Julie Donec

Girl with a Pearl Earring #2

Mix up a very thin wash of yellow ochre, burnt sienna and raw umber, with very little turpentine or mineral spirits. I prefer the warm yellowiish tone achieved here, as did many of the Flemish painters. The Italians more often used a darker or reddish tone to colour their grounds. The tonal wash is brushed over the entire canvas surface, using a large brush. (I say to use a brush, as most people prefer a tool, but I like using a rag dipped into my mixture, and rub it over the canvas and carefully over the conte image). Either way, try to avoid major streaks or marks on the face, and don't worry too much about the background portion of the canvas. Note the 'bear' paw print on the bottom half of the turban where it's hanging down. "Little error there - ahem"..old solvent on a rag that I put on the canvas, and was horrified when it wouldn't come off. Moving right along - I used a mix of raw umber and a very little burnt sienna mixed with a small amount of solvent and some medium to start building up the forms in the image. I worked up the eyes, nose and mouth, and began to mark the areas of cloth where there are folds and creases, and start to build form in the shadows, still keeping them fairly light. I then used a mix of titanium white, and a touch of yellow and cadmium red, mixing up a very creamy flesh colour in three values; light, medium and dark. Set titanium white over the highest valued areas on the far side of the face, on the bridge of the nose and the collar. I then used the hightest value of flesh over the left cheek, and the medium value in areas of the lightest part of the shoulder in the mid tones of the turban, and the darkest flesh value over the neck. I applied the paint very thinly in all of the areas.