Copy of an Ingres Portrait
Here’s a copy of an Ingres portrait I painted when I was much younger, always experimenting with supplies and techniques. The original Ingres is on the left, my copy on the right.
I probably used a little too much oil in the copy, trying to get the “no brushstroke” look Ingres achieved. I now know that isn’t how you get that effect — and, interestingly, as I got older I lost interest in that effect anyway. That’s how it goes.
When you copy a master to learn, it works better to have a goal in mind than to copy blindly for its own sake. Try to work out how they did a particular thing — a certain effect, how they used line, how they balanced one shape against another, how they made skin glow. Any one of those is worth a copy.
Structured lessons in the old-master methods are in the school.
Common questions
- What's the best way to copy a master painting to learn from it?
- Have a specific goal in mind rather than copying for the sake of copying. Pick one thing to study — how they got a particular effect, how they used line, how they balanced shapes, how they made skin glow — and work toward understanding that.