I am painting an exact copy of the School of Athens by Raphael and I will show the progress as I go along so you can learn about the master. If you want to learn how to paint first you should visit the Museum of Modern art in NYC and the realize you are in the wrong museum and take a taxi up to THE MET and look at the old masters like titian and Rubens etc. There is nothing to be learned from the modernists except how not to paint and that (in a sense) is half the battle! First you must have a good drawing as a foundation and establish your structure. There are many ways to skin a cat and what ever gets a great end result is fine. Some methods are nothing more than ways to beat the life out a piece of art so be careful about too closely aping someone else or following mechanical methods. Painting is nothing if it does not have life and soul regardless of how well it is labored. On the other extreme is the jasper johns effect of slipshod craftsmanship which will not skin your artistic cat anymore than milk will get you drunk. Drawing is key and there has never been a better master of line than Raphael. I had to cover my flash up for this picture so the photo is a bit weak. Here is my under painting and basic structure of one of the central figures in the work. Paint what you see and not what you think you see when you are copying or painting from life. A lazy artist likes to let his pencil move faster than his brain. I f you have a good structure then you can proceed to think about color and details.
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