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I have actually interspersed copying at home from reproductions with copying at the museum and while I have had good experiences, unless you have carefully compared your reprodution to the original in person, it can be hard to control how far off you're going from what the painter did. A few years ago I tried copying "The Calmady Children" by Lawrence from a poster, which showed the two girls in front of a deep, umber/black background. I went to the museum and saw that the girls are portrayed against a deep blue sky!
As for continuing at the museum , I am reapplying to finish copying a Van Dyck virgin and child that I started before the holidays.
The brand of paint that I am using right now is Winsor and Newton- I plan to move to Old Holland at some point, but Winsor and Newton is reasonably priced, and for now and until I can afford the really good stuff, it's worked well for me! I put most of my art supply money into the brushes- I am a believer that you can do a good painting with low quality paint as long as you have good brushes, but not vice versa.
There are a several good books on Rembrandt's technique: check out
"The Painter at Work" by Ernst Van De Wetering, "Rembrandt/Not Rembrandt in the Metropolitan Museum of Art", and also the National Gallery in London published "Art in the Making- Rembrandt" by Christopher Brown and David Bomford.
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