Sketching the Masters

Making a quick oil sketch of an Old Master painting not only helps you understand techniques, but also teaches you a lot about yourself, as SARA LEE ROBERTS explains

- SARA LEE ROBERTS

When making quick oil sketches “after” the Masters, it is important to understand that the purpose is not to make a perfect copy. This article will not show you how to make copies using the same techniques as the Masters. This is a deliberate decision – by using modern oil colours and not using the complex layering technique used by many of the Masters, it is impossible to make a copy that would be indistinguishable from the original.

I am not even going to give you a list of suggested colours or types of brushes. This is because I want you, at all times, to take the suggestions as an approach rather than as a manual.

I assume that you have worked with oil paint and have your own preferred brushes. Obviously, it is sensible to have a range of colours to work with: some reds, blues, yellows, whites, browns and blacks. The approach to making quick oil sketches is similar to that of making thumbnail sketches. You start off looking first at the underlying form of the composition rather than at the details.

When looking through the images that are available to me, I have chosen paintings that suit my needs, looking for subjects and/or compositions that will be beneficial to me in my journey as an artist. Sometimes I have chosen to work from a portrait as I am interested in making contemporary portraits and learning from those made in the past seems to me to be a good idea.

At other times I have chosen to work from subjects that I know will challenge me, as it is only through overcoming obstacles and challenges that we can develop as artists.