THE GHOUL WITH A PEARL EARRING

Oct 29, 2024

A horror homage to "The Girl with the Pearl Earring" by Vermeer. A ghoul in a green trench coat tilts its head back offering a tight, awkward grin. Its yellowing teeth are a match for its unnatural eyes. A blue scarf is wrapped around it's long forehead and a grey teardrop earring hangs from its ear. The background is loosely rendered, framing the subject off-center in circle that looks like a large rusting porthole. — THE GHOUL WITH THE PEARL EARRING (2012), Oil - 20” x 16”

This began life as a drawing in one of my sketchbooks while reading Mutant Hunter: The Slicks by Stephen R. Cox. I was trying to get the feel of one of the mutant characters in the book, but it fell short of the mark.

Leon Miller stands on a mound of broken concrete blocks as he surveys the oil covered expanse of Ocean known as the Slicks. The Screamer—a multiengine military aircraft—streaks past a sweeping gray plume of smoke that trails off panel left, originating at a crash that is still burning just over the horizon. Miller is wearing combat fatigues. He holds an EM weapon that resembles a slim bazooka pointed straight up. His hood is drawn up and he's wearing polarized shades. A spiral of red wire runs down from the strap of his pack and around to his back. A coil of rope hangs from his other hip. Set on jagged branch pikes, three heads of mutants—presumably his bounties—stick up from the rubble, casting gristly gazes in different directions. — MUTANT HUNTER: THE SLICKS (2012), Acrylic on Panel - 24" x 36"

I liked the thing’s grin enough to want to try to paint it, so I devoted a little time one morning sketching the head out in oils.

Later I came into my studio and noticed for the first time how similar the head position was to that of the girl in the famous painting by Vermeer…so I put some more time into it and brought it up to a full color rendering.

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