DIY - How to Copy Favourite Art Works

You will probably remember my article about hobbies and how much I love the 18^th century. It was the magic era in France, and is called the “Siècle de Lumière”. Translated this means either “century of enlightenment” (as art, philosophy and science were flourishing) either “century of light”. For the same reason. And maybe because there was suddenly more light in the rooms. The windows had become larger and everyone was playing with mirror effects. Think of the Galérie des Glaces (the Hall of Mirrors), one of the most famous rooms in the Palace of Versailles – to double the light and beauty of the room, to double art and decoration.

Original proportions: the photo in a book, see the tiny ornaments (r.) and my copy*, about 40 x 28 cm (l.)

Because of my passion for this era and because it is very expensive to buy original objects or paintings I started to copy everything. As I love wall paintings and Azulejos (blue Portuguese tiles, most beautifully painted in the Baroque era) very much I started my pseudo artist´s career in copying them. Very often I copied Italian wall paintings of all centuries. There are plenty of decorative parts on as well as on the Portuguese Azuleojos which are the easiest to copy.

Very easy to copy, even for beginners: the yellow pattern on a jacket´s sleeve.

Get a photo of a painting you like (on Internet or in a book) – an Art Déco pattern, an abstract painting (I like Piet Mondrian very much), an over painted photo by Andy Warhol or anything else. Convert the size of the photo into the size of your later work of art and copy it in a copy shop. Get some carbon paper and start tracing the motive with a ball pen or with a pencil on paper, canvas or anything else. Colour your drawing with a brush. If you use acrylic paint, add much water to get it liquid. The result looks more artistic than with a covering application of paint. I like it when the copies don´t look too new so I frequently sandpaper them to get the shabby chic. That´s it!

* I did the ornament on a fibre board, I first coated with turquoise putty, painted then with a brush and sandpapered it.