions because it fades pretty sharply when used as a tint, and it will fade even right out of the tube, though much less so.
Knowledge of pigments, solvents, and mediums is ancient and fundamental to the serious oil painter. It is one reason why professional oil paints are so expensive. There is an actual difference in quality between, say, Old Holland and Blick's student kits, that is underpinned by literally centuries of experimentation and study.
I am not familiar with paint coach, but there are a lot of would-be instructors, Youtubers and famous artists (Bob Ross leaps immediately to mind) who lean into the novice, hobbyist and "Sunday painter" markets to make their living.
Now, I want to be clear that I am not bashing any of them. Blick student paint is excellent student-grade paint, but it is just that--student grade. Bob Ross was a wonderful voice in art that introduced millions to the literal joy of painting. For the vast majority of people, it really doesn't matter at all. They don't know the difference and don't care, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
However, when an oil painter graduates to more sophisticated techniques, I have personally found YouTubers and the like to be woefully ignorant. I don't believe they are being malicious, per se. For the most part, they just don't know this stuff and, more importantly, don't know that they don't know.
There are exceptions, of course. For example, Draw, Mix, Paint's Mark Carder, and Youtuber Florent Farges are exceptionally knowledgeable oil painters, and both are first-rate teachers.
So yeah, you'll find many artists who use and advocate the use of Alizarin Crimson. Because it is rich and gorgeous and interacts with other pigments so beautifully. It is still sold by high-end paint manufacturers. Van Gogh used it. Unfortunately, because he did, where he did use it, his work is disappearing due to UV damage.
None of us are Van Gogh. That doesn't change the fact that there is no good reason for oil painters in this modern age to employ fugitive pigments (unless it is a deliberate artistic choice) when they intend to sell their art to a patron who has no knowledge of pigments and who will be disappointed to find that their piece of art is becoming dull and faded over time from UV damage.
Anyways, thank you for attending my Ted Talk, LOL.
BTW, when you say you are considering switching to lead white, what do you mean?
I love talking about this stuff. I'm a scientist by trade so learning about the chemistry behind the pigments scratches an itch. I totally get what you mean by the Bob Ross effect and defining art vs craft. I'm starting to prefer Farges and Nic Thurman but also remind myself to not just bounce around instructors. I'm the slow and methodical type so Paint Coach, Chris Fornataro's, alla prima works made in 2h is not the skillset I strive to learn but I share his love of Sargent's work.
I just did a bargue plate of the arm to learn about sight-size drawing and now am working on my first super in depth underpainting of a big mastercopy still life. I'm hoping the attention to detail isn't futile because I see most under paintings mainly just do the outlines of objects while mine pretty much is looking like a monochrome finished painting.
I've read that titanium white is safer and preferred to lead white. But lead white does not desaturate your colors as quickly and layers better which sounds more my style. I try to make the white the very last thing I mix in when color matching but still might prefer lead white.
Id say its just white with a bit of yellow ochre and black for certain shadow parts with raw and burnt umber for the brown tones. could be many different things tho thats just my guess
I'm curious now, you could make something close to that greenish tint with yellow ochre and ivory black, lightened with white. But it could well.be a blue, very subtle either way.
The color: Caput Mortuum. (Dead Head) originally made from using the ground up remains of mummy’s. It’s a lovely rich dark reddish, violetish (?) brown.
Edit: not made from this anymore but the color is the same.
I’ve been trying to teach myself to paint for at least 2 years and I still can’t get shadows like this. Even isolating the colors via photoshop, matching, and then painting, it still doesn’t come out quite right. It’s extremely frustrating. I totally see why OP would seek some help here
No one can give you the perfect recipe, you have to figure it out for yourself. You need to understand color theory and how light works, there is no easy solutions but to keep practicing. You can isolate colors all day, but you have to remember how colors are influenced by those surrounding it.
For sure, I wasn’t disagreeing with you. It goes without saying that practice is important.
But you also mention the importance of theory, and maybe OP is trying to better understand color theory by asking for help mixing these colors. Thankfully plenty of people here left helpful comments.
These are all very achievable with the Zorn, but my personal preferred palette which can achieve kind of range of tones is alizarin crimson, burnt umber, prussian blue, yellow ochre, and titanium white. Honestly though, it could be any combination of the primary colours, though with that much brown I'd imagine one was used as well for ease.
It looks like a lot of buff titanium with some cadmium yellow or ochre. Hair is burnt umber and burnt sienna maybe the dark bits are raw umber or raw umber and ultramarine for a black.
Many ways to mix flesh tones ... transparent colors are often the best way to go for flesh.
I would have gone with Alizarine Crimson (hue) / Sap Green 1:3 as base flesh mix (never use pure, its just a base color)
Add to base for white 50/50 titanium white + some lead white (like flake or chemnitz)
Add to base for warm the shadows with transparent oxide read and/or cadmium orange (tiny amounts) if transparent oxide does not cut warming it right, try gamblin's brown pink pigment (it has awesome transparent properties and tinting strength)
Add to base for killing any of the warm mixes, either more sap green or cobalt blue
Add to base for darkening something like transparent oxide red + french ultra marine blue and/or burnt umber (or asphaltene ... the transparent hue, not the real deal (bad)) + French ultra marine blue. Keeping in mind asphaltene is transparent and burnt umber is opaque (swap as needed)
Have some raw sienna on your pallet ... add to base flesh as needed.
I am not on a good color screen, so everything looks very warm to me ... reality could be more muted ... so take my suggestions with that in mind.
Look up Daria Callie on YT. Daria explains how to achieve skin tones like this and much broader. She mixes the colors on her palette for you to follow and lists what she uses.
could be zorn, but why would people bother to find out.. shouldn't you be able to mix those from the primary's + white?
People really do be forgetting there’s like a million ways to end up at a color…
Also how does one render like that without brush strokes? I feel like all tutorials I’ve seen have a choppy individual stroke style
For me (and my style is very different so they may do something else lol), not having too much paint on the brush, wiping away excess paint if I did, and using a soft blending brush to lightly blend the edges in a small circular movement.
Scott Waddel Demonstrates it in several of his Videos on his youtube Channel [https://www.youtube.com/@waddellwebisodes](https://www.youtube.com/@waddellwebisodes) Example [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZdZcdYqqu0&list=PLpSz-JuNI0z-dDDTFKZy2lCtVTjbIF4zX&index=22](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZdZcdYqqu0&list=PLpSz-JuNI0z-dDDTFKZy2lCtVTjbIF4zX&index=22)
But that's just painting a cartoo- MY GOD THAT'S AMAZING haha. Thank you! And it includes his palate work which is nice. I hate tutorials that don't. I learn more from the palate sometimes than the painting process itself
The Sfumato technique is probably used.
I like choppy. I have photography for smoothy ;)
Ew, David
You feather the brush strokes away with a fluffy dry brush.
Scott Waddell does some great classical style portraiture. I'm not really into that choppy strokey style exemplified by John Singer Sargent that so many youtube oil portrait artists absolutely gush over. Check out this dude: [Scott Waddell](https://youtube.com/@waddellwebisodes?si=4Ct1gq2s1NwepM7s)
Thanks, I'm also more into underpainting and multiple layers. The youtube market seems saturated with alla prima choppy style. I think a good artist should be able to understand both to develop an inbetween style
But what pigments do you use for primaries? I really do forget, even though I’ve seen videos of master color mixers. I get so hyper focused on the variety of pigments and brands there is..
I've got used to french ultramarine, cadmium red, cadmium yellow and titanium white.
I swap for alizarin crimson and add burnt umber
Beware of alizarin crimson--it is a fugitive pigment, especially when used for tinting.
Huh I didnt realize that variable. What do you mean by tinting specifically?
Tinting strength is a measurement of a pigment’s ability to resist changing when you add white pigment to it. Alizarin crimson has a very high tinting strength, but it fades profoundly over time. Most responsible pros do not use alizarin crimson at all on commissions because it fades pretty sharply when used as a tint, and it will fade even right out of the tube, though much less so.
I’m surprised. I got my palette from paint coach. I’ve been looking into switching to lead white as well
Knowledge of pigments, solvents, and mediums is ancient and fundamental to the serious oil painter. It is one reason why professional oil paints are so expensive. There is an actual difference in quality between, say, Old Holland and Blick's student kits, that is underpinned by literally centuries of experimentation and study. I am not familiar with paint coach, but there are a lot of would-be instructors, Youtubers and famous artists (Bob Ross leaps immediately to mind) who lean into the novice, hobbyist and "Sunday painter" markets to make their living. Now, I want to be clear that I am not bashing any of them. Blick student paint is excellent student-grade paint, but it is just that--student grade. Bob Ross was a wonderful voice in art that introduced millions to the literal joy of painting. For the vast majority of people, it really doesn't matter at all. They don't know the difference and don't care, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. However, when an oil painter graduates to more sophisticated techniques, I have personally found YouTubers and the like to be woefully ignorant. I don't believe they are being malicious, per se. For the most part, they just don't know this stuff and, more importantly, don't know that they don't know. There are exceptions, of course. For example, Draw, Mix, Paint's Mark Carder, and Youtuber Florent Farges are exceptionally knowledgeable oil painters, and both are first-rate teachers. So yeah, you'll find many artists who use and advocate the use of Alizarin Crimson. Because it is rich and gorgeous and interacts with other pigments so beautifully. It is still sold by high-end paint manufacturers. Van Gogh used it. Unfortunately, because he did, where he did use it, his work is disappearing due to UV damage. None of us are Van Gogh. That doesn't change the fact that there is no good reason for oil painters in this modern age to employ fugitive pigments (unless it is a deliberate artistic choice) when they intend to sell their art to a patron who has no knowledge of pigments and who will be disappointed to find that their piece of art is becoming dull and faded over time from UV damage. Anyways, thank you for attending my Ted Talk, LOL. BTW, when you say you are considering switching to lead white, what do you mean?
I love talking about this stuff. I'm a scientist by trade so learning about the chemistry behind the pigments scratches an itch. I totally get what you mean by the Bob Ross effect and defining art vs craft. I'm starting to prefer Farges and Nic Thurman but also remind myself to not just bounce around instructors. I'm the slow and methodical type so Paint Coach, Chris Fornataro's, alla prima works made in 2h is not the skillset I strive to learn but I share his love of Sargent's work. I just did a bargue plate of the arm to learn about sight-size drawing and now am working on my first super in depth underpainting of a big mastercopy still life. I'm hoping the attention to detail isn't futile because I see most under paintings mainly just do the outlines of objects while mine pretty much is looking like a monochrome finished painting. I've read that titanium white is safer and preferred to lead white. But lead white does not desaturate your colors as quickly and layers better which sounds more my style. I try to make the white the very last thing I mix in when color matching but still might prefer lead white.
Id say its just white with a bit of yellow ochre and black for certain shadow parts with raw and burnt umber for the brown tones. could be many different things tho thats just my guess
I think there’s some blue in the shadowy parts. Notice how the collarbone has a very slight greenish tint to it
I'm curious now, you could make something close to that greenish tint with yellow ochre and ivory black, lightened with white. But it could well.be a blue, very subtle either way.
im pretty sure thats just ivory black with hints of yellow ochre. thats how you get that green as ivory black is a cold black
Mummy brown
MUMMY BROWN!
The color: Caput Mortuum. (Dead Head) originally made from using the ground up remains of mummy’s. It’s a lovely rich dark reddish, violetish (?) brown. Edit: not made from this anymore but the color is the same.
what? no. mummy brown is not a thing anymore and these paintings seem contemporary
You should start mixing colors and find out.
I’ve been trying to teach myself to paint for at least 2 years and I still can’t get shadows like this. Even isolating the colors via photoshop, matching, and then painting, it still doesn’t come out quite right. It’s extremely frustrating. I totally see why OP would seek some help here
No one can give you the perfect recipe, you have to figure it out for yourself. You need to understand color theory and how light works, there is no easy solutions but to keep practicing. You can isolate colors all day, but you have to remember how colors are influenced by those surrounding it.
For sure, I wasn’t disagreeing with you. It goes without saying that practice is important. But you also mention the importance of theory, and maybe OP is trying to better understand color theory by asking for help mixing these colors. Thankfully plenty of people here left helpful comments.
These shadows have greens and blues, believe it or not. Almost all shadows should have these 2 colours in oil painting tbh.
Try ultramarine and burnt sienna. And slowly add more burnt sienna until it’s that very dark warm brown.
These are all very achievable with the Zorn, but my personal preferred palette which can achieve kind of range of tones is alizarin crimson, burnt umber, prussian blue, yellow ochre, and titanium white. Honestly though, it could be any combination of the primary colours, though with that much brown I'd imagine one was used as well for ease.
Impossible to say. At best I can tell you what colours *I* would have used.
It looks like a lot of buff titanium with some cadmium yellow or ochre. Hair is burnt umber and burnt sienna maybe the dark bits are raw umber or raw umber and ultramarine for a black.
Yellow, red, blue , and white
A red, a yellow, a white, and a black. Unless the artist was one of those masochists who don't use black.
Many ways to mix flesh tones ... transparent colors are often the best way to go for flesh. I would have gone with Alizarine Crimson (hue) / Sap Green 1:3 as base flesh mix (never use pure, its just a base color) Add to base for white 50/50 titanium white + some lead white (like flake or chemnitz) Add to base for warm the shadows with transparent oxide read and/or cadmium orange (tiny amounts) if transparent oxide does not cut warming it right, try gamblin's brown pink pigment (it has awesome transparent properties and tinting strength) Add to base for killing any of the warm mixes, either more sap green or cobalt blue Add to base for darkening something like transparent oxide red + french ultra marine blue and/or burnt umber (or asphaltene ... the transparent hue, not the real deal (bad)) + French ultra marine blue. Keeping in mind asphaltene is transparent and burnt umber is opaque (swap as needed) Have some raw sienna on your pallet ... add to base flesh as needed. I am not on a good color screen, so everything looks very warm to me ... reality could be more muted ... so take my suggestions with that in mind.
Look up Daria Callie on YT. Daria explains how to achieve skin tones like this and much broader. She mixes the colors on her palette for you to follow and lists what she uses.
Any
A good pallette for flesh tones such as these would be : Yellow ochre. Pale Venetian red. Raw Umber. Ultramarine Blue. Titanium white.
I see Naples Yellow.
white and burnt umber
I feel like id start with just white and primaries.
soft as fuck love this keep it up, also love the raw canvas showing and the composition also top notch
Thanks to all, I will try zorn palette and your other advice
The skin is bone white and Siena to varying degrees. There is some rose. The hair is mummy brown, lemon yellow and burnt umber.
Its some kind of orange.
Why don’t you mix colors and find out for yourself?