Painting Beautiful Skin Tones with Color & Light: In Oil, Pastel and Watercolor

You'll begin with a review of the five essential painting elements (drawing, value, color, composition and edges), then learn how light and color influence the appearance of skin tones. Artist Chris Saperprovides the advice and examples that make every lesson and technique easy to understand—immediately improving the quality of your work. You'll discover how to:

Paint the four major skin color groups (Caucasian, African American, Asian and Hispanic)

Refine these colors into dozens of possible variations within each group

Select your palette and mix hues for clean, beautiful colors

Determine the color and temperature of light that falls on your subject

Paint direct and indirect sunlight, artificial light and highlights of light

Master the four elements that determine color in shadow

Use photographic references when you can't paint directly from life

You'll also find seven step-by-step demonstrations and an appendix of sample color charts for each major skin type under a range of lighting variations. It's all you need to bring your portraits to life!