The Value of Copying

Photo by Dominique Faget/AFP/Getty

In the Daily Beast, Malcolm Jones makes the case for the value of copying the work of earlier masters as a way of improving one's artwork.

"More than fun, it was an education. If you assiduously try to copy something, you can’t help learn about what you’re replicating. I understood more about Vermeer by painting my own Vermeer—about his use of light and sense of color and proportion—than I had ever learned by simply staring at his paintings." 

"Then it hit me (yes, I’m a slow learner): this was how I’d learned to draw in the first place. When I was little kid, I didn’t learn much from all those teachers urging me to express myself—frankly, I don’t think I, or most people for that matter, have much to express, certainly not when they’re six."

There’s Nothing Wrong—and a Lot That’s Right—About Copying Other Artists

Thanks, Patrick O'Hearn