Useful but would benefit from updating with equivalent colours, or a substitution list, as all artists know that each brand of paint has differing names and shades.

Need help coloring portraits?
William F. Powell was an internationally recognized artist and colorist. His book "Color Mixing Recipes for Portraits. More than 500 Color Combinations for Skin, Eyes, Lips & Hair" published by Quarto Publishing Group – Walter Foster was published for the first time in 2006.
In the first part of this book Powell presents skin tone palettes, the color theory (here he includes also the Facial Planes), the various tones for mouth, ear, nose, eyes, and hair as well as the skin tone recipes for Oil and Acrylic. In the second part he presents the skin tone recipes for watercolors but he did not include the watercolor tones for mouth, ear, nose, eyes, and hair. There is also a short segment for creating color which can be a help for artists to create their own master recipes for skin tones and to help them to adjust also the value recipes. The book also includes and index, an oil/acrylic conversion chart, and a reusable color mixing grid for oil and acrylic included at the end of the book. Sadly there is no color mixing grid for watercolors and it would be helpful if the grids could be downloaded so that artists could print them on various papers for easier reference of their own mixing.
The book is presented with a great design and helpful illustrations. It includes a list of the paint colors which are needed in order that artists can mix the various skin colors. I recommend the book for intermediate and advanced artists, no matter if they use oil, acrylics, or watercolor, and I recommend it also for mixed media artists, mainly for all those artists who want to learn and improve their oil or acrylic mixing skills as well as those who want to learn or improve their skills in mixing skin tones in those mediums.
It is important to note that it seems that this book is a part of William F. Powell's book "1,500 Color Mixing Recipes for Oil, Acrylic & Watercolor."
The complimentary copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley free of charge. I was under no obligation to offer a positive review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
#ColorMixingRecipesForPortraits #NetGalley

Hands down absolutely one if the best books I've seen on mixing skin tone coloring. I was incredibly impressed by this book.

I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to mix their own colors.

Color Mixing Recipes for Portraits is a tutorial color theory guide with mixing recipes specifically for portraiture. Originally released in 2006 this reformat and re-release is due out 22nd June 2021 from Quarto on their Walter Foster imprint. It's 48 pages and will be available in paperback format.

This short book includes recipes for palettes for oil, acrylic, and watercolor and based on a wide variety of skin tones. The format is the same throughout: "master" recipes of a particular skin tone are followed by tonal variations and shadings based on parts of the main color in combination with blending colors. The blends are specific with regard to generic colors such as alizarin crimson, burnt sienna, burnt umber, white, etc.

The recipes included in the volume cover skin, eyes, lips, and hair. Additionally it includes a very short intro to color theory and mixing. The book also includes an abbreviated index as well as a color conversion chart for oil and acrylics. There are no tutorials or painting instruction included.

This is a very short book but very useful. It would make a good reference for maker's spaces, studios, library acquisition, or the home studio.

Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Every artist should have at least one color mixing book. I have three of William Powell’s color mixing books. His are all very useful and I like his color mixing chart to measure out your paints. I have a print copy and electronic copy of 1500 color recipes. Some of the color swatches are different when you compare the book to the electronic version.

I would recommend 1500 color mixing recipes over the one for portraits and the one that is just oil and acrylic. The reason is there is so much more information in 1500. Not just the watercolor recipes, 1500 includes landscape recipes. I was surprised to find that it included all of the information from the portrait color mixing book.

I highly recommend William Powell’s 1500 color mixing recipes for oil, acrylic, and watercolor.

I received this galley from NetGalley.

A good starting point for those who do want to incorporate portraits into paintings or stand alone images.. Decent look at shading and mixes.

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* Good color combinations! Would be very useful for portraits

I didn't realize at the time of requesting this that this is the same author of the 1500 color mixing recipe book I already own. This volume specifically features recipes for skin, hair and eyes.
This book is like my art bible and one of the books I use almost every time I want to adjust or browse for other options for a portrait. You will use the grid less and less and mixing colors will become second nature the more often you do it. I still find any of the authors books highly valuable, especially if you're just starting out and getting the hang of things.

I can highly recommend this for any artist.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book is a great tool for artists. Its focus is skin tones, but it also introduces colour theory, great illustrations for those with a prominent visual learning style. The instructions of how to achieve the colour mixes are clear and concise, and there are many examples that help visualize the instructions. Very helpful, I'd definitely love to have a physical copy when it's available.

Very useful book for portrait painters. Painting human skin realistically is very difficult, but this volume makes it a lot easier. It contains basic mixes for skintones, color theory notices on how to lighten, darken or grey a color., explanation on facial planes and the corresponding values and colors. The different parts of the face are treated as well with their caracteristics (cool or warm).. For skintones, eyes and hair there come parts with many mixes.
You select a color palette from the book, create the master color using the recipe that belongs to it and modify it to obtain the exact color you need.. Not only for oil and acrylic, there is a section for watercolor painting too, where intensity is regulated through water amount.

One of the titles of the Color Mixing Recipes series and will be so useful for any artist wanting to paint portraits. Skin tones can be so hard to paint accurately. I like how instructions are also provided on how you can further tweak a color for more accuracy.

I tried one of the recipes and was pleasantly surprised how well it turned out. I am looking forward to owning at least one of the titles in this series.

This is a concise, practical guide to color mixing for portraits. It is very practical and if you are looking for technical and straightforward booklet that is a good resource without being overwhelming. It has details of paintings to show the colors in context (eye iris, swatch of hair), but I would have loved to see some full images to see all the color mixes working together in context.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A great book and guide to color mixing!! I found it to be very helpful and detailed in laying out color formats. Super great read and perfect for any artists out there!

*Thanks Netgalley and Walter Foster Publishing for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*