(6)
Last but not least, the BACKGROUND of your painting will affect how warm, cool, light, dark, vibrant, or dull the skin on your portrait or figure appears.

You can use the same paints that you used to mix skin & hair for harmonious effect, OR go wild and add a new contrasting color (like green, turquoise, purple, red). If you do that, mix a bit of the background color into shadows so the portrait is not separated like a cutout.

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(5)
If you want to paint backlit skin (like ears), you need a transparent yellow-orange. I hardly use warm yellow (I have Rosa Aureoline hue PY150) so here's a resource: https://www.idyllsketching.com/colors/orange-yellow/

Quin rose/red violet/magenta (PV19 or PR122) can't hurt if it's not in your limited palette.

Scarlet/orange red can be useful for blush or backlit skin, pyrrole or quinacridone are good choices (mixed or single PR255, PR209, PO73).

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(4)
Your palette choices will come down to style preferences and subjects. You can paint portraits with ANY colors you like!

Here are some of my experiments with bold colors: https://neladunato.com/sketchbook/watercolor-portrait-studies-vibrant-palette/

I can't live without dioxazine violet (PV23).

I paint fantasy characters with green skin often (see: my avatar) so I replaced ochre with green gold (PY129). Green gold can do anything ochre can do, and more.

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(3)
You don't need black paint because brown and blue mix a pretty neutral black (ultramarine + burnt sienna are a famous couple).
But if you want a shortcut for dark hair get neutral tint, indigo, sepia, or vandyke brown - a dark pigment mixed with black, just avoid the ones containing fading PR177, PR170, PR176.

If I want a flat, graphic black background or frame, I use black gouache. I tested many mediums and it worked the best: https://neladunato.com/blog/best-black-gouache-acrylic-ink-pastel-compared/

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(2)
4. Deep brown like burnt sienna (PR101 or PBr7) OR transparent brown (PBr23) OR benzimida brown (PBr25). Does a lot of heavy lifting in portraits. You can complete an entire nude figure study with just brown and blue, and it will look pretty decent.

5. Add white gouache (PW6) for highlights. Preserving tiny specks of white paper during painting is totally not worth the hassle, and only the strictest of purists even care about it.

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If you're wondering which colors to start painting #watercolor portraits with, you could do worse than the classic palette:

1. Yellow ochre (PY42/PY43) is a good base & will dull the other colors.

2. Crimson/maroon red like pyrrole (PR264) or perylene (PR179). More useful than rose/magenta in a limited palette because these can get a lot darker.

3. Violet-blue ultramarine (PB29) or indanthrone (PB60).

(cont.)

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