Portrait Artist Forum - View Single Post - Help! portrait of redhead, skin too light?

Sharon Knettell · 01-19-2005, 05:30 PM

Jennifer,

I always seem to run into trouble when I stray from the background color of my reference, live or photographed. It is difficult from your reference to isolate a single color that would work as the background is so diverse.

A couple of things that have worked for me are ;
A) Using a complementary color, in this case a warm grey green to offset the skin or a slightly greyer blue green to offset the hair.
B) Using an analogous color. something related to the skin tone or the hair, a greyish rose. It would be a cooler warm color than the one you have used.

I would try to get an amalgam of the colors in the background as that is what influences the color in the reflected light. In this case solution "A" would be my first choice here.

Try painting pieces of paper with the different color options attaching them to the edges of your reference, step back and see what works best.

01-19-2005, 05:30 PM	#8
Sharon Knettell Approved Member Joined: Sep 2002 Posts: 1,730	Jennifer, I always seem to run into trouble when I stray from the background color of my reference, live or photographed. It is difficult from your reference to isolate a single color that would work as the background is so diverse. A couple of things that have worked for me are ; A) Using a complementary color, in this case a warm grey green to offset the skin or a slightly greyer blue green to offset the hair. B) Using an analogous color. something related to the skin tone or the hair, a greyish rose. It would be a cooler warm color than the one you have used. I would try to get an amalgam of the colors in the background as that is what influences the color in the reflected light. In this case solution "A" would be my first choice here. Try painting pieces of paper with the different color options attaching them to the edges of your reference, step back and see what works best.