Shading Skin Colors of Linda Evangelista

Linda Evangelista has one of the most beautiful, flawless faces ever. Have you ever made a great pencil sketch or drawing, proud of your work, but then too afraid to add color and ruin it? It is a common fear among artists, but there are ways to move beyond this seeming limitation, like this closeup picture of Linda Evangelista below.

A good way to do this is scan a copy of your drawing, or take a photo of it, like this photo of supermodel Linda Evangelista above and adjust the features to become more highly contrasted, in an editing program like Photoshop, which will leave more open white space for you to add color to. Then print it out as a template on some printable watercolor paper or canvas papers, seal the printer ink from mixing with your paint, by using one coat of a fixative (like Blair Matte finishing spray), and then paint a thin watery wash over the gray tones that will help show you where to shade... and just give it a shot.

Your shading with color may not be the best at first, but will be a start to color blending. You may be surprised at what you can accomplish from not having tried before... AND you still have your perfect old original pencil drawing before trying this color shading.

It's always good to try at least two tones of color to add dimension, flesh tones for portraits. The colors used here are acrylics 150 Portrait Tone (the darker pink color) from Nova Color, and white mixed with Delta Ceramcoat's Fleshtone, to lighten it up some.

It is a good idea to have a good supply of each skin colors or flesh tones to avoid having to mix, so you can spend your time painting, than mixing. Home Depo may have matched the lighter skin tone, but the paint tends to be oily, even though acrylic, and the binders separate from the paint in shorter amounts of time, than Nova Color's paint.

(The colors on Nova Color's site are not as accurate as their chart they mail you upon request. The pink above here, is the truer color of 150 portrait Peach, than on their site.) For the more accurate colors, see a photograph of Nova Color's color chart.