I have always loved Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring painted around 1665 and I decided to try and recreate her face to help me understand Vermeer's style and to improve my own efforts at portraiture. It was absolutely fascinating to do. I was able to download a high res image and zoom into the detail (I would love to see the painting in person!) and I just tried to work out how he had painted her.
This was when I coined the phrase Mini Master because this is 6x8 inches. I'm obviously using more up to date paints, so I wasn't trying to do an exact copy but I did try to recreate the greenish underpainting and the porcelain skintone. The edges are so super soft, I had to soften everything right down. I just love her eyes and the look he has captured. To think that Vermeer had to do this from life, there were no photos to study - we have it so much easier these days!