Grayscale master copies

[JParrilla]

Ive been really loving doing master copies lately and am learning a bunch, but im running into a problem. Im trying to keep my work grayscale for now until I get a better grasp on values. The problem is so many master works are paintings. I do see many books by Dover that have old black and white master drawings, but theyre rarely complete pieces, instead theyre usually quick studies of larger pieces. I have the book "Old Master Life Drawings" put out by dover.. and out of the 44 plates, maybe 8 are complete figures, with fully rendered shadow and good value. Now I know I can get what Im looking for by copying bargue plates or actual casts, but copying actual pieces is fun as well. I especially love William Whitaker, Sargent, and Velazquez, but theyre work is mostly paint. So Im wondering where I could get some nice master works to study.. That are in pencil, charcoal, pen, ink, inkwash, or any other non color medium.. thanks in advance guys :)

[Anid Maro]

My honest advice is to not work from grayscale images (pencil/charcoal/pen/etc). If you're trying to get a better grasp of values then it'd be better if you force yourself to convert a color image into grayscale. This makes you think about what you're doing instead of just mindlessly copying the info in front of you. You'll have to think about how the values of the colors are related to each other, what's "darker" and what's "lighter", et cetera.

If you have digital copies of images then you could convert to grayscale, but I'd advise doing that only to compare the original's values to the values you percieved and put on paper.

In short keep working from color, it may be hard now but it will pay off.

[JParrilla]

Wow that really makes a lot of sense.. Noone has ever told me that before. It is really tough converting the value of color to simple grayscale. I was advised to always try to do a master copy in the same medium as the original.. That's why I never really attempted copying a painting in pencil. But what your saying makes sense. If I could figure out how color is depicting value.. Its gotta become way easier to do it with grays