Mixing a Base Colour for Portraits in Oil

I use Scarlet and Lemon to make an orange colour first, then slowly introduce Pthalo Green for a dirty greyed-off colour.  This is usually my base colour that I use throughout the portrait.  Add some white to half the mix for a lighter colour, halve again with more white for a very light mix.

Areas such as the nose, cheeks and lips are ususally a bit pinker so I add some Permanent Rose to the base colour for this.  In my portrait, the girls' and Kacey's faces are quite pale, so their flesh tone had a dot of Permanent Rose added to the base colour.

Here, Khye has a darker complexion, so I have added a little Ultramarine Blue to the base colour and no Permanent Rose.