Yes, I know this painting has become a subject of a Hollywood movie although I have not seen it, and I thought about just drawing Scarlett Johansen in place of Vermeer’s girl with a pearl earring, but this is a “master study” for a class at the Academy of Art so I stuck to the real subject.
This is a charcoal drawing 18″x24″ and took me about 9 hours to complete. Imitation is a great way to understand something when you’re at a learning mode be it art, business, music, cooking, or anything for that matter. I chose this image because it has a mystique and now also a commonality to it thanks to Hollywood.
This is a charcoal study 18″x24″of a painting by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, a French Neoclassical painter 1780-1867, same class, same purpose of getting to know what about a painting or drawing makes it work by doing a black and white study of it. How do you attain a full range of values in order to create the right look and a recognition of a specific art piece? From doing just these 2 studies I’ve felt that subtlety where you either have the look or you don’t and it can happen with just the slightest change in one area. One slight angle off and the eye is someone elses. I think I’m pretty close on these although they are slightly off of course, and will have one study a week for the next 8 or so weeks.