How can you use different techniques to show flesh colour tones on the human figure?

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How can you use different techniques to show flesh colour tones on the human figure?

Introduction

Leonardo di Vinci in his painting 'Ginevra De' Benci' (oil on pastel) is a classic example of how older painters used pastel colours to portray bright, white, fresh, soft and smooth skin tones. However in my opinion the face looks very flat, cold and uninteresting as is typical of some older, classic paintings.

Cosmetic colour was also used to enhance the reds of the flesh tones with 'madder' a red powder or brazil wood. However this was criticised by a Renaissance art historian who thought it 'falsifies the freshness of living skin'. An example of this is in Titains painting 'Tarquin and Lucretia'

Paintings of Geisha women and Queen Elizabeth I for example, where there faces are painted completely white and flat are the kind of paintings that I want to avoid, I want to explore how different techniques are used to show the true hard core colours, like the pinks, reds, blues, greys, greens, browns and how people with different colour skins other than white are shown, rather than cosmetic colours.

My aim for unit 5 practical study,