Chase & Payton - The Underpainting
 

This is a follow-on to my posting of the charcoal value study for this portrait.

Here is the completed underpainting:

http://www.fineportraitsinoil.com/Ch...nished_400.jpg

And some detail:

http://www.fineportraitsinoil.com/Ch...-Detail300.jpg
Chase

http://www.fineportraitsinoil.com/Pa...-Detail300.jpg

I will also post the final painting. :)

What were your colors for this underpainting, Michael?

Mike:

I used a verdaccio formula of Flake White, Mars Black and Chromium Oxide Green. I mix them into nine values from dark to light and bracket them with Mars Black and Flake White giving me 11 tonal values from black to white.

For those who might not know, verdaccio is a form of underpainting used since the mid 1300s - primarily by the Italians. The term Verdaccio is Italian for "Greenish-first." Cennini mentions mixing a verdaccio for frescos in his book "Il Libro Dell'Arte" written around 1437ish. Cennini describes mixing powdered pigments of Yellow Ochre, Black, White, and Sinopia or Cinnabresse (Red like Venetian Red to dull the green).

The imposition of warm flesh tones on the cool gray-green really creates a very vibrant and realistic flesh tone. :)

Nice work. I look forward to seeing the finished piece. Size?

Very beautiful, Michael.

I used the verdaccio on my last painting. I was using tones of gray gesso, but I like this much better. The gesso was very hard to blend. Don't know how this affects the final portrait though. I think once you put opaque paint over it, it's gone.

Thanks for the comments, all.

Karin, it is 20" x 24" inches.

Alicia, actually, I won't completely cover the underpainting, and even when you do cover it, the undertones will still influence the top layers of color. The verdaccio will show through in the flesh tones where I will leave small areas of it exposed where appropriate - the midtone between a highlight and a shadow, the hollows of the eyes, the shadow of the neck, etc. As I will do some of the work with glazes, the underpainting will actually provide the detail as the glazes will go on like thin panes of colored glass with the underpainting showing through and providing the form.

I think that gesso tints would indeed be much harder to use as they dry way to fast for any real blending.

Beautiful underpainting. What color glazes are you going to use for the flesh parts?

Hello Tito, thanks for your post.

Glazing is typically done for two reasons: 1) You want to alter the color or effect of a certain passage, or 2) You want to glaze an area and let your underpainting show through. Most people use glazes for the first reason - to alter the appearance of a particular passage or achieve an effect. I glaze for both reasons, but I don't glaze flesh. Glazing tends to be most successful when it is done in transparent or semi-transparent passages. Often dark transparent colors are the best for glazing.

I paint flesh opaquely and quite thin. As most flesh tones contain some sort of white, the effects I get when I have tried glazing with it are to say the least, not quite nice. :) I believe that flesh requires a solidity that glazing does not give me. I do know that others do glaze flesh, but it doesn't work well for me.

So on this painting, I may glaze the background, the older girl's hair and possibly passages of the dresses, the rest I will paint opaquely.

Hope that helps!

Thank you for your explanation, and I agree that you can't glaze with thick opaque pigment.

Do you know how Bourgereau, Jaques Louis David and Ingres painted the flesh?

Lovely Michael, and great baby teeth!

Tito, I can only guess that they painted it opaquely, but I cannot verify that assumption. Others may know more than I on their methods.

Tammy, Thanks for your kind words. Children's teeth are especially difficult as they are just coming in, are often crooked and not of a uniform size. Still, the smile captures the essence of this little one better than any pose with her mouth closed could - she is quite the charmer!

Verdaccio
 

Michael,

Can I safely substitute Gamblin's Flake White Replacement for regular flake white in the underpainting? I do not want to use lead paint. I used Gamblin's Flake White in the last underpainting I did, but another artist has brought to my attention the fat over lean rule. There is some concern that the Gamblin Flake White may be too "fat" to use in an underpainting and over time may crack.

What do you think?

Alicia:

What medium are you using the Gamblin Flake Replacement with?

If it is something akin to an alkyd or turps, then I wouldn't worry too much about it. Let it dry for an extra day or two if you feel cautious.

The thing you want to be sure of is that the underpaint is as dry as it can be before you start painting on top of it. Alkyds will pose no problems to you as they dry quite fast and dry rock hard.

Michael,

I am using Gamblin's Galkyd Lite for the underpainting and Gamblin's Neo Megilp for the overpainting. Thanks.

Great underpainting, Michael!

Perhaps you can help me with this question.
Frank Covino says in his book that he adds a little bit of Zinc Yellow to the different values of gray to imitate the color of the indoor light. What color should I add to to grays to imitate an outdoor light? Thank you in advance.

Hello Tito:

The sky above us is blue - close to an ultramarine blue. I mix up values of ultramarine from light to dark to tint the grays with.

I am learning that forms lit with indoor lighting don't look their best. It is better to have your subject in natural daylight to avoid that orangy look that indoor pics can give. A clear blue sky outdoors will make flesh look quite cool. If the sky is overcast, then less so, but still more cool and, IMrevisedO, more natural than any studio or indoor lighting will provide.

I've heard Karin Wells say here that Naples Yellow is the color of light.

Mike, I would agree with you that Naples is close to the color of sunlight striking the form, but that would be mostly on the higher highlights. Outdoors in daylight, you will most often get a substantial cooling effect on flesh from the mass of the sky.

Seeing is believing
 

I respectfully disagree with the contention that lights in the sun have a cool appearance. From my observation of things in the sun, there is a warm quality in the lights. The cooler aspects occur in the top planes in shadow areas which are illuminated by the color of the sky. Shadows which have lower levels of illumination than lights are more easily influenced by the colors of surrounding areas. Under planes in sunlight are generally influenced by the color of the ground, especially the underplays closest to the ground. There is a fantastic painting by Gerome "Arabs Crossing the Desert" (which I am attaching a detail) that beautifully demonstrates painting in sunlight. I've had the pleasure of seeing the original and the top of the hindquarters of the grey horse is blue-purple reflecting the sky while the belly of the white horse is yellow reflecting the desert.

In respect to indoor light the color of the light would be dependent on the light source color. Incandescent light is very warm and natural north window light is much cooler. Shadow color is dependent on background colors reflecting into it, thus the old master technique of incorporating background colors into flesh shadows.

The key is to be armed with knowledge and study the situation first hand. Don

Marvin:

I don't think we disagree at all. You may have misunderstood what I said, or I may not have been clear enough.

What I said was that I agreed with Mike and Karin that Naples approximates the higher highlights of sunlight on flesh - the color of the light.

I meant that flesh in true north daylight (not direct sun) tends to be cooler - the color of the sky, and that the majority of indoor or artificial lighting will be much warmer on flesh.

I am not applying any formula, just direct observation of what I have recently seen.

Further, I was responding to a direct question about the Covino method - what I told Tito is exactly what Frank told me and it works pretty well for mixing an outdoor flesh palette using his method.

I appreciate all the answers received regarding the color of light.

I think what Michael, Marvin and Karin have said is right, but it depends on so many circumstances. It's true that experienced artists don't need formulas, because they can see everything in nature and can paint it as they see it. For beginners, some formulas are necessary to understand certain concepts, like using a three-wheeler for a while to learn how to ride a bike.

Thank you Michael, Marvin and Karin for being so unselfish and for making this Forum a wonderful place to learn.

A clarifying response
 

Michael,

I was responding to Frank Covino's formula which I questioned based on my experience and the teachings of Frank Reilly (which I was fortunate to study under John Murray, a former Reilly student).

Tito,

As a teacher of all levels of students I would caution between following formulas as opposed to understanding basic truths as your guiding light. Formulas are limiting while the truth shall set you free (I know I've heard that somewhere).

Thank you, Marvin, for your advice. I can see your point.

Yes, Michael.

North light, through a studio window set vertically on the wall, at a given height, gives cool light and warm shadows. This will reverse in sunlight outdoors; however, the reflected lights outdoors play a large part in the shadows of light to medium dark objects.

I found that the reflected light will lighten the shadow on, say, blue cloth, but unless very close - say 6 inches or so - may not leave the colour of the surface the light is reflecting off of in the shadows on the material. Hope that makes written sense.

Down here in the West Indies/Caribbean, the sunlight carries a cadmium yellow light feel and the shadow a blue, but not a simply Ultramarine.
Much looking is required.

Marvin,

I hope Gerome wore shades; and isn't that painting around 2 or 3'? I can feel the heat from the reproduction. As with Gerome, always a technical master.