A PYP Lens on an Age-Old Practice: Copying the Masters
In a PYP art room, we don’t just make pictures — we make meaning. We explore ideas, cultures, techniques, and stories through creative inquiry. So when students ask, “Is it okay to copy someone else’s art?” it’s a perfect opportunity to dive into a rich and reflective learning experience.
In fact, copying the works of the masters — artists from across history and around the world — can be one of the most powerful ways to support a PYP student’s growth as a thinker, communicator, and creative problem-solver.
Let’s explore why, through the PYP lens.
✅ Copying as a Form of Inquiry
PYP learning begins with curiosity and questioning. When a student chooses to recreate a Van Gogh painting, they naturally begin asking:
- What materials did he use?
- Why did he paint this way?
- What does this scene tell us about the time and place he lived in?
This opens the door to student-driven inquiry — which can connect beautifully with transdisciplinary themes. For example:
- How We Express Ourselves: Exploring how artists express identity, culture, and emotion.
- Where We Are in Place and Time: Investigating art as a historical record or cultural artifact.
Students are not just copying — they are researching, analyzing, and interpreting.
🎨 Conceptual Understanding Through Artistic Practice
In the PYP, we move beyond facts to focus on big ideas. Copying a masterwork helps students develop conceptual understanding of:
- Form: What are the visual elements the artist used?
- Perspective: How does the viewpoint or time period affect what we see?
- Connection: How does this artwork relate to other artworks or to the student’s own experiences?
Copying becomes more than an act of reproduction — it becomes a conversation across time, connecting learners to universal concepts through visual language.
✋ ATL Skills in Action
Copying the masters engages multiple Approaches to Learning:
- Thinking Skills: Analyzing composition, identifying techniques, solving artistic challenges.
- Research Skills: Investigating the artist’s life, time period, materials, and style.
- Self-Management Skills: Perseverance, attention to detail, and organization.
- Communication Skills: Reflecting on the process, discussing decisions, and justifying choices.
These skills extend beyond the art room — they are foundational tools for lifelong learning.
🌍 International-Mindedness and Cultural Appreciation
The PYP encourages students to be open-minded and appreciate diverse perspectives. When we study artists from different cultures — Hokusai, Frida Kahlo, El Anatsui, Hilma af Klint — students begin to see that art is a global language.
By copying masterworks from around the world, students:
- Appreciate diverse cultural heritages
- Recognize shared human experiences
- Build respect for traditions and innovations outside their own
This practice helps develop learners who are caring and knowledgeable — two key attributes of the IB Learner Profile.
🧠 From Copying to Creating
Most importantly, in the PYP, we always circle back to student voice and choice. Copying is not the end — it’s a stepping stone. After studying a masterwork, students are often inspired to:
- Create their own piece “in the style of” the artist
- Remix elements to express a personal or local story
- Reflect on how they can apply new techniques in original work
This transformation from copying to creating nurtures agency, confidence, and authentic expression.
🖼️ How It Looks in My PYP Classroom:
Here are a few ways I integrate copying the masters into our PYP learning:
- Art History Detectives: Students investigate an artist and recreate part of their work while presenting what they’ve learned.
- “In the Style of…” Challenges: After copying a piece, students create original art inspired by the artist’s technique or themes.
- Transdisciplinary Links: We connect to units of inquiry — e.g., studying Picasso during a unit on identity, or Yayoi Kusama in a unit on patterns in math and nature.
Final Thoughts: Copying with Purpose and Perspective
In a PYP context, copying is not about replication — it’s about learning through doing, connecting through understanding, and growing through reflection.
When students copy a masterwork with intention and inquiry, they gain far more than technical skill. They develop empathy, cultural awareness, perseverance, and — ultimately — the tools to express their own ideas with clarity and creativity.
In the words of Leonardo da Vinci: “He who can copy, can do.”
And in the PYP art room, that doing is just the beginning of a much deeper journey.
🌻 Case Study: Van Gogh’s Sunflowers — Reimagined with Oil Pastels
Recently in our PYP art room, we explored Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers — not by painting, but by adapting his expressive style using oil pastels. While Van Gogh worked in thick oil paints, we reflected on how to achieve a similar textural effect with the tools and materials available to us.
This sparked meaningful inquiry:
- How did Van Gogh create texture and movement with paint?
- What techniques can we use with oil pastels to mimic that?
- How can we make this work our own while still honoring the original?
Students experimented with layering, blending, and directional strokes, discovering that they could create rich, expressive surfaces even without paint. Some even commented that using pastels helped them slow down and focus on mark-making — a new concept for many.
More importantly, students practiced critical thinking and adaptability — recognizing that creative problem-solving is a vital part of being an artist. They also exercised agency by finding their own ways to connect with a world-famous painting.
This activity supported:
- ATL Skills: Thinking, self-management, and research skills
- Learner Profile Attributes: Reflective, risk-taker, knowledgeable
- Key Concepts: Form (What are the elements?), Change (How can materials be transformed?), and Connection (How does this relate to our own context?)
By reinterpreting Sunflowers through a different medium, students didn’t just copy a painting — they entered a dialogue with the artist, the materials, and themselves.
