Another sighting of masterwork copy Girl w/Pearl

[Patricia Joyce]

This is a class assignment to copy a Master. Since I have so much information about Girl with a Pearl, reading everything here and at other places on the internet I decided she would be the best choice for my first oil portrait.

I spent all day Saturday doing this underpainting and having absolutely the best time of my life!! I know there are areas that need work before the underpainting is finished (jawline, mouth, blouse, turban at forehead, etc., etc,)

With all the reading I have done about underpainting and the way I understood Vermeer, my question is this, should I take the darks darker? I read somewhere (Karen Wells??) that the lights should not be too light and that the darks not too dark. However, Vermeer actually put black in the turban and the darkest darks on his underpainting. I am wondering if I should attempt the same???

Any other help would be greatly, greatly appreciated. Oh yeah, I am aware I took the ear and earring too far, that the whole side in shadow should be flat. It's just that I started to have some fun with my new paintbrushes and paint!!! So I took out a small canvas board messed around. OH MY, DID I HAVE FUN!!!!!!

[Garth Herrick]

Pat,

It's gorgeous! I love the simple execution and tonality. I don't think you need to go darker necessarily at this stage. Heed Karin Wells' advice. Keep in mind that all photo and book illustration references are invariably too contrasty. It is always so revealing to see the original masterpiece in all it's glory and subtlety, next to it's postcard downgrade! If you copy the darks and lights exactly to the extremes as in your reference, your painting risks becoming to the viewer, a bad copy of a photo, in effect. You can always cautiously and judiciously add the darks, and heighten the lights, later. Done just right and they will sparkle over the underpainting. If you make things too dark, it is difficult to regain the original lighter underpainted effect. If you make the lights too light, they will be too flat, un-dynamic, pasty, and lack any room for real color development and expression. However, you will want to build up the lighter areas (in their correct tonality) as opacities that blanket over the underpainting. But ideally, the underpainting will continue to glow through in the darker areas and edges. If you make things too dark over the glow of the underpainting,and try to correct with lighter paint, you will lose that old master warm glow, and have a more deadening cool pasty effect. Knowing this, however, you can always correct for too much warm underpainting glow, at the end, with a few final adjustments of a more dead opacity to tune and match up with the underpainting. I'm throwing too much at you for now. Right now you are doing just fine and can be justly proud of your accomplishment. Kudos!

Garth

[Patricia Joyce]

Thank you, Garth!
I am so flattered by your compliment. And I have printed up your advice to read and reread, digest as much as I can before I get back to the painting. I am anxious to see how this whole glazing works, how it makes the painting glow...I found numerous images of the painting and was suprised by the variety of coloring and tonal range. In one particular reference the overall tonal range was much lighter and very yellow. In this image you can actually see detail in the darkness between the ear/earring and scarf/turban. So I actually discovered, quite by accident just how contrasty and severe photos can be. I will try to keep this in mind as I continue.

Thank you so much for the encouraging words. I will post more as I go along.

[Patricia Joyce]

Well, I am turning in this painting to class for critique this evening. I realize it is far from finished but "time is up"! I will work on it some more when I get it back from class. I am fairly happy with this although I felt I "lost" the correct color in the last stages. I have an extremely difficult time formulating colors as I have never worked in color before (ever!). but I am satisfied with this first painting and can say that I really enjoy working with a brush and oil paints. I am eager to do some portraits from life in monochrome to get more comfortable with paint and paintbrushes...

Thanks for looking

[Kimberly Dow]

Patricia,

This is a great start. Far better than my first ones.

[Patricia Joyce]

That's encouraging because I love the work you re doing! So there's hope for me . . .