Learning by Copying "Old Masters"

I have copied the masters to develop my methods and techniques especially in portraiture and am glad to have a venue like Spring Bull's Fakes and Forgeries to exhibit them. I feel i am doing homage to the masters i have copied so far, since they mostly are all works that i have seen in museums and admired greatly. It really challenges me when i try to replicate the pallette of Vermeer's, DaVinci's , Campin's, and other's oil and/or tempera mediums with soft pastels and Conti pastel pencils and attempt to duplicate their brush strokes with my fingers. Attempting to recreate the works atmosphere and character is a great task and i feel i improve with each effort. i feel that my original works have benifited from these copying efforts. i also have gotten to gaze at reproductions of these great works and really gotten to know them.