At my studio, beginning students get their first opportunity to copy a drawing by one of the Modern Masters (think Van Gogh, Degas, John Singer Sargent) after spending several weeks working from the still life in charcoal. With good drawing habits now firmly in place, students are ready to tackle this new challenge, whose purpose is to give them some sense of what can be achieved with line & value when they are in the hands of an expert.
Why is copying from the great masters of art such a time-honored method of learning? Because it is as though these artists were standing right beside us, imparting to us all of their skill & genius. They have made all of the artistic decisions for us; all we have to do is make our marks look like their marks. For, the fact is, drawing is really mark-making, & the truly great artists make sublime marks!
Let’s say we’re going to copy Degas’ Woman Washing, ca. 1883. Here we have an image of a woman bent forward over a bowl, washing the back of her neck. We see the top of her head, the arm & hand reaching back to the nape of her neck, her upper back, & the fingers of her other hand curled around the rim of the bowl. We notice how Degas indicated the wide strap of the woman’s garment with thin, light lines that curve beautifully around her upper arm & suggest the fabric gently fluting away from her shoulder. The arm itself is modeled solidly & volumetrically with a dark outline & some tone. Where the hand grips the washcloth, we get to see a bit of Degas’ drawing process, for he leaves us the line he drew to indicate where three knuckles must be positioned. (We can easily envision him holding out a straightedge in order to “sight” the angle of the line formed by the knuckles.) With line & value rendered in charcoal & pastel, Degas convinces us that the bowl is smooth, the fabric is transparent, the arm is round & solid, the hair is soft.
And yet, Degas has not overwhelmed us with details. We know nothing about the space in which the woman exists. Lost edges – places where lines & values melt into each other – give our eyes a chance to rest & our minds an opportunity to imagine what might be there. A flurry of indistinct marks & smudges at the far shoulder only suggests her garment, but interestingly, it also imparts a sense of the movement of both Degas’ hand as he drew & that of the woman as she washes.
As we scrutinize Degas’ marks & seek to recreate them, we learn new ways to exploit our charcoal pencil. The needle-sharp point, when applied lightly to the paper, will give us Degas’ delicate lines. Later, as the point wears down & develops a “sweet spot” – a broad, flat plane – we can achieve his wide, dark lines by pressing harder. (Of course, we can hasten the development of the sweet spot with a sandpaper block, if need be.) Applying charcoal with the side of the lead gives us areas of tone, which can then be blended with our fingers, a tortillon, or even a Q-tip or cotton ball; experimentation helps us decide what works best. As our eyes continue to plumb the depths of Woman Washing, we distinguish between hard edges & soft; we squint down to check our values; we use our kneaded eraser to pull out little bits of light value, and, of course, we step back often from the easel in order to check the progress of the drawing as a whole.
And so, as we copy, we observe ever more closely, we become ever more resourceful with our implements, & we add ever more marks to our drawing repertoire. Finally, we give thanks to Edgar Degas for being our instructor & guide today.
Here are some tips for copying:
1) Begin by doing a preliminary drawing with a 2B pencil on newsprint, getting the shapes accurate & mapping the values. Then…
2) Transfer this drawing to whatever support you have chosen for your copy. For most dry media, I suggest Ingres paper, which is a high-quality laid paper that comes in many lovely colors.
3) When copying a pen-&-ink drawing, Bristol board is a good choice. In this instance, I prefer the smooth (or plate) finish rather than the vellum finish, which has some tooth. Bristol board is even heavy enough to take a light ink wash, if necessary.
4) Always give credit to the artist from whom you’ve copied. For example, whenever my students’ Modern Master drawings are included in a student art show, the accompanying labels & program state the name of the artists from whom they’ve copied. Not only is this legally, ethically, & morally correct, it also is a sign of homage to the original artists…& just good karma!
5) Finally, it goes without saying: Never sell your copy or profit from it in any way – except from the experience of having done it, of course!