Tip: Copying Master Works

Copying paintings, or "drawing from the flat", is one of the cornerstones of traditional atelier study. Throughout history artists have studied the artistic accomplishments and creative genius of their predecessors. This included copying from their original art. Student artists would first copy from their teachers, and then from the works of great masters.

When you copy a superbly painted picture you don't have to make decisions about subject matter, composition or color. These decisions have already been made for you. All you have to do is try and figure out why the artist made the decision he did, and learn from those decisions.

It is recommended that you first start by copying drawings before moving on to paintings. When you copy a drawing by a highly skilled artist, you are not only exposed to his or her drawing techniques, but at the same time you can study the thinking process. You must consciously ask yourself why the artist did this or that, and why it works. If you can identify the concepts and strategies they used then you can also transfer these to your own works.

Gerald King is an artist that has been copying master works since 1991 as part of the copyist program at The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. The following is an excerpt from a brochure he hands out while copying in public:

"Perhaps you are wondering why artists copy paintings in museums, as I am doing. The answer is to study, to learn, and to find inspiration from the great masters of the past. Copying directly from works of art gives the artists insight into the creative process- insights which cannot be learned from any other source... For those of us growing up in the last half of this century, who have been separated from the great masters, there is really only one way to reconnect with the past and the great art which communicated with all mankind. That method is to study the great works of the masters using the time-tested exercise of copying. That is why I am here."

The following is a quote from Daniel Burleigh Parkhurst explaining the value he sees in studying great works of art:

"The study of pictures means something more than merely looking at them and counting figures in them. It implies the study of the treatment of the subject in every way. The management of light and shade; the color; composition and drawing; and finally those technical processes of brush-work by means of which the canvas gets covered, and the idea the artist becomes visible. All these things are important in some degree; they all go to the making of the complete work of art: and you do not understand the picture, you do not really and fully judge it, unless you know how to appreciate the bearing on the result, of all the means which were used to bring it about. All this adds to your own technical knowledge as well as to your critical judgment, both of which ends are important to your becoming a good painter."

Give this process of learning a try. You won't be disappointed!