African Skin tones???

I used raw umber for the base color and burnt umber for the highlights. Its only been my first black figure, but he came out quite well. The lips were a little harder to nail, but I just used some pink, but it makes it look like lipstick. Maybe I just need to lighten up the burnt umber?

I asked the same question on another forum, here are some of the addresses I got to try.

Don
http://www.missing-lynx.com/articles/figures/mbblack.htm

http://www.angelfire.com/tx/ToySoldier/face.htm

http://www.geocities.com/~jlhagan/lessons/skin_color.htm

One thing you may want to try is find a book on mixing colors. This will show you that if you have let's say raw umber and you want it darker, then you would not use a black and to make it lighter do not use white. White and black will cause most colors to nuetralize since they are not colors themselves. Youo need to find out how brown is made then start using different mixtures of yellow, reds, and greens to change the deepness of the color you are looking for. I hope this helps. I bought a book just for that purpose from Amazon.com for only $10.00 and it helps. It shows which colors are used to create other colors.

black dosnt really nuetralize the colors unless you use it in a huge quantity... it rather changes the color and shade alittle, thats how I got the shadows to use on my 1/16 WWII german Machine gunner

Also thanks for the replies, I think I will try the raw umber, burnt umber thing to start with, and then experiment with the lips... but what should I do about the eyes, would I make them kinda skintone warm tint or would I make them more of a burnt umber color???

I did one of Pegaso's gladiators as an African last year. Burnt umber for the base skin color, Van Dyke brown for the shadows and a patina of raw sienna for the highlights. He's wearing a full helmet so lips weren't an issue. I'd go darker with the lips otherwise you risk making your guy look like an offensive minstrel figure in "blackface."

Burnt umber base, darken with a blue/black for shadows and burnt sienna/raw umber mix for highlights. The lips are a lighter shade of the highlight color with a dash of red. Remember that a lot of blood circulates in the lips. Upper lip slighty darker than lower lip. Eyes brownish yellow - not white. It would also depend on where your figure originates from. The closer to the equator the darker the overall tone. North of the equator tends to have a more reddish tone while south of the equator tends to have a more yellowish tone.