A Portrait Painting Palette System that Works

Portrait painters want to capture the likeness of their unique subjects with fresh living color. Yet, many artists struggle with a portrait painting palette for mixing beautiful skin or flesh tones.

Canadian portrait artist, Steven Rosati offered to share his own portrait palette with Fine Art Tips.  The Steven Rosati Portrait Palette System will help you paint beautiful and believable flesh tones.

Steven Rosati’s Portrait Painting Palette System:

• Ultramarine Blue

• Ivory Black

• Burnt Umber

• Cadmium Red Medium

• Yellow Ochre

• Cadmium Red Light

• Cadmium Yellow Lemon

• and Titanium White

Steven prefers to use Cobra Water Mixable Oil Colors. However, this portrait painting palette is perfect for traditional oil painters. Steven and I both serve as Cobra’s Ambassador Artists to Royal Talens!
Remember, color is easier to observe when you paint your subject from life. Color falls flat and lifeless when you’re painting from photos, so you’ll need to rely upon what you already know. Painting from life is a valuable discipline.
The human form especially the face, is the most memorized object that we all see on a daily basis. However, painting people as a subject is challenging to most artists. This is because even the non-artist can detect the slightest flaw in the construction of the human face or body. One misplaced brushstroke can cause your model to suddenly look inaccurate.
Stay tuned for my upcoming North Light book where Steven and other world renowned artists demonstrate how to paint a portrait from start to finish.
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Thanks for visiting FineArtTips.com. Please meet up with me on Fine Art Tips Facebook Fan Page, on Twitter, and on Pinterest. Be sure and check out and my fine art prints and notecards on Fine Art America.  Or see my art on my website,  LoriMcNee.com.  ~Lori
*Let’s meet and paint together in Atlanta! I’ll be teaching landscape painting, still life painting, and a social media workshop! Click here to learn more.