[Karin Wells]

I never took my (underpainting) copy of the Ingres to the next level. I learned what I needed to and quit on that one.

In order to learn how to paint like the Old Masters, I spent aprox. two years doing nothing but copies of great paintings.

I always started with an underpainting like the Ingres above, but usually finished them. I am sorry now that I did not photograph the stages as it would have been so helpful for others to see the process.

I'm not sure that this would help you, but here is one by Sir Thomas Lawrence (The Calmody Children) that I copied in the exact same underpainting method as the Ingres.

I no longer feel the need (or have the time) to copy the Master paintings, but I recommend this to anyone who really wants to learn to paint in that grand old style.

I still use the underpainting technique in all of my work, but I shortcut the method somewhat because of limited time....but (hopefully) I never shortcut the quality of my work.