Verdaccio...how green is too green?

[Shaun Platts]

After following a verdaccio tutorial on a spare head I was very impressed with the results. The undercoat on this practice head was very grey and yellow.
Fast forward to my current project (nuts planet Shield maiden). I am following a different tutorial, this one is green. Very green. She currently looks like an ork.
I am a little nervous about painting flesh tones over such a green base. Please put my mind at ease and tell me to trust the process, or tell me to strip it and go grey.

 

[fogie]

Verdaccio as you realise is the arty-farty name for cool grey/green
underpainting, and its purpose, in portraiture at least, is to imcrease
depth to the final colour. To work effectively it's a technique that must
be used in conjunction with multiple glazing layers.........a prolonged
and time consuming business. Before I retired I used the technique
in my day job from time to time, but would never even think about it
for a miniature figure of any scale. The effects are just too subtle to
make a noticeable difference. You have my deep admiration for
attempting it, but at a guess it would seem you have just gone too
green, as it were. Perhaps you should try for a more greyish tone
to your green mixture

I'd be interested to see how your efforts work out.....you might start
a new trend here and galvanise a fresh interest in the renaissance
techniques.


Mike