“I won’t ask you to do anything I won’t do,” I promised my students recently. That’s cutting into my painting time, but I have several students enrolled in both of my online classes. I’m concerned I’m running them ragged.
Last week I asked my composition and brushwork class to copy a Wayne Thiebaud painting. I’ve been meaning to do it myself because I was curious about how he executes those hints of penumbral color.
Later, I was flipping through Facebook and realized that painter Tim Kelly had just copied Winslow Homer’s The Herring Net. What is so valuable about copying masterpieces that even professional artists do it?
Freed from original thought
Getting rid of the pressure of originality frees your mind to focus on technique. You hone skills without the added burden of inventing something new. You can study, dispassionately, the elements of color and design used by the artist.
Brushwork
I assigned Thiebaud because I wanted my students to get a feeling for his brushwork. That differs depending on the medium. He’s also a great source to understand optical mixing.
Color mixing without pressure
By the time I was done with my fair copy, I knew what paints Thiebaud had on his palette. (It doesn’t differ much from mine, it turns out.) Here, Tim was operating at a disadvantage. “This was done from a picture in an old book so it’s likely a chromatic departure from the original,” he said.
There are several passages in Cheese Slices where colors were mixed with a dragging brush. That’s easy enough to do spontaneously; it’s much harder to copy. But the attempt helped me understand the theory behind his color choices.
Learning by copying is really reverse engineering
Most of the painting I copied was pretty straightforward. In other areas, there were challenges of blending and detail that surprised me. For example, Thiebaud’s application of impasto was more conventional than I expected, considering how radical the results look.
These problem-solving skills, of course, are transferable to your original work. Once you’ve figured out how a master blends, or applies paint, you can do it in your own work any time you want.
Learning by copying builds confidence
I still don’t think I’ll make a good forger, but it is always heartening to realize that I can fake it enough for the painting to be recognizable.
A few tips for success
You have to be a little in love with a painting to bother copying it. It helps to understand the historical context and technique of the artist before you start. There’s no reason to sweat this part; the internet is a terrific resource.
Find the best image of the painting that you can. I have a picture of Cheese Slices in a book but ended up painting from a photo taken by my friend. It was much more detailed and nuanced.
Above all, be patient. It took time to create the original, and it will take time to make a copy. Mine took the better part of a day.
Focus on what you care about. I was uninterested in copying Thiebaud’s paint-handling; I understand how he did that. Among other things, he was right-handed and I’m a leftie. But if juicy brushwork is your issue, copy the brushwork. If color’s your issue, copy the color. If they’re both your issue, focus on them both.
My major question going into this copy was when those brilliant penumbral colors were added—in the base layer, the middle layer, or the top. All of the above, it turns out.
The night after I copied this painting, I dreamed about it. My subconscious mind showed me how those penumbral colors are organized and I looked at the original with new eyes. Then I went on to paint my own cranberry-glass goblets using the same general idea. Is it brilliant? No. Is it interesting? To me, at least.
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Love the cranberry glasses. Very interesting and exciting.
Lauren
When I use the copier to make copies – that to me is copying. If I place trace paper on top a drawing to draw the particular image – which as a landscape designer student I learned to do in class was fun do to and yes my mind figured that was copying something.
When I listen to singers who cover songs, I don’t think they are copying. To me they are performing their rendition, interpretation of the beautiful song.
As I continue in my early stages of learning to explore drawing, painting and sketching – I rarely draw something from just looking at it in person. Not sure why, but for me I don’t yet find any kind of extra “rush” from open air or in person drawing. And I still love and completely enjoy my experience of drawing something they way that I do.
I draw from favorite photos of places I’ve been. It’s like being there again and I like that. Sometimes someone or a friend will send me a photo and ask me to sketch it in pencil or ink or soft pastels. I love doing that and find it very artistically satisfying to re-imagine the “feel” of being there in person. Seeing my own rendition, for me is a very original imagination experience. It makes me happy. I like it when others are very happy to seeing my rendition of their photo too.
I also draw very slow I think, so to me id get too frustrated trying to draw something that is changing right before my eyes sometimes.
I really enjoy reading your thoughts, instruction and guidance here. I love so many of your drawings. So amazing! Seeing your drawings, paintings are mostly stunning to me. I’m happy too looking at your paintings.
This particular “copying” lesson discussion today is informative to me; however, to me what I do when I sketch or draw is never copying at all. Just my personal viewpoint.
Joel
Nice to hear from you, Joel. I do have to make the point that I don’t encourage drawing from life for a ‘rush’ but because it allows room for the soul of the artist to sneak in.
Now that is a wonderful way to look at it! I hadn’t thought of that, but it sure seems to capture what can happen. I should return to Maine again this season to go sailing again and then scoot over to take one of your workshops. I’m sure I’d learn new aspects & techniques of drawing and love the experience. I’m gonna add it to my to-do, bucket list.
On the bucket list: a whole lot of master copies. How does one check for copyright? (I understand that master copies are fine, as long as they’re for educational purposes and not for profit, but suppose I wanted to do master copies of things that I did profit from?)
In what way? Selling a fair copy? I wouldn’t do that. Quoting from a masterwork? That’s frequently done, I’ve done it myself. Quotation is not considered copyright infringement when it falls under the “fair use” doctrine, meaning you can use a small portion of another artist’s work for purposes like commentary, criticism, or parody, as long as you significantly transform the original work and give proper attribution, and the amount used is not substantial compared to the original piece. IE, you’re using it to express a new idea or critique the original work, not just copying it directly.
I painted something called “The Beggar of St. Paul” which quoted Antoine Watteau’s “Pierrot,” because I wanted to make the point that there were elements of the charity industry that were theater. Sadly, Watteau’s painting is not well-enough known for my point to be clear to anyone but the most fabulous fan of art history.