Susan Patton

Painting portraits can be complicated, but mixing skin tones shouldn’t be. In my workshops, I teach a method to simplify the process.

How to mix skin tones

1. First, choose a “base” color like yellow ochre, transparent oxide yellow, raw umber, burnt umber, raw sienna, transparent oxide red, or transparent oxide brown based on the skin tone you are painting. This is what makes this process work for all ethnicities.
2. Mix the base color with white to form the “foundation color.”
3.  Mix that “foundation color” with various warm and cool colors- like red, blue, and green. The goal is to tint it- so you only need a touch of the primary color.
4. The result is a palette of premixed harmonious- warm, cool, and neutral- skin tones with the correct “undertone” throughout.

Mixing the needed skin tones is now almost done. Small tweaks in the value or temperature will be necessary, but that is much easier than staring at pure red, green, and yellow piles of paint every time you need a new mixture.

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A closer look

Let’s look closer at these steps. I will demo for you in pictures so that you can see what I do. (I also have uploaded a video on YouTube that explains this process. @susanpattonart)

1. Choose a base color.

To help you decide, do a simple color chart. (A quick one- I promise.) This will help you to choose which “base” color is best for your subject’s skin tone. Mix one base color at a time – yellow ochre, transparent oxide yellow, raw umber, burnt umber, raw sienna, transparent oxide red, or transparent oxide brown with white and put it onto a canvas. Repeat with each color until you have a sample canvas of foundation colors to reference each time you paint portraits. (Eventually, you will be able to choose your base color without this aid.)

Next, hold this canvas with its mixtures up to your subject. Choose the color that has the correct undertones. Choose the one with the least contrast between your subject and the mixtures,

I made a canvas with several sample “Base” colors on them. I put it next to skin tones requiring a different base color based on their undertones for you to see the advantage in making this color chart. I can use this simple color chart to choose my base color with portraits in the future if need be.

Tip: To help you out even more, mix several warms and cools for each base color and paint them onto separately labeled canvases. You can keep these canvases for future use when choosing your “base” color.

These 6 x 8 canvases were made with different “base” colors, but otherwise the same palette. The first is Transparent Oxide Brown, the second is Raw Sienna, the bottom left is Transparent Oxide Red, and the bottom right is Burnt Umber. Which would you choose as your base color for these pictures?

Which base color would you choose for doing a master copy of Sargeant’s painting?

Once you have chosen your “Base color”, put a small line of it onto your palette with a thicker line of white above or below it.

Tip – Can’t decide? A good middle-of-the-road is “Raw Sienna” for light skin. “Burnt Umber” works well for darker skin that has cool undertones.

2. Mix the base color and white to form the appearance of makeup that would blend in with the person’s skin.

Above that line, put dots of other colors. These colors are up to you and can be chosen based on the colors you see in the person’s skin. The idea is to have both warm and cool colors. Put a dot of blue, red, yellow, green, and black paint in a row above the foundation line. (You can also use any of the colors we named above as a “base color” in this row if you’d like.) No color is outlawed in this row- these are up to you. You can also put as many colors as you’d like.

Tip: Can’t decide which colors to put on this line? Try Ultramarine blue, Cad red, Alizarin Crimson, Yellow Lemon, Sap Green, Transparent Red Oxide, and Black. Mix purple using blue and alizarin.

Tip: Also be sure to include colors reflected onto the person’s skin from their clothing or surroundings. For example, if you plan to paint their shirt “Turquoise” be sure to put “Turquoise” in this line. That is because light bounces and carries color with it. Some of this color will bounce up and reflect in the skin around it.

3. Now that you have your “Foundation” line and dots of colors above, take your palette knife and “tint” the foundation with the colors- one at a time. For example, take a small amount of the blue and mix it into the foundation color (base color + white + small drop of blue), next, bring a small amount of red into the pure foundation below to get a pinkish flesh color (base color + white + red). Continue this process across your palette until you have various flesh tones to paint with.

Tip: Depending on your base colors, your flesh tones will have an undertone of warm or cool. Different base colors will yield a different spectrum of colors.

4. You are now ready to begin painting the portrait! The advantage of this method is that in choosing a base color, the colors stay “interconnected.” This makes them flow harmoniously from one to the next as the form turns around the head.

Tip: You can also mix the pure colors to form darker colors.

Be aware:

1. Skin tones do not have to be matched precisely. The value and temperature are much more important than matching the hex color code. Look at Sorolla’s painting, After the Bath. Sorolla was much more concerned with beautiful shifts in temperature and getting the light and shadow correct than with matching the precise skin tones. It appears he wanted every area to be beautiful, regardless of the “actual” color.

These are some colors that I sampled from the skin of the lady and the child in this painting. Notice the beautiful warm and cool colors.

2. Avoiding plastic-looking skin, unless it is your intent. In my painting, Cherished, I painted a little girl and her baby doll.

There are differences between the baby doll and the little girl’s flesh. The baby doll is made of plastic in 1 color, so the only change of color or value is the light reflecting on the hard surface. Conversely, the girl’s hand has the warmth of blood flow, a bigger temperature change where the light hits it, and limited reflection because the skin is porous and soft. To show these differences in a painting, use a change of temperatures with similar values to indicate translucence. Control the amount of reflection on the skin by using stronger chroma without a big change in value.  To show light reflection on the doll, use a change in value with less chroma. 

3. The application of the paint and the direction/visibility of the brushstrokes are as important as the color you choose. Every artist has their tendencies and practices regarding this. Practice and time will tell your preference. The Portrait Society of America hosts an annual International Portrait Society Convention. It is a great way to see wonderful examples of beautiful portraiture. This painting was done as one of the “Faceoff” demonstrations by artist Jeff Hein at this year’s International Portrait Society Conference. Note how every color, temperature, and direction of the brushstroke is intentional.

4. Mixing beautiful skin tones is important but secondary to getting the drawing correct. Drawing with charcoal is a great way to practice getting likeness by focusing on turning form without color. After learning to draw, you can learn to sculpt (push/pull) the painting with temperature and “Color Value”, as Everett Raymond Kinstler would say. Never just color. Never just value. “Color-Value.”

This is a charcoal sketch of my grandmother. I drew it from a photo of her looking at me one day when I visited her. It is just like her, even though it is monochromatic.

My process of mixing skin tones is not the only way that works nor the only way I ever paint, but it has been an effective method to help my workshop participants see color in portraits. Maybe this will help you, as well, get a “head start” on mixing skin tones.

To see Susan’s upcoming workshop schedule, visit www.susanpattonart.com/workshops

View Susan’s video here: https://youtu.be/eKuH-oWqQx4?si=vw1IqotYPHuKRHr2

This week OPA shares the story of mother and daughter, professional artist duo Dot Courson and Susan Patton. We’ve asked each artist to tell us how the other inspires them, and how their artistic journey is entwined.  

First, we’ll hear from Susan Patton:

Dot Courson is my mother. If someone did not initially know me, that’s all I have to say to make a connection. And it is a connection I am proud of. Not only is Dot Courson an amazing painter of southern landscapes, but she is one of the greatest champions of other people around her, including me.

“One day your work may be compared to Faulkner’s, in that both you and he capture the feeling of north Mississippi and how it seems to affect human beings.”

— Letter from H.B., August, 2018

This is how one collector described my mother’s artwork. Her feelings of the land she grew up on speak volumes as you walk through her studio and gallery in north Mississippi. 

“I discovered that my own little postage stamp of native soil was worth writing about and that I would never live long enough to exhaust it.”

— William Faulkner

One thing many people do not realize is that my mother has not always had the means to help others. She and her siblings grew up in a foster home because her own family was not able to take care of them. She had very few material possessions before going to a foster home, but remembers loving her parents, despite their poverty. Her father, my grandfather, was deaf and had difficulty speaking related to his deafness, but was a very smart, compassionate father who taught her how to draw. She remembers sitting at a table and her father showing her basic drawing skills on the back of a paper sack. Drawing just came naturally to him. She says that she remembers how proud she was when a visitor would walk up and ask her Dad to draw something for them. Most people did not know he was as bright as he was because of his limitations in communication. But my Mom did, and communicated with him in her own unique way. Later, when she became a nurse, Mom never judged a patient at face value, remembering those times with her dad. When I worked as a physical therapist, I naturally carried on that compassion as best I could, seeing what a difference that my mother made in the lives of her patients. 

I painted Mom’s portrait several years ago. She sat for me in her studio as I painted it and I turned the large TV on behind me for her to watch while I painted.  We still joke about how she kept laughing at the TV show, and was not at all still. It is not my best work, but it is something I treasure. When I finished, someone asked me, “Are you not going to put a paint brush in her hand?” My answer was “No, I did not paint Dot Courson the artist, I painted my Mom.”  I titled the picture, My Mother’s Eyes,” because I feel that I captured the sincerity of love in her eyes as she looked my way.

As anyone who knows her will agree, that as an artist, my mother Dot Courson, is going to be highly known and collected for years to come. And that is because there is truthfulness and soul in her paintings of the Mississippi landscape. She, like Faulkner, can expound upon 2 acres of land with such depth and vision that you are drawn in and begin to feel what she feels just for a few minutes, and it is powerful.

She began to study painting about 25 years ago.  Along the way, in order to master her skills, she took workshops with various artists across the country. Eventually, I also began to experiment with painting. Mom decided she would host workshops near her home in Pontotoc, MS, so I could take the workshops as well. That decision not only boosted my work, but also led to hundreds of people in the southeastern United States having the opportunity to study art as well. She and I learned together from various master artists that she invited, and I grew exponentially in my ability to paint.

Then, in 2008, my mother and I were invited to represent Mississippi artists in the presidential debate reception in Oxford, MS. As the years rolled on, numerous publications began to interview us as they heard the story of a mother and daughter who were professional artists in northern Mississippi, and who are as interested in the other’s success as they were their own. 

During this time, I began to paint full time. I developed a love for color. Mom developed a love for design. We were like a waltz — her doing her thing, me doing mine — in perfect rhythm.

And as I painted, I began to mimic my mother, not in style or subject, but in passion and truth in my work. Like her, I painted things I was familiar with and cared deeply about, such as little moments in time with family, and the natural beauty in the flowers and fresh garden vegetables that I saw. Mom did the same with landscapes and skies. Our style was different, but we would champion, critique and coach each other when we would visit each other’s studios.

In 2018, I called my mother to let her know that my painting of my grandmother in the kitchen, Still Stirring (at 93), was accepted into the OPA Eastern Show. She said, “I was too!! Pieces of the Sun got in!” We were the only mother/daughter artists represented in the show. Needless to say, we were full of joy and celebrated together – not just because we got in the show, but because we were holding hands and walking the road to success together. 

“Did you learn to paint from your mother?” people ask me. I answer: “I learned more than how to paint — I learned how to see.”

— Susan Patton

Here is what Dot Courson writes about her artist daughter, Susan Patton:

My daughter, artist Susan Patton, does not try to stand out; she just focuses on growing and improving.  She looks for what is solid and good in life, and in people, and is a woman of great spiritual faith.  Her art, like her life, is deliberate.  She thinks about what is beautiful and meaningful and puts that in her work. 

Susan and I are both full time, professional artists, but we paint different subject matter.  I paint landscapes, but Susan likes to paint what she calls, “memories to hold onto,” which are based on her past experiences. For her, this means the people she grew up around. She spent a lot of her childhood on the cherished family farm near her grandparent’s home in rural Mississippi. 

Her grandmother, the subject of her painting Still Stirring at 93, and her grandfather, not only farmed, but raised farm animals, had honey bees, and grew vegetables.

Her uncle planted the turnips for Arrayed in Beauty – a painting that sold in a national show in Utah. He also recently brought her old-fashioned irises dug from the “old home place” where her grandfather lived as a child. Susan painted them the same day. She loves that way of life. Susan’s loving bonds and cherished memories inspire her when she paints.

I remember when she first showed an interest in art. I had been painting a good many years before Susan decided to try it. It was about 17 years ago. When she did, she emailed pictures to me asking for my opinion.  I thought they were photographs she was considering for subject matter and was surprised they were paintings. She had never painted before.  From that first experience, she was consumed with the love of creating art and has studied and read tirelessly to learn and grow in her new profession.

As far as materials, there is a line of “Susan Patton” oil painting brushes by Rosemary & Co. that her students and I use, along with various other brushes and palette knives. We use a variety of paints, and like to suggest new colors to one another. Once I told Susan that “flesh” paint was good for dirt. She said, “That makes sense,” (referencing Genesis 1.) Then she said that “leaf green” was good for portraits! It’s the kind of conversations that a mother and daughter artist duo can really cherish.

Three things I admire about Susan are that she is a deliberate and constant learner, and a natural at seeing both value and color.  Shapes and “form” come easily to her. Her best works are the rural people and scenes close to her heart. Not only does she see color well, her use and understanding of color properties led to her “Color Circle Mixing” which has been so popular in workshops and demos in plein air events across the south.

Even though we are mother and daughter, we paint in completely different ways, and think about our paintings so differently that we sometimes wreck the other person’s work when we try to give advice to one another. It’s now a running joke because we usually say after suggesting changes to each other’s works, “well that didn’t work, just go back to what you had….”  But at times we do help. Recently in my studio, I struggled with a background color through the trees and she suggested a darker blue. She said that to our eyes the darker blue she mixed up for me would seem too dark, but that cool colors read lighter even at the same value.  She took a photo and converted it to grayscale to show me. She rarely forgets anything she studies and sometimes she says, “Know who I learned that from? …YOU! “

I may have taught her several pointers, but I do not take credit for teaching her everything. Because I was the first in our family to come to art, everyone naturally assumes I’m the artist who helped make Susan an artist. No. She had other things going on as a child. It came at the right time and season in her life. 

For my grandchildren who ask about art, they all get the standard class: Paper, paint and pencils and a license to create some art and then must “tell me about it”. That’s it.  I was a nurse and taught nursing, and now teach adult oil painting workshops, but I would not know where to begin to “teach” art to young children! 

The best art is internal and it takes desire. But if one does not intentionally seek it, they will drift. Drifting takes you away from most all good; working with intention takes you toward your goal, whether it is a career, a nurturing home life, faith, or becoming a good artist.   I may have influenced and taught Susan a few things, but Susan’s love and desire to be better at what she does sets her apart. 

— Dot Courson

Dot Courson

Dot has been an artist at heart all her life. A former nurse and healthcare administrator, she has been a professional fine artist for 18 years. Now, she paints from the fullness of the loving memories of her heart as a full-time artist from North Mississippi in her private art school and studio/gallery. Painting her delta memories and cotton are favorite subject matter. Click here to read her full biography. Visit Author Website.

Character, Personality, Spirit, Soul – these qualities cannot be measured by the length of the nose or the distance between the eyes. Yet, they are what a client is looking for when they commission me to paint a portrait. They can be revealed, however, in the movements, gestures and tendencies of the sitter. They are glimpsed when a subject interacts with the world around them, for example the way they tilt their head in response to a question, or nod when emphasizing certain words, or the way they move their hair, or even the way they keep their eyes on a nearby person they love. These small but revelatory motions cannot be captured in a single, still photograph. Yet, they are crucial for understanding personality and for creating a meaningful portrait.

In addition to painting studies from life, I use photographs as reference — multiple photos instead of just a single one. But even a series of photos, after a month or two in the studio, become quiet and stagnant. The memory of the photoshoot is much less in the front of my mind and it becomes harder to recall who I am painting, not just how they look. And it is who I am painting that matters. So that is why I began taking videos during my photoshoots.

Usually, I try to take the video when the client is “off guard”, though I always let them know at the beginning of the session that I will be filming. I want to see the unhindered character traits and mannerisms of my subject because those traits often form a large part of how the person is perceived. Video also helps me better understand the anatomy of my sitter because it captures him or her turning their head, providing a three-dimensional view of the skull, very helpful for understanding the upturn of the nose, or how deep the eyes are, etc., (photos often lack this level of information). 

In addition to life sittings when possible, and after studying the videos to watch for clues of character, I will choose a “main” photo reference that most portrays the sitter and get it approved by the client. Between sittings, I will use this still photo 75% of the time, but also flip through other pictures to see various angles and skin tones more clearly. But there comes a time as I work when I forget what it was like, really like, to be around the person. That is when I re-watch the video and see if I am capturing the spirit of the person. I will study the “hints” (the movements and tendencies) and see if I have captured a sense of personality in the collection of shapes on my canvas. I watch my subject’s head as it turns, and see if I have the skull correctly rendered. I look at proportions such as how the head compares to the body or to the arm length. I pick up the brush and trust myself as I work, using the rolling video which forces me to see the person as a whole. 

Moving beyond still images, I see the need to use more modern devices and watch people move, laugh, talk and breathe, and see if my painting holds the image of a being that loves, thinks and feels. It just makes sense to me. I cannot always have that person, child, or animal sit still for me to paint from life, so the video is the second-best option. 

There are other advantages as well.  When I ask a client to send me a video (so that I can appreciate the character and get a sense of who I am painting), it goes beyond a technical request: it is a tribute that honors the subject. It shows my deep respect not only for the person but also for the art of portraiture. It reminds me to not merely copy a photo and “miss the forest for the trees.” It gives my eyes a break and stimulates my brain to think. 

I do not know what will come next in our options for references when painting portraits – maybe a hologram sitting? But I do know this: we are past the age of still photos. I think the reason we like them is that they are “safe.” Necessary? Yes, I believe so, for a big portion of the painting. But let us also bring out the video and paint, and put the photo on standby for a while. Use the photo for technical information, but do whatever it takes to paint the person. Between sittings, or in lieu of sittings, videos are a great tool to study the unique, subtle, quirky, or beautiful movements that remind us of the breath behind the body, and help us capture it with a paintbrush. 

*This youtube video is an example of my process of taking video for a portrait commission: 

I recently received a photograph from a fellow artist. It was of her mother and father. She wanted to commission a painting of it to give to her mother, who is an artist as well. The photo showed her mother and father at an art workshop. Her Dad was not an artist, but was her Mom’s biggest fan. He would carry her gear, set up her easel and supplies, and then sit back and admiringly watch her paint works of art. As soon as I saw the picture, I saw the painting. I took the commission and began the process of not merely copying the image, but creating a visual story of connection.

So, what were my thoughts on developing the painting? How was the information processed in my mind? It went something like this:

1. First, I noticed a natural Fibonacci spiral in the design. I realized that the line leading my eye through the painting was dependent upon the connection between the gentleman’s feet and the shadows of the chair in front of him. If this were broken, your eye would go to the strong contrast between his clothing and the background. I wanted there to be a connection between the two people, for the design as well as for the story.
2. Second, I thought about the size and placement of the subject on the canvas. I chose a 12 x 16 inch canvas because it has a longer length to width ratio than the 11 x 14 one that we had originally discussed. I communicated this with the client, and she agreed.

3. Because there were two figures, I knew that the proportion would need to be as accurate as possible. If I drew one figure perfectly and then realized I did not have enough room for the other, I would have to start over.
   
4. The placement of the figures on the canvas mattered as well. I chose to have more room to the right of female figure because the pair were facing in that direction, and I wanted the viewer to have a sense of the space outside of the canvas. This placement also helped the eye not linger on the gentleman whose sharp edges and high contrast could have stolen the show. 
   
5. The balance of the painting was also important. The canvas had more “weight” or “pull” on the right side because of the size of the artist’s gear, the detail around that figure, the action the figure is engaged in, and her darker values.
   
6. Once I had the placement of the figures noted on the canvas, I began to mix my paint. I chose the colors for my “Color Circle” — the way I premix my colors to get a wide variety of harmonious hues with a limited palette.

My limited color palette for this painting was as follows: 

1 Red: Indian Red

1 Blue: Ultramarine Blue

1 Yellow: Cadmium Yellow Light

Dark: Mixture of Ultramarine Blue and Transparent Oxide Brown

Titanium White

And to the side – Cadmium red to mix in as needed

Next, I began painting at the center of interest (the place that I wanted the attention to go the most). This area also had the darkest darks on the canvas. As I painted her head, it was important to get a background color next to her hair and skin to show the relationship of value and temperature, instead of making an isolated color choice. These relationships of color and the interactions between colorsis the way that atmosphere is created in a painting — the interconnection of all of the elements and objects working together. That is why it is important to put a sky in a landscape early, and why the colors of some objects are found in others that are nearby. There should be a definite intertwining of color and movement throughout a scene. This is what is missing many times when artists feel like their paintings are too “stiff”.

I do not paint every painting using this same method. Instead, I let the design dictate the decisions I make. I think about how to not lose the most important design elements of the scene, and try not to let anything distract from it. I also try to have my drawing accurate enough that I can be bold with my brushwork and not rework it.

In this painting, I worked around the lady’s head, then followed the background to where the gentleman was, and then blocked him in. Finally, I circled back to her and the items around her. Even in the placement of the background flowers, I was thinking about my design. I did not mind the sharp edge created by his legs because it added to the movement of the viewer’s eye through the painting, leading to the female figure. I finished the painting with detail on his face- not getting too much detail, but just enough to see the shape of his head and character as much as possible in a small painting. When it said what I wanted it to say, I called it finished.

This painting was about a gentleman, who, although taking up the most space in the painting, was the background figure. His wife was the focus — not just of this painting, but also his life. And he was glad to sit back and watch as she shined in the spotlight. He was connected to her, not just in design, but in heart and in focus. As I compiled my painting, I was doing more than artistic design. I was telling a story of connection.