Painters throughout history have done master copy paintings as a form of learning and developing their skills. It is a powerful way to understand your favorite paintings and incorporate what you learn from them into your own work. However, exactly how do you go about making a master copy painting yourself?
In this article, we’ll first touch on what a master copy painting is and why it’s important for every artist to have as part of their repertoire. Then, we’ll dive into how you can start creating your own!
What is a Master Copy?
A master copy is a study of another artist’s painting. Usually a copy is done after an artist you admire who exhibits a great degree of skill that you can learn from. Very often, master copies are done after old master painters. Many of these paintings are prime examples of good painting and there are plenty of high resolution images available to us from museum websites.
Why Master Copies are Important
Creating master copies allows you to experiment with techniques that may be new to you. By replicating the work of master artists, you’re not just copying their art—you’re deciphering their language. As each brushstroke tells you something, revealing insights into composition, color, and technique.
Choosing a Painting to Create a Master Copy from
Make a list of some of your favorite painters and take a look at their paintings. Decide to make a master copy of the painting that interests you the most. It is important to be very interested in your chosen painting – you want to really study and investigate it.
Capturing the essence of the piece
It is important to not try to make an exact replica of your chosen painting, but rather work on understanding and studying the painting. This can best be achieved by capturing the essence of the painting.
So, focus on painting the abstract elements in the painting – such as the value, color and geometry. Stay far away from focusing on the objects in the painting. The fundamentals are just as true and important when working on a master copy as they are when working on a regular painting.
How to Make Your Own Master Copy Painting
After you have chosen a painting you would like to copy you are ready to get started! Before you put brush to canvas though, it is important that you make your painting surface to accurate dimensions. You do not need to make your painting the exact same size as the original – just to the same scale. So, for example, if your chosen painting is a 5 x 5 ft painting, then you can make a smaller copy of it that is 12 x 12 in.
Beginning stages
You can sketch out a master copy just like you would sketch out your own painting. Keep it light and remember that not every last detail needs to be sketched in. The most important thing is to capture is the basic architecture of the painting. So, in other words get the basic composition in place with accurate measurements in relation to the painting you are working from.
First color spots in master copy
Once your painting is sketched out you can start to put in your first color spots. Place the emphasis on creating strong values right from the beginning. So, find an area where there are three clear light, medium and dark values. Then you can continue to work around that and expand on the painting
In the image above you can see how the painting is developed with larger areas of color and value. The most important thing is to retain the a big sense of light and dark as you continue the painting. If you get too lost in the details you will lose this.
The Fundamentals and Capturing the Essence of a Painting
The fundamentals continue to be of utmost importance when doing a master copy painting. It is key to being able to understand and capture the essence of the work you are studying. As you continue with your painting always ask yourself what the large areas of light and dark values are. It is important to retain the big picture values as you get into more specific color spots.
Finishing up a Master Copy Painting
As you develop a master copy painting, you want to get into a few subtleties and nuances while still continuing to capture the big areas of color and value. Just make sure that you aren’t getting distracted by small details at the expense of the big picture. You can see in the painting below how smaller shifts in value and color are present – while the big picture sense of light still has a strong presence.
In the next stage of the painting below you can see the study is now wrapped up! The master copy painting was never about creating a replica, but rather study the color and value structure of the painting. Therefore, what we have here isn’t something that represents every last detail of the original, but captures the underlying essence of the painting itself.
And it is this that you always want to understand and study before anything else. When you capture and understand the essence of a piece, then you can really apply what you learn to your own work. Which is the fundamental reason for doing master copy studies in the first place.
6 thoughts on “Why You Need to Be Doing MASTER COPY Painting Studies”
Great class Elisabeth.
As you say you have to set your objectives clearly so the study remains efficient. (Tone, Edges, Composition, Drawing, Color, etc),
Thank you.
So glad this is helpful for you! You are very welcome.
Thank you Elizabeth, that was a really helpful insight into using values as structure
So glad to hear that Maggie!
Excellent, as usual. You are a good teacher with deep understanding. I wish I had more years left in life to achieve. Thank you. In my humble attempts previously I have tried to produce my own unique work. Thereby I have taken ‘ll Saw one learned and applied the techniques, at least this way (I think) I have work that benefits from study and has its own life and is more than a pale imitation.
Thank you for your kind words Neil. Am so glad that you are working on your own work and learning. I truly believe it is never too late to learn. Learning painting also comes with the joy of being able to experience our visual world in a fresh and profound new way.