Hi All,

Been working on this Alexandros bust of Girl with pearl earring from the Vermeer painting and just about got the face done.

I agonised over the skin tone for a while, as in the painting she is extremely pale (almost white). I've seen the same bust finished as per the painting and although done very well, I wasn't that keen on it.

In the end I based it on an image of Scarlrtt Johansson from the movie.

Another consideration is that I'm working in 3D, so light and shade will be used differently.

Opinions anyone?

Marc

Skin tone looks pretty good. My main piece of advice would be to have another look at the pupils. They look a bit big.

Jason

Hi Jason,
Could be right there. However, being new to PF and still getting the hang of things, I uploaded the full size images rather than thumbnails, so we have everything warts and all. I've now edited (badly) the post and looking at the images nearer the actual size of the bust I'm not sure it looks bad enough to risk changing it. I'm actually an armour modeller and new to this game, so any kind of half decent result is a bonus for me and advice is always welcome.
If it annoys me enough I may do something about it as I go on. Point taken though.

Marc.

Some nice skin tones but have to agree about the eyes.

Leave the pupils as is. They may be a little big, but I really don't think they detract from the overall look of the face. Your off to a good start.

Quite a realistic result, especially when you say you are new at this.
Perhaps tone down the red of the lips somewhat?
Looks like she's wearing lipstick and don't think Vermeer's girl did.

Looking forward to your result.

Cheers
Adrian

I agree that it looks a little strange, but the lips of the model in the painting are very red in comparison to the rest of her complection. As I mentioned, I based the bust on an image of Scarlett Johanssen from the movie rather than the painting. In the scene when Vermeer (Colin Firth) started the portrait he made her bite her lips quite hard to make a more vivid red. Okay, it is a movie, but I'm guessing that may be their take on the colour of the lips is so vivid in the painting.
Oddly enought, I started with what I thought was a more natural colour and darkened the lips more than once as I went on. Maybe the effect will be better when when it's all finished and can be sen as a whole.
I will post a few more pics as it goes on and of course, when it's finished. I doubt if I'll change it, but your comments are welcome anyway.

Marc.

I like where you are going with this AS IS Marc, and would stay the course unaltered.

I like how this one in progressing; really like the flesh tones. Don't sweat the eyes too much, they do not look all that bad.

Hi Marc,
Welcome to pF, you are off to a great start and even more impressive this is not your normal background or comfort zone. So well done so far.
Are the upper teeth sculpted into the mouth of this bust? If they are painting these in would soften the overall effect of the lips and it will be easier
to adjust any tones on the lips you think appropriate. If they are not I agree with Adrian soften the tone of the lips somewhat.

I agree with Matt leave the eyes alone, the pupils will enlarge up to 8 times the normal size depending on the stimulus. Nice fresh skin tones and good balance,
the smaller photo's really show this and painting a realistic female skin tone is always more difficult.

Looking forward to seeing how this progresses.
cheers
Richie

Stunning.

Mike

I use the Vermeer pic as a screen saver on my phone. Depending on what version you use as a download,the eyes are all different-mostly dark.
Most versions show emphasis on the eyes,but the lips are full- Johanssen has a Holywood pout,so too much.An iconic image,so difficult to capture to be content with......

Very nice work. Go further with it. Yes,the pupils are a bit to large. If you correct it, you have a great chance that you distroy the eyes.

Marc

Welcome, Marc. I don’t normally comment on anything other than Napoleonics but this really caught my eye. Nicely done but, to be flippant – looking at her pupils – could I please have some of whatever she’s on?

Jeff

Hi All,

Your comments are both welcome and have given me lots to think about. I've decided not to alter the eyes (pupils) for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I'm not sure I want to risk ruining things, but also Vermeer seems to have painted most, if not all of his portraits in the same room near the same window, which looks like it may have been the only source of light. Since his model is looking away from the window her pupils probably would be slightly enlarged.
Richie made an interesting comment about teeth. Having looked very closely at images of the box art they are there, but barely visible. looking at the bust I initially thought that this was the tounge, as if she was in the process of licking her lips and painted it that way. This may well be why the mouth looks too dark. So, this is something I'll look at changing.
With this piece being based on an art work and therefore subjective, historical accuracy isn't really relevant and it's hard to say how much of what Vermeer painted was exactly what he was looking at, not to mention the fact that he was working in 2D.
Basically, I'm just going to plod on and see how it comed out and if anything about it bugs me enough I'll change it. As requested, I'll post some shots as it progresses.

Marc.

I think this looks quite good, but as you say when the images get blown up to larger than actual, that is when things begin to stand out.

For me it's not so much the pupil size (dilation can also be a sign of excitement), it's the iris appear to be a bit large for the eye socket. Other things to look out for, proportionally the bottom of the iris is just above or touches the lower eyelid, while the upper portion will be more covered by the upper. I'd also touch up the edge of her left lower eyelid, that is currently solid gray

Nose - I think nostrils have too much darkness, which takes away from the eyes.

Mouth, well definitely add in the teeth, but more subtle than bright. The lips, they actually look quite painterly and very nicely done. I think the problem here is you have put Scarlett Johansson's lips on a sculpt that has normal lips. Ordinarily, the upper lip is angled such that it receives less light, so appears slightly darker. Scarlett has a much fuller upper lip than normal.



regards,
Jack

Hi Guys,

Thanks again for your interest and Jack for your recent post. Maybe I should have done this before but here is the Scarlrtt Johansson image that I've been working from and purely for the colouring, as I felt it better than working from the painting. It may explain some of my choices for colour, especially the lips.
Jack, although I apreciate what you're saying, I'm not trying to paint a bust of Scarlett Johansson, but using it more as a colour guide. In any case the bust was based on the painting looks nothing like her and when you compare this image to the one you posted she looks very different since she was far younger when she made the movie.
The bottom line is that I'm doing this as a gift for my sister's birthday next moth, so as long as I've done my best and she likes it I'll be happy. It also means that it won't be sitting on my shelf making me think I wish I'd done this or that every time I see it. All good constructive stuff though.

Cheers. Marc.

Marc, I fully understand that you are not trying to emulate Scarlette in your painting - my bad for posting her full profile photo, I should of cropped it to just the lips. What I'm saying is the bust is not sculpted with a full upper lip, so painting the area to look as such defies the laws of light travel.

All other comments are based on general observations of facial features, and has no influence of said actor's image.
I still think if nothing else, you should add some semblance of her teeth, and can't stress enough but to keep it very low key.

regards,
Jack

Hi Jack,
I think we both have very valid points there. As I mentionened in a previous post, I only recently realised that the bust actually had teeth. I took them for her tongue and painted it as such. Because of that, changes will have to be made. I doubt that I'll be able to deal with the teeth without having to retouch the lips anyway, so I'll take a look at it then.
It's all a lot different to painting tanks, which is more what I'm used to.

Marc.