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What I Learned From Copying Leonardo da Vinci’s Head of a Girl

May 11/The Wanderlust Collective/

Art, Artist Spotlight, Drawing, Inspiration

Margie Resto

Wanderlust Collective

History

Some cool facts about Leonardo. He was born on April 15, 1452 to an unmarried peasant girl named Caterina. His father was a lawyer. Leonardo believed in science and art, and dissected corpses to understand the human anatomy. It took him three years to complete The Last Supper. The Mona Lisa was never finished. Leonardo never rushed to finish any projects. He was also an animal activist, who often thought that they were superior to humans. Michealangelo and Leonardo did not get along. Leonardo was almost arrested on sodomy charges. There you have it folks, just makes him a bit more real in my book.

Introduction

Today, I decided to try to decode (as if) one of Leonardo’s drawings. I figure I’d start with the simplest one I could find. Why do this you ask? Well, there are so many benefits to doing this. Have you ever gone to a museum and watched artist copy the master’s work? It’s the best way to learn methods, and styles of painting. Doing this can take your observation, and work to a whole new level.

“The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.”

Leonardo da Vinci

The materials I used for this blog are Strathmore Toned Tan paper, tortillion, white Faber Castell pencil, 4B Faber Castell graphite pencil, Transitions Creative Mark brush for blending, Factis Black 18 eraser, General’s kneaded eraser, and Tombow Mono Zero Elastomer Eraser.

Before beginning to sketch out the drawing, I took a few minutes to observe it, and figure out what techniques he was using. There is more than just copying the artist’s work; I love to research the mind of the artist. What was he thinking when he drew this? What was his personality like? What is the story behind this piece? I find it interesting to dig deep into the life of the artist, doing this puts me in that frame of mind so to speak.

Leonardo used tinted paper, which is a great way to give your drawings some color and interest. I found this great sketchpad Strathmore tan paper, close enough. The first thing I noticed about this drawing was that he used hatching to create the shading effect on her face, hair, neck and back. He used simple shapes to denote the headwear, and curve lines as suggestions for her hair. Leonardo was a lefty so he used lines that went from the upper left down to the lower right. There is weight and three dimensional quality in this image because of the dark values. Now, I am not a lefty, so you can tell I had trouble copying this style. I know what your saying, (duh, turn it around) well I wasn’t exactly thinking that far ahead. It’s all-good I learned a-lot from this drawing anyway. Playing around with tinted paper and white pastel was fun. I broke it all down into weight, line, shapes, basic geometric shapes, and character. I also took into account the perspective, proportions of the head, face, and the form. Don’t forget to make notes of what you are learning as you go along. Keep this in your sketchpad to refer to later. By the time you look back you will have a full pad full of great notes on techniques and master artists.

Ta..da.. Here is my finished piece. It’s not identical to his, pft… I’m not Leonardo, but it has a bit of my flair, don’t you think?

"Where Do We Go From Here?"

Look for an artist that you love, and try to copy one of their drawings. Trust me you will get tons of knowledge from doing this. It will give you a new perspective and also make you more confident in your approach. As usual I love to hear from my followers. Send me your master copy and let me know what you think by commenting below. Don’t miss out on more future blogs subscribe today!

Happy Sketching!