The DPW Challenge -Copy of Carlos San Millan

Oil on wood panel 12 x 16

Carol Marine and her husband have created a wildly successful website called Daily PaintWorks and each month a new challenge is posted.

July 22nd's Challenge was to copy a painting of an artist you admire, then use what you learned to do a second piece using what you learned.  I copied from a fine Spanish contemporary artist whose work you can see at this link:  Carlos San Millan .  The painting I copied is 4 rows down and on the far right.  There are two versions of this painting out there in cyberland, but I wasn't aware of that so I chose what was probably a study for the more precisely rendered version.

Hard, yes, but really enjoyable.

The main thing I learned is unless you have the skill of a master forger, doing a copy that looks much like the original is virtually impossible because each artist's style is a result of specific brushes, knives and paints and the way his/her arm and hand work to apply the paint.

Should you decide to do copies I suggest copying from a long-dead artist.  You can call it a copy and sell it, but contemporary artists will have copyrights and your copy can't be sold - even identified as a copy.