This project was started 20th June 2011:

I decided to create a mezzotint copy of the Vermeer portrait 'Girl With A Pearl Earring'

This is part of my investigation into trying other forms of 'rocking' a copper plate for mezzotint (see my previous article in this section)

Old Masters such as Durer and Rembrandt made etchings; mezzotint developed later on and was used primarily to create portraits from original oil paintings  and it was from this point of view that I chose the Vermeer.

The above copper plate image shows the very preliminary state of scraping and burnishing the image to establish the tonal values required.

The image was initially hand-drawn onto the plate, from a reverse image on my PC monitor. The proportions were established using the grid method. Of course, at present the features are roughly composed but through the stages (hopefully) I should be able to improve on this.