Sketching THE MASTERS
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.
