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How to Paint Like Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci, born on April 15, 1452, is easily recognized as one of the greatest painters the world has ever known. Some of his most famous paintings include The Mona Lisa, The Last Supper and the Vitruvian Man. Known as the true Renaissance Man, da Vinci was also an inventor as noted by his collections of sketches of mechanics that would take centuries to come to fruition. For those interested in learning from the Italian artist, it is imperative to study the da Vinci painting technique. An artist of the Old Style, very few of his paintings exist today, totaling a dozen or so, because of his revolutionary (albeit often destructive) techniques. He was also known for being a chronic procrastinator. However, from the da Vinci paintings we have to study from, we are able to understand a little more about how to paint like Leonardo da Vinci. Learn more about Leonardo da Vinci.
da Vinci’s Painting Technique
Throughout his years (1452-1519), Leonardo da Vinci employed a variety
of techniques from painting on a dry stone wall to using wet plaster depending
on the work surface he was commissioned to paint. Leonardo da Vinci typically
painted with oil paint that he made by hand from ground pigments; later
in his career, he worked with tempera made from egg whites. His work surface
typically would be a canvas or board, or sometimes stone when painting
a mural. As da Vinci began a painting, he would start by covering the
canvas with a pale gray or brown, using the neutral color for underpainting.
Atop of the underpainting, da Vinci would layer transparent glazes within
a small range of tones. Typically, the colors used were natural hues;
da Vinci never used intense or bold colors or tints in contrasting colors.
By using such a small range of colors, he was able to give his finished
works a more cohesive appearance.
Palette colors
The Leonardo da Vinci painting technique used natural hues that were muted
in intensity. Most often, his works used blues, browns and greens in accordance
to the earth itself. He also incorporated neutral grays, typically for
underpainting.
Glazes
Leonardo incorporated glazes using the da Vinci painting technique of
sfumato. Meaning “like smoke,” smufato consists of applying
dark glazes in place of blunt colors to add a depth that could not be
achieved otherwise. Leonardo da Vinci is quoted wiexplained how he created
compound colors by painting a transparent colour over th saying that “when
a transparent color lies over another color differing from it. This technique
created what he described as a , a compound color that is composed of,
but which differs from, each of the simple colors.”
Techniques Used to Create His Great Works of Art
One of his most well-known paintings, the Mona Lisa, displays some of
the techniques used by da Vinci in its grandeur. For instance, the use
of sfumato gave the painting an illusion of somberness and mystery, while
his choice of color palette reflects why her lips and eyes are so pale.
In The Last Supper, da Vinci used tempera over an underpainting made from ground pigments called gesso, which caused the painting to become almost unrecognizable 100 years later. He also painted directly on the stone wall surface rather than painting on wet plaster, as was the norm, which means it is not a true fresco painting.
About Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci is easily recognized as one of the greatest painters
the world has ever known. Some of his most famous paintings include the
Mona Lisa, The Last Supper and the Vitruvian Man. Known as the true Renaissance
Man, da Vinci was also an inventor as noted by his collections of sketches
of mechanics that would take centuries to come to fruition. He was also
known for being a chronic procrastinator. For those interested in learning
from the Italian artist, it is imperative to study the da Vinci painting
technique. An artist of the Old Style, very few of his paintings exist
today, totaling a dozen or so, because of his revolutionary (albeit often
destructive) techniques. However, from the surviving da Vinci paintings
we are able to understand a little more about how to paint in his style.
Written by Leon Grey
Leon Grey is the author and webmaster for the website Leonardo
Da Vinci's Life. For a peek at his site, visit www.davincilife.com.