Artist help, UNDERPAINTINGS! how does it work?? Need advice!

[Redbtk]

Hey all, recently came across an artist Chet Zar. He does pretty insane dark, gothic, almost surreal portrait paintings of monster type subjects. Really trying to figure out his process. Tempted to buy his DVD "Digital Creature Painting with Chet Zar" even though it's tutorials in Photoshop.

I've seen some of his Instagram posts on how he does stages, not sure if it's how he usually does it for his better known originals, but I can't seem to figure out a main step..

How does an underpainting work??

I usually see an underpainting done in a burnt sienna or something, but how do you follow that? Do you let that dry first and then continue? This is something that eludes me. I feel it's an important step but not sure if it really is. I'm trying to paint in a more "realistic" skin tone in paintings. Definitely feel like this may help him in his paintings, but I also feel it confuses me in mine, as areas get too worked and leaving me useless until it dries.

http://www.chetzar.com/2012-taboo.html

also, wanted to add this ^^painting of Chet Zar's that I really admire because of that skin tone. That's an easy view of how I imagine doing any sort of skin tone in any painting of mine, but I always seem to end up "seem-lessly" blending colors from 1 transition to the next, ontop of always using too much straight black which makes it look cartoony in a sense.

[Deleted]

The point of an underpainting is, first and foremost, to figure out your values and your composition. Burnt umber underpaintings are probably the most common because they dry fast, have low chroma, don't muddy your colours, and make it easy to build your values (one of the reasons why toned paper is so popular for sketching). Technically though, you could use any colour (verdaccio, for instance, has a greenish effect) and any type of medium (some artists prefer acrylics). Once it's done, you glaze over it, and voilà — easier said than done, but you get the idea