What are everyone's thoughts on creating flesh tones?

Pre-tattooish art I would almost never use black, even for the deepest shadows. With flesh tones I'd be inclined to create shadows with blues, purples or greens. In tattoos, I don't much care for the blackless skin tones which look like bad fake tan or the pink which looks like a 5-year-old's attempt at painting skin (unless it's done particularly well, in which case it can look just as awesome as anything else when done properly). I also don't really like using brown.

Currently I'm having a big love affair with my pot of Indian ink, using it for my shaded greywash layer, including for skin e.g. here . I think it worked fine in that picture, but still kinda too painterly rather than flash-y, and probably not suitable for anything more traditional-looking I might want to do...


Whether for traditional flash styles or just painting in general, what are you thoughts on this?

I think it depends entirely on the style and materials being used, if Trad best to go black, watercolours especially. I've had some misfires working with it in coloured pencil pin ups tho'. I pretty much stopped using it in graffiti characters but have recently gone back to it as I wanted more of a Trad Flash look to them. So down to the individual case I think.

I don't use much if any black in skin tones, certin brands of watercolors/acrylics have a flesh tone and it works well for me.

Its kinda wierd for me because I like using black for certain mediums and for others I dont.
i dont like straight black when working with colored pencils, purple-black or red-black works fine. Although when tattoing I like using brown and pinkish tones... but black makes it pop unless you're going for a realistic approach.
I use a whole lot of black in my paintings, but thats just the way I paint, I like comic book shadows and bold lines in my canvas

I'ts just a matter of what you're trying to achieve I guess. black works alot of the times. sometimes, no black looks better than straight black,