Today I will start a new portrait. I get great joy from copying paintings of the masters. Mostly because I would never be able to own an original and being able to create a version to hang in my own home makes me feel good about my abilities. I also believe it is really good experience to copy master's. Though, I'm probably beyond needing that and really need to be working from life...oh well...

I was in Philadelphia last year for the Portrait Society of America Conference and I went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It was great and they allowed non-flash photography. I took several shots of amazing master portraits. Unfortunately, I can't find my notes on who painted them :( Three of them came out quite well and with enough detail I will attempt to work from. It will be a small 9x12 canvas mounted to panel, though the original I think was probably a 30x40.

I'm off to begin...stay tuned for my progress.