My Adventures in Art.: Can you digitally recreate an Old Master painting?

I'm only beginning my journey into digital painting, but I figured that I should be able to tap into the skills I have learnt over the years painting with acrylics to enable me to produce a finished digital impressionist copy.

I chose to carry on with a piece of work that I already had. About a year ago I sketched a copy of Claude Monet's 'Argenteuil 1875' onto a piece of brown cardboard that was cut from a cereal box. I then started to paint the picture using inexpensive acrylic paints. I got so far and didn't get back to finishing it off.

Over the past two months I have been experimenting with digital painting using Gimp 2.8. So I scanned my cardboard sketch/initial painting onto the computer and set about finishing it digitally. I mainly used a texture brush for the majority of the painting and a smoke brush for parts of the sky.

I'm very happy with the results, and it didn't take too long to complete. I especially like the pastel effect I got in the background. I think digital painting is well suited to impressionistic paintings and I will be producing many more in the coming months. I'm am also keen to try copying really Old Master paintings from the 1500's onwards.

Some people might question why I would want to copy Old Masters instead of producing digital fantasy art. I would love to be able to produce digital fantasy art, but unfortunately I don't have the ability or such a strong interest as others might. I enjoy art history and love reinterpreting paintings. I feel that art from the past still has a place in the modern world. It stands the test of time and is still
popular and appreciated by many people. I find I am learning all the time and consider it very valuable to revisit the past by copying Old Masters. I would argue that my own work can only improve by looking at how an expert from the past tackled a particular passage in a painting.