Inktense pencil questions.

[Jadiebird]

Which is your favorite color to get a true red? I have the 72 set, but most of the colors seem to "pinky" to me. Chili red is the best so far for me, but then what should I use to shade?

Also what colors do you use for Caucasian skin tones? For African skin tones?

[ailhelen]

Colours 12 13 14 and 15 are what I look at for reds. I would take each and do some light colouring on a piece of watercolour paper, wet with my brush and let them dry. Then you can see your colours. Try adding more dolour if too light, can always darken with colours poppy red base and slightly darker 14 chilli red or get your black and make sure its just a touch and bring in for shadow. Experimenting is the best way. I have done a watercolour swatch of each colour with a solid layer of colour and a more watery wash to show the range. After making all the swatches about 2 inches x 1 inch I punched a hole in the corner and added the colours to two silver rings (cant think of the name of the rings but you can open them) that I linked. Half on each. That way I can take them off and mix and match when I want. I have written the name and number of each colour on the swatch.
I also went through and made a tag for each pencil that wraps around the top of the pencil and just has the number on it. Great for quick referencing, also great as my pencils are stored in a double wooden box and I know they are all going back into the correct spots. Thiscan be very helpful as it is often impossible to tell what the colour is just by looking at the pencil and the names can be hard to read.
Skin tone I use baked earth 58 willow 59 for shadow and a wee bit of 16 carmine pink for blush. Again I just find I experiment. Havent done dark tones sorry. Hope this helps a bit. I was going to attach a photo of my swatches but cant work out how to do that.

[dini]

Poppy Red for me - it's a bit brighter than the Chili Red.

ailhelen, your pencils have different numbers than mine! Wonder if that is an international thing.

[ailhelen]

I dont know Dini, will have to have a look. Maybe I just numbered them 1-72 in the order they were in the box. Yes just went and had a look, sorry for the confusion. I did write all the numbers on the original A3 size sheet I had done with all the swatches but must have decided to just number 1 to 72 so I could find easily.
Me and my great system, must have caused a bit of confusion. That is so me lol.

[dini]

No worries at all! Do what works for you.

[GypsyRoseStamper]

Regarding the skin tones: Not sure if I have ever done skin tones while using Inktense pencils, but my inclination would be to switch to my Derwent watercolor pencils because I would want more subtle effects.