Painting Black Figures

In one of my LHS ( I got 3) There were about 6 or 7, if I recall, different skin tones everything from a light whtite to a dark brown and they were labelled as skin tones. I haven't tried them yet, but hope to.

Burnt Umber is definitely the way to go.

If you're working in a typical AC scale you can get by with less highlight/shadow work though. I always undercoat with a desert tan, regardless of the ethnicity of the subject. It works particularly well when painting dark skinned people. Then lay the base on a little thin, so that the under coat shows through a bit, particularly on the highpoints of the face. I base with the B.Umber, as previously suggested. Shadow with Blue (French Ultramarine is what I use), and highlight with Gold Ochre or Yellow Ochre (whichever you have in your color collection. I use Gold Ochre personally because it's a little more red that Yellow Ochre and is a good flesh mixing color).

For lighter skin tones I would simply use the B. Umber as my shadow with Gold Ochre as my base, and then add white to the base as my highlight. That should give you a nice mocha tone. You can toy with the redness, regardless of how dark or light you go, as you see fit.

Just be careful not to overdo the eyes, lest they should look googly eyed. An off-white, in the yellow/red zone, sparingly applied should do the trick. For something that small, I'd probably paint them first, and perhaps even employ Shep Paine's stripe trick for painting eyes (I'm assuming you know that one ).

Post some pics when you're done.

Rad_remember than African Americans have a skin colour range too-from light brown to almost eggplant-but never black.

Burnt umber is a good base color. Use warm highlights, such as raw umber. Shadows can be very dark brown, such as van dyke brown.
You might get more response if the tag line is more specific. I almost past it by since it sounded like was posted by someone not will ing to try to find a similar topic.