Well: when it comes to painting “black” people it is certainly not just black. I had a surprise this afternoon when I realised that for the first time in my life I was painting a figure with “black” skin. Just what colours should I use? I am used to painting European figures, and although the precise combination of colours involved in reproducing skin tones does vary quite a bit, there is a kind of standard palette for which one reaches under these circumstances. How might this differ if I am painting people of Afro-Caribbean or Hispanic origin?
It took me quite some time, leafing through my collection of art books, before I received any help. It is common to come across advice about painting “flesh tones”, but when you read on this turns out to mean European flesh. Eventually I did find what I was looking for, in a passage by Charles Reid in Marian E. Appellof, Everything you ever wanted to know about oil painting.
This is an interesting problem. Certainly I am not racially prejudiced, having friends and indeed family members who are of Afro-Caribbean origin. It is just that there are certain unquestioned assumptions which I suppose we take for granted in the art world. It comes to mind, for example, that in all the years I have been attending life-drawing classes I can only recall two models whose skin was of a darker shade. (The question of “flesh tones” didn’t arise, of course, because we were drawing rather than painting.) As a matter of course, however, given my location and circumstances, I have never had to think about this question before. I do now!
Next week-end I will be attending a party celebrating Antiguan Independence Day. There is no doubt that I will have opportunities to share thoughts and experiences on this question with people who are on the other wend of the problem. I look forward to it. Meanwhile, “Thanks”, Charles Reid!