Suggested Portrait Artist Exercise: Copying a Vermeer
 

For those artists who are working to perfect the depiction of a fully three dimensional form or to fine tune any of a number of other aspects in their work, here is an excellent exercise I would recommend:

[b]Copy Vermeer

Here's the monochrome version:

After you feel you have completely mastered the drawing, the range of values and the rendering of edges, tackle this in color:

Michele,

Do you have a suggestion for where painters might find a good quality reproduction, especially on-line?

Can you suggest a palette as well?

By doing a Google image search and choosing the ones with the largest image size I came up with several very nice online reproductions.

Here are a few links:

http://arthistory.westvalley.edu/ima...RL_EARRING.JPG

http://gallery.euroweb.hu/art/v/vermeer/03b/22pearl.jpg

http://www.oir.ucf.edu/wm/paint/auth/vermeer/

For information on suggested colors, and plenty of other details about emulating Vermeer's technique, try this website:

http://howtopaintavermeer.fws1.com/

Goil 'Wit Da Poil
 

Hi Michele,

Here's my start on the grisaille version. I've been stuck in an awful situation in my day job, accompanied by one of those rotten artistic slumps, where you never get to do what you really want to do when you want to do it. I'm about five hours into this. It's a good exercise for when you want to keep painting or drawing, but things aren't going your way.

The size is 9"H x 8"W, oil on masonite, or about half-scale. I put down a background of raw umber in W&N alkyd Sunday night so it would be mostly dry when I started to work on it Monday. It's all titanium white, raw umber, and some ivory black, using Rembrandt oils without thinning or medium.

I'm using my paperback version of Norbert Schneider's "Vermeer: The Complete Paintings" as a source, since I couldn't get a good printout from the web.I've spent most of my time on the face; hardly even roughed out the clothing and turban. One thing that strikes me is that that earring doesn't appear to be a pearl. It paints more like a glass ball or globe. Am I nuts, or has anybody else noticed this? Vermeer sure knew how to paint a pearl, and it doesn't look like most of his other pearls to me. Anyway, any crits or comments are welcome. Maybe I should have spent tne time doing a brake job on my car?

Nice start, John. And, I do agree, the earring in Vermeer's painting doesn't much look like a pearl. It looks like a silver ball to me.

Here's a suggestion: perhaps those who do this exercise could use this thread to tell others what they are learning from the process.

Re: the pearl
 

It looks like a black pearl, a rather large one.

Jean

Reproduction
 

There are also quite large reproductions at the following link, although the color is not as saturated as in the other reproductions.

http://www.kfki.hu/~arthp/html/v/vermeer/03b/index.html

Holly

Good start John
 

Hi John,

I must say - of all the copies of The Girl With The Pearl Earring I've seen - you have captured her mouth the best in this grisaille. Overall I think you have the gist of the pose pretty "down" also!

Wow what a challange and I hope to be part of it.I was so excited that I printed off the two images and then went to each site suggested by you, Michele. I then proceeded to get really stuck and anxious about "how to paint a Vermeer" and read the entire 20 pages here. :) It was fantastic.

I had not thought of doing the earring one but had recently yearned to try the "Girl With a Red Hat". That one to me is just simply so striking and since I am in someway in my --not blue but "red" period, then I will have to do that one too.

I will do this but hope you all will be not forget me as I am terribly slow. Also, have to develop film before posting as I do not have a digital. Also, the images all are a little varied as to actual color so I will go to my large reference book of art and compare them all.

Good luck all and John as for your grisaille. I'm anxious to see the other ones you do.

Hello all,

One thing I've learned from this exercise so far is that the next time I do this I'll make my painting the same size as the reference work, maybe by getting a poster of the painting. My painting here is scaled slightly larger than the reproduction on page 68 of my book, but slightly smaller than the version on the cover. When I put either version next to my painting to check one against the other, it's really difficult to tell whether I've got an eye, for example, too big or too small or in the correct relation to some other feature. It can be done, but it's a lot harder than it needs to be. Michelle already mentioned that this exercise works best if done in the original size of the painting. I just want to emphasize that I'm paying the price for ignoring her good advice.

Another thing I've noticed is that my reproductions both show what appears to be some damage in parts of the original painting. There's the obvious cracking in the face area, which I don't intend to reproduce, but which is enough to actually alter the values in this area. I'm thinking of the area above her right eye (our left) on the forehead.

Another area is in the shadow side of the blue turban, where the black looking portions seem to be really irregular, as though the blue paint had been somewhat abraded so the dark background might be showing through in places.

I've decided to paint things the way I think the pristine original might have looked, even though I'm not completely sure what that was. I lack the skill to reproduce that area in the turban in any event. All of this makes one realize that a career in art forgery is probably not the easiest way to make a buck!

Denise, It seems to me that my version has a slightly more "worried" look compared to the placid expression in the original. Also mine looks a little older than the girl in the original. Maybe both effects stem from the same source, but I'm not sure what it is. I'm going to work on the clothing now before I go back to the face. I'll post the finished grisaille when I'm done. I'm eager to see what others do with this exercise! :o

Michele,

Thanks for taking the time to post this exercise. I am planning to work on mine as soon as I get some free time.

Value Study
 

Hello All,

Here's my finished (I think) value study of the "Girl With The Pearl(?) Earring". Painting this was quite an experience. I used to love the painting, but having my nose in it for twelve hours has given me doubts. I suppose that will eventually pass.

One question I have, Michelle, is; should we use the value study as an underpainting for the full color copy, or start all over again?

The scan is not the best, and I've cropped out a lot of the background, since it's not of much interest in this phase of things.

Detail
 

A detail of the face.

Since I don't make use of underpaintings I'll let someone who does do them answer that part of your post.

John, can you tell "the class" what you learned from this exercise?

Michele,

I'm not ready to deliver one of my glorious essays on what I've learned from this. I've mentioned a few things, but I'm still digesting the results. Like why did I decide to stop and post this as finished? My answer to that is that that I've gone about as far as I can go without starting to copy cracking paint and that sort of thing. But I've missed a lot, which I can see looking at the post on my screen. Somebody's got to tell me where else I'm off. But at least she doesn't look as worried as she did last week! ;) I'm multitasking heavily now, so I've got to run. But let's see what others' attempts will bring. I don't want to be alone in this. Besides, this is only the first part of the exercise/challenge.

As an underpainting your study is much too dark. An underpainting is simply a first layer...a map to follow. The values need to be lighter because glazes and scumbles and opaque light will be layered on top. A dense dark layer underneath can make your top layers look "dead" and as you build light it will eventually upset the balance between light and dark.

As a value study you can get away with the overall darkness here as you continue to develop and refine the painting. Personally, I prefer a lighter and warmer value range. My painting of Mme. Ingres below illustrates how I would approach both an underpainting and a value study in one shot. Sorry I don't have a bigger picture for you.

Contrary to what I had posted earlier, critiques of works posted in this thread can be made within this thread. It is not necessary to re-post an image over in the Old Masters section.

Vermeer Copy
 

Michele,

Thanks for the suggestion. I used to copy the "Old Masters" quite a bit and am glad to try it again (I discovered I need more practice!).

Mine is a 14" x 11".

Anyone else?
 

I am curious if anyone else has started or completed this exercise? Would love to see others.

Thanks!

Hi Mike,

I did one last year, posted here on the Forum. Now I look at it and think, YIKES!

What do you mean "Yikes?"

You have a great sense of style. The drawing is very nice. I enjoy seeing each individual's interpretation of the same subject.

Thanks for sharing.

Color Me....?
 

Greetings, Folks

It took me a long time to complete this assignment: not much actual painting time, but a couple months of working to keep the wolf from the door (or working to qualify for medical insurance, which amounts to the same thing)!

I used the grisaille study as an underpainting, but first "devalued" it to something like Karin's example. I raised the value of the shadows and lowered the values of the brighter areas, so that only the mid tones were represented. Compared to my previous experience, I found that it's a lot easier to paint out to the extreme values from the mid range than vice-versa, especially when the color variable is introduced. Thanks, Karin, that's another trick I've picked up from you!

As I previously noted, I had two reproductions in a book from which to paint . The one on the cover had better detail, but the color seemed way too yellow, giving it a very "antique" appearance. The one in the interior seemed more lifelike in color, but was somewhat less saturated than the cover. Since I've never seen the original, I decided to split the difference and make the chroma somewhere between the two examples. Anyway, here's the result:

Detail
 

Here's a detail of the face:

John,

The painting turned out beautifully. You said you started with the mid values, did you do an underpaing the way Karin does it or was it a more direct approach? I like the color choices as well. It gives the painting an old world feel.

Hi Enzie,

I basically converted my value study to an underpainting like Karin would do. This was just a matter of lightening up the shadows and darkening down the lighter parts. Her post on the previous page of this thread shows what it looks like: basically a low contrast value study. It didn't take very long to do this since my drawing was already done in the value study. I let it dry overnight and then started painting in color.

There's a good example of underpainting going on now in the oil critique section, where Chuck Yokoda is doing a painting by this method.

I don't always do an underpainting, but I thought that since I had the grisaille already done, I might as well use it for that purpose. When I have used underpainting, I always did something like a full value study. Karin's method seems a lot more comfortable to me, because as you darken the shadows and lighten the highlights you see the right contrast level coming together as you approach it.

Thanks for the compliment on the color. I'm at work now, stealing the boss's time, but the image of my painting looks a lot warmer than on my CRT at home. Particularly on the shaded cheek. In my reproductions and in my painting, the darkest shadow on that cheek is a lot cooler than the rest of the shadow on that side. I actually kind of like the warmer version I'm seeing on the LCD screen of this laptop, but it's not very faithful to the actual painting. Hey, maybe my "old world look" is just an artifact of these computers! :(

Sedate and Moody
 

John,

I am telling the truth when I say I love this copy. She is both sedate and moody and you have painted, in my opinion, a wonderfully crafted copy. I am very impressed with the color and lost edges.

I have the Girl with the Pearl as my screensaver, and am not quite ready to replace it with your copy.......yet!

Thanks for the notes, which I will refer to if I decide to do a copy someday. You should hang it in a beautiful frame somewhere special.

Sincerely,
Denise

Denise,

Wow, that

Save Those Funky Brushes
 

One thing that really struck me in doing this exercise was the extreme softness of edges and the exquisite subtlety of small color changes in Vermeer's technique. Unless my reproductions were lying to me, there are truly no hard edges to be found anywhere in the face in the original. This was noted in the original post by Michelle. I was going batty trying to reproduce some of these effects until I tried using some blown out old brushes that I was going to discard.

In working the areas around the eyes or the mouth, for example, I would first try to paint using a "good" brush. If that failed to achieve the desired softness, I would take a "funky" brush of the appropriate size and very lightly blend the area to try to match the reproduction. Toward the end of the painting I was using the "good" brushes only to scumble on small amounts of paint, followed by extensive softening and blending with "funky" brushes. Using the "funky" brushes to directly apply paint did not work out very well. The "funky" brushes had to be kept dry and clean for this to work properly.

I suppose the more experienced painters already know this. I've even done this before, but never near the extent that I did in this painting, so I thought it would be worth mentioning it in this context. By "funky" I mean a brush that has lost its original shape, usually because it was cleaned inadequately so that paint was allowed to harden at the junction of hairs and ferrule. The result is a shape like a three dimensional fan or a thistle bloom. Below is a scan of a "funky" brush that started life as a #2 square-edged sable. The scanner lid compressed the hairs a bit, so it's not as fluffy looking as it normally is, but I think it conveys something of what I mean.

Gotta love those funky brushes. I must have about 50 of them and it's handy to have lots in the studio. As John pointed out, they need to be absolutely clean and dry to be of any use, for the purposes he mentioned.

Here's a tip, something I do to preserve my sable brushes: clean them with "soft soap" and wrap them with toilette paper. On top of that place a clip. The form stays good and except for a small bend in the hair from the clip. It doesn't work as well with synthetic brushes.

Also, it is possible to soften some edges with a "good" brush by running the brush over the edge while it is wet. Both sides of the edge have to be wet.

Hi all,

I've nearly finished my "postmodernized" Pearl Girl. Michele, I'm going to post it in the Oil Critiques section, since it's a bit off topic at this point and it's not really an Old Master copy anymore either. If that's not the right place it can be moved to wherever you think is appropriate.

Members over at wetcanvas have been participating in this same project.

Take a peek!

Chris,

Thanks for posting that link. Twenty-five of them, and they're still coming in! I had to join that forum to be able to view these paintings, and I wasn't approved until yesterday. Some of the participants are doing copies and some are doing "interpretations", so the entries are all over the place in terms of adhering to the original. Still, it's amazing to see a whole page full of "Pearl Girls"!

I wasn't aware of the wetcanvas forum before. I've seen it mentioned, but never checked it out. It's vast: 26000 members, Yow!