I've completed the small painting with the verdaccio underpainting and I think it has worked quite well. The overpainting of the flesh was done directly ie not using glazes but the headdress was complete using a glaze of cadmium red. The contrasting background is a glaze of Indian Yellow to give the feeling of an icon painting. I'll try another portrait using the same process and see how that works.
I've just completed a portrait commission of three children. I was a bit apprehensive as I haven't painted children before and some artists steer clear of the subject. Anyhow, I think it has worked well and was fun to do - quite colourful with different patterns and texture. I kept the background plain as I felt there was enough going on in the painting already in terms of colour and pattern. The client was absolutely delighted.
No, verdaccio is not an Italian lettuce although there is a connection to green. Verdaccio is a technique using a greenish underpainting once used by the Old Masters as it was thought that it made the painting more luminous. I've seen some contemporary painters use it using a mix of Ivory Black and Yellow Ochre plus white. As Ivory Black is a blue black, adding yellow ochre gives a muted green.
I decided that I would try it but instead use Old Holland Green Umber which is a cool earthy green. Maybe it will be too cool for flesh tones and it is a very desaturated green but we'll see how this experiment goes. I'm trying it on a small scale with this head and shoulders with the underpainting of the turban painted with burnt umber.
