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Lego Mosaic - Girl with a pearl earring Vermeer

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Lego Mosaic - Girl with a pearl earring (Vermeer)

樂高名畫 - 戴珍珠耳環的少女

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Hi Greeting ! Long time no posting in eurobrick.

It is my new Lego Mosaic Recreation No.2 "Girl with a pearl earring". Now I have the special hobby to collect the Art paint masterworks which it is recreated by my own lego. I like "Girl with a pearl earring" very much. It seems the girl is looking foward to you and both together.

Let s know more about the painting first , from wiki :

The painting Girl with a Pearl Earring (Dutch: Het Meisje met de Parel) is one of Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer's masterworks and, as the name implies, uses a pearl earring for a focal point. Today the painting is kept in the Mauritshuis gallery in The Hague. It is sometimes referred to as "the Mona Lisa of the North" or "the Dutch Mona Lisa".

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It is the original painting "Girl with a pearl earring" at 1665 by Johannes Vermeer.

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I used ~8000 lego pieces to build up my recreation. The size is 1000x800mm. I got the difficult point that it is quite not easy to simulate the Vermeer's masterwork original one. I try the serveral methods. At last, I found the error diffusion technique to complete my expected mosaic.

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My previous No. 1 recreaction "Starry Night" is the dynamic mosaic. This No. 2 is different and like as the static painting. And you can see a young girl dressed in an exotic turban turns and gazes at the viewer. Her liquid eyes and half-opened mouth impart the immediacy of her presence, yet her purity and her evocative costume give her a lasting quality, unconstrained by time or place.

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Arnoldus Andries des Tombe purchased this work at an auction in The Hague in 1881, for only two guilders and thirty cents. At the time, it was in poor condition. Des Tombe had no heirs and donated this and other paintings to the Mauritshuis in 1902. Now it is located in Mauritshuis, The Hague.

More recent Vermeer literature points to the image being a "Tronie", A tronie (Seventeenth century Dutch for a "face") is a common type, or group of types, of works of Dutch Golden Age painting and Flemish Baroque painting that shows an exaggerated facial expression or a stock character in costume.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tronie

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To instead of wood plate, pearl board is another good alternative.

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Turn back to discuss my recreation, it is generated by the error diffusion. I can tell you it's advantage that I can control the lego plates selecting with the narrow color range to complete the mosaic art and it get good simulation of her face, liquid eyes and mouth. But, if you think more , it also get the disadvantage.

http://kecskebak.blogspot.hk/2010/11/la-mode.html

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My color container.

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I completed the part of face,cloth first. It is easy to build the black background in last step.

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It is my home studio!

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It is 50% working . I try different colour for the pearl earring. For my view, it is the good presentation with using the simple white & grey colour in the soft black background.

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I spent long time (serveral months) to complete my work & I enjoy the processing. It is almost 80% working.

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It is my another funny creation name as "Dream Room". In my dream, I live in a elegant mansion with a Vermeer painting, White grant piano, a comfortable sofa, Pets.

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It is joined in the HKLUG gathering 2013 in Hong Kong. Thanks all lego buddy. I am happy to get this moment picture with my wife. I gather much of information about Vermeer and his painting, Hope you will like my creation and get the interesting for the article.

Source :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girl_with_a_Pearl_Earring

Flickr :

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alanboar

樂高名畫收藏系列 NO. 1 星夜 Starry Night

樂高名畫收藏系列 NO. 2 戴珍珠耳環的少女 Girl with a pearl earring

Lego Creator : Alanboar

http://lego.alanstudio.hk

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That is really well done and instantly recognizable as the Vermeer. Good grief though eight thousand pieces? It's massive!

...and the Dream Room with a minifig scale painting is also praise worthy.

Thank you for sharing it with us!

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agree, just wow, that is quite the undertaking...would love to see you do American Gothic or Hopper's Nighthawks

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Why have more people not commented on this?! It's amazing!

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Wow in my own opinion your work should need more recognition (you know like making frontpage...;).

Anyway,well done and after seeing what you've done I still believe there is hope in this world!

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That is really well done and instantly recognizable as the Vermeer. Good grief though eight thousand pieces? It's massive!

...and the Dream Room with a minifig scale painting is also praise worthy.

Thank you for sharing it with us!

Thank you. Actually , near~ 8000 I think. not accurate I guess it from serveral bricklink orders XD

The dream room, I like it also !

agree, just wow, that is quite the undertaking...would love to see you do American Gothic or Hopper's Nighthawks

Wow, it is another masterworks for Grant Wood's American Gothic or Hopper's Nighthawks. I also want have a chance to simulate.

In my next idea, I will try another public domain artwork :

富嶽三十六景 神奈川沖浪裏(葛飾北斎)

320px-The_Great_Wave_off_Kanagawa.jpg

Why have more people not commented on this?! It's amazing!

Thank you. Please count this also for my feedback :laugh::grin:

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That Vermeer mosaic is fantastic!

Has it appeared in any newspapers or print magazines? Has it been exhibited in any galleries? It should be.

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I continue to be amazed by the mosaics that are created out of Lego. This is no exception. Excellent recreation! :thumbup:

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You did a great job on this. How did you started creating this in the first place? Did you use a computer program?

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Hi Alan,

I am a huge fan of this painting and your's is a good representation. If you ever consider a microscale version, check this out:

http://www.gizmag.co...-modular/19491/

HI Hobbythom, Thank you. It is the good idea if recreation is mounted on the wall!

That Vermeer mosaic is fantastic!

Has it appeared in any newspapers or print magazines? Has it been exhibited in any galleries? It should be.

Wow, AmperZand, I appreciate your nice comment. I satisfied that my friend like it in garthering meeting.

I continue to be amazed by the mosaics that are created out of Lego. This is no exception. Excellent recreation! :thumbup:

This is such a fantastic build. I love it. You had such a great idea.

Thank you Masa of Kaliphlin, kinggregus , I like the masterwork of vermeer first , then I re-draw it in my own way.

You did a great job on this. How did you started creating this in the first place? Did you use a computer program?

Yes, it is a good example tutorial as below link. For me, I will like to use photoshop or any photo editor to smooth/re-design first before I used mosaic program:

After all , I will spent lot lof time to modify the section (such as ,eyes, lip, earring) using the lego plates. It will get lots of bad section/expection after program generated.

http://thebrickblogger.com/2011/01/resources-for-lego-mosaics-builders/

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You should present in on LEGOWorld Utrecht 2013 in Holland (doubt that they will pay your ticket, but they should with such a nice Dutch work!).

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Wow wow wow! As a fellow Mosaic builder I can only be happy that more and more people are entering this great artistic side of LEGO! Although on the other side I am not sure I want more competition on my side ah! :P

Your work is really great and the similiarities to the original are really top ( even though that doesn't surprise me at all because I know the full capabilities of what we can do when it comes to Mosaics a little better than the average guy).

I see you've not limited yourself to using 1x1 plates, that's actually good (even though the 8000 piece count looks a bit low at the eye, since i've done stuff from 9000 to over 16000) and something I am currently working on too because it saves a lot of work and obviously money (even though the preprocessing of the Mosaic is a bit more complicated...)

So congrats and keep going!

PS: Personal rant - why did I never got to the front page? I am sad now you know :cry_sad:

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Have you seen the Set 60008 ? (Museum Break-In) It has the same picture in it !

Yeah, well spotted :thumbup: !

60008stk02.jpg

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Alan, This is an astounding mosaic of an astounding painting! Congratulations!

It is so moving just to look at it. Having seen the film and read the book, it becomes very emotional viewing her face and eyes, and knowing how badly she was treated as a person in Holland at that time.

You have a real masterpiece here. Please keep up the fantastic work and thank your wife for letting you spend so much time on your mosaics.

Where have you displayed your work for the public? Maybe you should approach the Museum of Art in HK? I think that it would look outstanding on their walls with the other fine works by Chinese artists in their collection. And the Dutch were such well known sailors that the location on the water would do this Girl justice. Good luck!

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What a fenominal piece of work, I love it, if you haven't already done so, I have a suggestion for maybe your next piece, the Mona Lisa (I look forward to seeing more of your future projects) :classic:

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Wow. Spectacular. Thanks for sharing this wonderful work of art.

The original Girl With a Pearl Earring is on display at the High Museum in Atlanta through September 29th. That's only about 20 minutes from my house. May have to make the trip into town to see it.

Edited by TomLego

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