Underpainting in complements: A Glow
 

Just for fun I decided to try underpainting in reverse colors. The suit was red and the skin tones were light green. Painting the skin tones on top of the green created a great glowing effect. I also used mostly Old Holland paint including flake white and some of their incredible shades. The only medium used was linseed oil. I tried this after reading that Michelangelo used this technique with skin tones.

I'm not yet able to download but trying this may be very satisfactory.

Rochelle,

Good for you! That is similar to what I do with my verdaccio underpainting. The warm flesh tones imposed on the cool green underpainting creates a vibrancy and glow.

I have done that with a few recent paintings and I have liked the results.

Renee Price

Glow
 

I've noticed that using green creates more glow too. I don't know why it does that tho, do any of you guys know why?

Michael, for your verdaccio technique do you actually use some green in it or mix your own greens? Or does it just depend? I often use umber plus yellow ochre varying how much of each. Maybe add a little yellow lt.

I love your work and must admit that I have not started a portrait with the greenish underpainting. Is this actually a toned board with greenish hue? Or do you begin your painting with the greenish hue

Thanks in advance. :?

Patt:

I learned the verdaccio method from Frank Covino. This underpainting method primarily concerns value and creating a monochromatic underpainting upon which you will impose color.

I use Mars Black, Flake White, and Chromium Oxide Green to make nine values of a gray-green color. In the past, I have painted it over a minutely detailed charcoal rendering, however, you could easily paint with verdaccio over a white or toned ground. You are actually rendering the form in the verdaccio values - I have several examples of it on my website.

Hope that helps and thanks for your kind words about my work! :)