Underpainting Painting: Johannes Vermeer

For this painting Johannes Vermeer used charcoal, chalk, tempera, white lead, red and yellow ochre, vermillion and oil paints in various tones most of which he grinded up himself daily. No one knows how Johannes Vermeer made the initial drawing for this painting but it is thought that preliminary drawing on the canvas was to act as a guide during the painting and also intended to fix the significant contours of the composition. Once the initial outline drawing was finished he began the underpainting. Underpainting is pretty much a one colour; in various shades, version of the final painting, which gives volume and substance to the shapes as well as fixes the composition. He would have used blacks, ochre’s and warm browns and occasionally white
The part of the painting which seemed to require considerable time to paint was the face of the girl. The illuminated part of the girl’s face was painted in two thin layers of flesh tone. Vermeer seems to have used a flat fan shaped brush called a badger brush to paint parts of her face to blend the different colours together. The first layer of flesh colour most likely served to define the gradations of lights and darks. The more specific tones of colour, like the warmer tones on the lips and cheeks were completed in the second layer although by their tone they may of have been suggested in the beginning. Vermeer made the young girl’s half smile brighter by adding two small white dots on either sides of her mouth, echoing the highlights in her eyes. He used his paints to capture the effect of the light falling across her turban, ochre-coloured jacket and features. He made her skin on her cheek look more delicate with a soft contour, which he created by extending a thin glaze lightly over the edge of the thick impasto, defining the flesh colour. He implied reflective light from the white colour in the pearl earring, also more subtly, the shadows on her left