I do a lot of color theory when I paint human figures. When painting skin tones, You want to use different amounts of the primary colors: red, blue and yellow. All human skin has different amounts of each of those colors in it—for example, someone might have a more red toned face than someone who has a blue toned face. You can also use different browns, such as warm browns—which have more of a red or yellow hue, or cool browns, which have a more blue hue.
