Verdaccio Underpainting

• 1). Mix an equal amount of Mars Black and Green Umber on your palette using a palette knife. This mixture will form the basis of the verdaccio, the greenish-gray underpainting for all flesh-colored areas of your work.
  
  
• 2). Prepare a string of ten values of verdaccio on your palette. Use a mixture of Mars Black and Green Umber, combined with increasing amounts of Titanium White. These values should range from the dark combination of Mars Black and Green Umber to pure white, with eight steps of increasing value between them.
  
  
• 3). Apply the verdaccio to your canvas or panel using a bristle brush. The verdaccio should be applied thickly and model the tonal values of all flesh-toned areas of the painting. Concentrate on accurately building areas of light and shadow before focusing on details.
  
  
• 4). Refine the verdaccio underpainting with additional layers of paint. Ensure critical features such as eyes, noses and mouths are properly placed and in proportion. The underpainting should appear as a completely finished work except for the absence of color.
  
  
• 5). Clean your brushes and palette with odorless mineral spirits. Allow the underpainting and brushes to dry before proceeding to the next step.
  
  

Color Overpainting

• 1). Arrange your colors along the top of your palette in the following order, from left to right: Ivory Black, Burnt Umber and Raw Umber. Follow this with Raw Sienna, Burnt Sienna and Vermillion or Red Ochre and Yellow Ochre. On the right side of the palette, place Titanium White and Cadmium Orange.
  
  
• 2). Combine a small amount of Cadmium Orange with Titanium White in the center of your palette. This will be your base flesh tone color. Adjust by adding Umber, Sienna or Ochre pigments as necessary. Do not combine more than three pigments with the Titanium White at one time. Too many colors mixed at once will result in a muddy gray.
  
  
• 3). Test your base flesh-tone color over an area of the verdaccio of matching light-to-dark value. Apply thickly over areas where the flesh is in full light, using a small amount of painting medium. Add Vermillion or Red Ochre to areas such as fingertips, cheeks and lips as they tend to be more red.
  
  
• 4). Blend and apply the flesh-tone colors in a lighter application as the figure moves from light to shadow. Allow some of the verdaccio to show through in these transitional portions of the painting. In areas of the figure that are in full shadow apply only thin, transparent glazes of Umber and Sienna paint over the verdaccio.
  
  
• 5). Apply a second coat of flesh-tone colors over high-value areas of the painting. Refine details such as eyes, ears and lips using sable brushes for better paint control. Adjust coloration as necessary, adding more Yellow Ochre if the flesh appears too pink or plastic. Add a small amount of Ivory Black to areas such as the jaw line, to suggest facial hair stubble on men. Use more painting medium in this second color painting stage to keep the paint fluid and thin.
  
  
• 6). Allow the painting to fully dry, then adjust hues and values as necessary. Finish with glazes of flesh color. Burnt Sienna is an effective glazing paint for flesh tones to help refine shadows and areas of flesh which need richer color. Vermillion can be glazed over cheeks Combine a small amount of paint with a larger amount of painting medium to make your glazes, and apply thinly with soft sable brushes.