Copying works of Old Masters is a time-honored tradition, in fact, the reason for creating art museums in the first place was to provide the work of the masters for art students to copy. American art students went to Europe in the mid-1800s and early 1900s specifically to copy works from Old Masters, since our young nation didn’t have much of a collection yet.

And it’s a fascinating process.

I fell in love with the face of the beautiful “Delphic Sibyl” in Michelangelo’s Sistine ceiling when I was in grade school, and always wanted to copy it. When I finallyl did,  I felt like I was getting a personalized tutorial from Michelangelo!

Below I show how I painted  Michelangelo’s Delphic Sibyl using a modified Frank Reilly palette.

Frank Reilly is in the direct Ocean View Arts Artistic Lineage, more info is here.