I painted a copy of a Rembrandt self portrait this past week. Copying is one of the best ways of learning how to paint, providing you pick someone worth copying. You get in their head, plus you get to know what painting a masterpiece feels like.
You also get to see the quality gap between your work and theirs, which is chastening. But you find ways to close the gap a little.
I don't think I'll be starting a career as a forger any time soon. The finished piece is a different beast from the original, even at a casual glance, but I learned a thing or two in the painting of it. Such as:
- How to make a restricted palette work hard.
- How to use glazes and scumbling over an underpainting.
- How to control tone for a dramatic light effect.
- How to control edges to describe what you're painting.
The whole of art history is a Google image search away. If you want to kick your painting up a notch, go to it.
You also get to see the quality gap between your work and theirs, which is chastening. But you find ways to close the gap a little.
I don't think I'll be starting a career as a forger any time soon. The finished piece is a different beast from the original, even at a casual glance, but I learned a thing or two in the painting of it. Such as:
- How to make a restricted palette work hard.
- How to use glazes and scumbling over an underpainting.
- How to control tone for a dramatic light effect.
- How to control edges to describe what you're painting.
The whole of art history is a Google image search away. If you want to kick your painting up a notch, go to it.
