Folks-

Finally started on the wonderful FM Beneito 54mm Jackson figgie...

Period portraits appear to show Jackson's hair and beard color to be a dark cinnamon ?!

I have been trying to get there with various oil combos of earth colors+lamp black or mars black for shade with flesh color for highs but it just does not look very close to the portraits (or at least what I have in mind...)

Any suggestions on oil mix for a cinnamon color?

thanks,

Keith

Hi Keith, I think the simplest solution here might be to lightly glaze what you've already done. Do you have Burnt Sienna or Transparent Red Iron Oxide? Brush a little over the surface and then using a clean dry brush remove the bulk of the paint with a wiping or stippling action. You might want to try a small test area first, see if the colour's about right; if it's too reddish looking then add some Raw Sienna or something like that.

If you wanted to mix a colour like this opaquely then it's worth remembering that browns are just dull oranges mostly. So you could mix the right type of colour without using any earths if you had to - red, yellow and blue or black (plus white to adjust value) will get you pretty close. With my normal palette I'd probably start with Burnt Sienna and TW, with a little Yellow Ochre or something similar. If either of these approaches creates colours that are a little too dull glazing will sort the problem out.

Einion

Thanks very much for the comments, Einion. To be honest with you, I had planned to stay away from burnt sienna for the beard and hair as I use burnst sienna with my flesh mix. But, it is about the closest I could find to what I was trying to achieve...

Keith

That makes sense but the undercolour (what you see when you use a paint thinly) will be quite different normally from the tint - with BS the undercolour is generally much more orange.

Worst case scenario with oils if it doesn't look right you can always wipe it off

Einion