My master artist

One of the things that was recommended to me was to chose a master artist and learn his style. I should match his palette, his style and technique. Doing this means I'm not all over the place, trying to merge differing styles and techniques before I have the basics down.

My first thought was of Durer, as he is one of my all time favorite artists. The only drawback to that choice is that I was planning a series of portraits that would be later than his era, more 1570's than 1490/1500. I was looking at my inspiration piece, a painting by Nicholas Hilliard, also a favorite. I thought perhaps he would be a better choice.

The problem becomes that Nicholas Hilliard, is far more well known for his miniature work, and the little research I did last week indicates that only about two of his oil paintings are known. I have located some sources that will give me more information about the man and his work, but I suspect that it will be all about his miniatures, which is a different technique all together. I already have his treatise on the "art of liming" so I want to review that. Once of the things I though of interest about Hilliard is that he uses Durer as one of his inspirations, and recommends taking one of Durer's woodcuts, and reproducing it with pen or brush, as an exercise of learning hatching, for work in the miniatures.

I am also interested in the miniature work, but for this project I think I am better off sticking with Durer. I think once I have mastered his style or as nearly as I think I can, I will then move on to Hilliard.

It doesn't hurt that there's a lot of information out there on Durer, and I already have a fair number of books on his work.