Creating a mastercopy of a historical drawing is an effective exercise for honing your drawing skills.
This video is a hands on demo that provides tips for how to get started with a mastercopy.
There is also a discussion that provides insight into the value doing a mastercopy can have to advance and strengthen your drawing skills.
Demo by Art Prof Clara Lieu and Teaching Artist Jordan McCracken-Foster.
Video Walkthrough
- A mastercopy is a really useful exercise to step outside of your usual technique and try something new.
- The purpose of a mastercopy is entirely about the experience of drawing, it’s not about a product!
- When doing a mastercopy, you are looking at the artist’s technique much more closely than usual.
- The goal of a mastercopy is not a precise copy, rather it’s about trying a different technique.
- Ballpoint pens are great because they respond to physical pressure.
- You don’t have to use precisely the same materials as the original artwork, similar materials that get a similar result are fine.
- When working on the mastercopy, ask yourself what you notice about the original drawing?
- Pentel makes archival ballpoint pens.
- Studying art history in art school.
- Making a mastercopy can feel like a very foreign experience.
- Being a concept and character artist is in some ways doing a mastercopy.
- Drawings are brttrer for making mastercopies than paintings because in a drawing you see all the mistakes; in paintings many of the layers are covered over.
- Drawings make it a lot easier to see the artist’s process.
- Looking at X-rays of a painting to understand the layers.
Mastercopy Images
- All mastercopy drawings
- Animal drawings
- Figure drawings
- Illustrations
- Landscape drawings
- Portrait drawings
- Still life drawings
- Surreal drawings
Art Supplies
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