This week we will study the great Dutch artist painting Johan Vermeer and all that he has to teach us about design, color, light, detail, and more.

Assignment: Purchase this image of The Girl with a Pearl Earring at the Meet the Masters Store. Have students discover the use of primary colors first and then neutral colors in three steps plus black to produce this painting using color pencils and baby oil for blending using a hue-tip.

An introduction to simplicity of a subject matter and creating skin tones using only the primary colors.

Observing the masterpiece The Milk Maid

Assignment: Recreate this painting by purchasing it at the Meet the Masters Store and apply only primary colors first then neutral colors last. Use lead pencil or color pencils. After the image is done apply baby oil in areas to blend the drawing using a q-tip. Now you have turned your pencil drawing into a painting!

Observe the videos and readings on this masterpiece below and continue with the lessons below.

In the image of the Milk Maid below observe how the Golden Ratio is used. It is also called the law of thirds. This uses a ratio of 1.86. You simply take an image and divide it into thirds in rectangles, then keep dividing a third of one of those thirds until you reach infinity. The end result is a spiral effect guiding the eye into the center of the vortex of the image.

Assignment: Recreate this painting by purchasing it at the Meet the Masters Store and apply only primary colors first then neutral colors last. Use color pencils and after the image is done apply baby oil in areas to blend the drawing using a qui-tip. Now you have turned your pencil drawing into a painting!

Assignment: Drag this art lesson sheet to your desktop and print it out. Produce the lesson by observing the image and using your imagination to create a fictions story of what is occurring in this painting by Vermeer.