I found out Cuong Nguyen YouTube channel one day. And it surprised me since it was the first time that I saw someone using green color as foundation of portrait drawing. Yes, green color. It is not just green tint but actually greenish green color. But the result was stunning! His drawing blows my mind. Please check out his video about this technique.

At first, it feels a little strange but somehow I think it makes perfect sense. As human has veins underneath our skin, we naturally have this greenish undertone. For those who had purchased makeup foundation would understand this. So I am obsessed with this method and of course I tried. Not only once, but multiple times.

After some practice I’ve learned that this method needed to be slow and light handed. It has to be slow so you can put down pastel more even. It has to be light handed so you can built up more layers afterward. Otherwise it would become Grinch. One more thing, medium gray to dark gray pastel paper is better for this technique. White and light shade paper doesn’t do well in my opinion.

I will keep practicing this green foundation technique and I hope at some point I can paint portrait in oil using it.

Thank you.