How to Draw Like Leonardo da Vinci

how to draw like Leonardo da Vinci one of the most influential people in the history of Art and Design is a Leonardo da Vinci his way of drawing and visual thinking has been one of my biggest influences in this video we will look at Leonardo's drawing techniques and how we can learn from them to be better artists Architects and designers learning from Leonardo is an important way to develop as an artist and visual thinker in his drawings he designed planes tanks machines civil engineering projects and architecture learning from Leonardo is really learning how to be a designer Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian painter draftsman engineer scientist theorist sculptor and architect who lived from 1452 to 1519 while he was a famous painter he became increasingly known for his amazing notebooks filled with Anatomy astronomy engineering and a wide variety of other topics he was considered a polymath genius and eptimized the renaissance man his talent is only surpassed by another Renaissance Man Michelangelo he was educated in Florence by the painter and sculptor Andrea Del verochio he is credited as the founder of the high Renaissance and one of the great painters in the history of art Leonardo studied the Florentine tradition of the science of art which included linear perspective and Anatomy Sciences he studied included Anatomy Optics Dynamics Statics geology and Mathematics Leonardo conceived of himself as a military and civil engineer first and as a painter second his main body of work included painting sculpture architecture civil and Military engineering the main problem with Leonardo is he had a pattern of non-completion which was a feature of his career as a painter as a result he only finished about 20 paintings that survived to us Leonardo's drawing technique Leonardo would write backwards in his notebooks people have said this is because he was left-handed and he didn't want to smudge his ink other people think that he wrote backwards because he wanted to hide his writing so people couldn't read it both these reasons are false left-handed people can write forward and not smudge the ink writing backwards doesn't stop people from Reading one's writing as one can just look into a mirror and read it rather I think Leonardo was ambidextrous and could write both with his left hand and his right hand equally and he wrote backwards with his left hand while riding forwards with his right hand it is said that the American president James Garfield was also ambidextrous and could write Latin with his left hand and Greek with his right here I'm writing with both hands with my left hand I'm writing backwards and with my right hand forwards after some practice it becomes fairly easy to write backwards with the left hand when I was young I had a hard time thinking left to right and writing sequentially I think artists brains are wired differently and see the world visually and not sequentially this visual thinking makes it possible to write backwards draw backwards and do art in general but it also overwhelms the sequential and logical part of the brain I think Leonardo wrote backwards because he was also overwhelmed by his visual thinking writing backwards allows for a visual thinker to use one's whole brain and not just one side I think historically people who have been diagnosed with learning disabilities and can't learn to write may be highly visual thinkers and ambidextrous mentally forcing a person who can write with both hands to only write from left to right limits this person's brain and stops them from thinking holistically drawing with two hands and drawing backwards is The Logical extension of writing backwards with two hands this uses one's whole brain to draw instead of of thinking verbal Concepts the artist thinks spatially and Visually artists draw used in shapes and forms and lines and colors and these techniques don't need to be done with just one hand here I'm drawing with both hands forward with my right hand and backward with my left hand I could reverse this if I wanted clearly my right hand is more precise than my left and has more muscle memory since I'm right-handed but in a way my left hand drawing is looser and more creative people who are visual and spatial thinkers can do this easily for people who can only think sequentially this would be impossible I'm drawing a scary monster because Leonardo Love to draw grotesque people he would see some person out in public and follow them around to draw them his notebooks are filled with many grotesques Leonardo trained with Andrea Del varrochio who's primarily a sculptor he also undertook paintings but his drawing style clearly comes from sculpture and specifically low relief sculpture from silverwork Leonardo's side hatch technique comes directly from this drawing technique lines follow the path of light hitting the object the strong technique was used for low relief sculpture and specifically for coins and medallions Leonardo would often draw in Silver Point as this was a common drawing material of the time it was essentially a wire of silver this draws a very fine light line paper or wood board was treated with rabbit skin glue gesso or casein with a ground of bone Ash or chalk and sometimes white lead or marble or marble dust was mixed in the silver would Mark onto this medium Silver Point was generally used as an under drawing for egg temp Opera and later oils it was abandoned when oil painting came into prominence and chalk was used for the under drawing Silver Point looks amazing in real life but is hard to reproduce for the camera or for print so most modern artists don't use this medium drawing with pen and ink much of Leonardo's drawings are done with pen and ink with an under drawing usually a pencil chalk or some other medium this ink was made from oak gall Gum arabic and iron sulfate Leonardo must probably used a quill made of goose feathers what a quill allows an artist to do is vary the thickness of a line from very thin to very fat and we see Leonardo do this throughout his ink drawings here I'm using a fountain pen years ago I used to draw with metal coil pens but you have to dip these in ink over and over again so I stopped using them now I have a lot of fountain pens and I use waterproof ink so I can paint in watercolors over them without the ink running ink drawing is the main technique Leonardo used for many of his sketchbooks Leonardo used watercolors a lot in his Maps these colors are almost exactly the same as those used today they consist of a pigment and gum arabic as the binder another medium he used regularly was red black and white chalk this is exactly like the Conte crayons artists use today and is good for figurative drawing on colored paper when I was in school I took a whole class on drawing in this style the paper is toned to act as a middle value while the red chalk is used for dark lines and white chalk is used to pull out the highlights this is an excellent technique for figure and portraiture drawing and was used in the Renaissance As studies for oil paintings both Leonardo and Michelangelo use this technique extensively Leonardo was constantly experimenting with different materials and techniques and I suggest anyone learning art or architecture to experiment continue with a large amount of tools and techniques one of the most important lessons to learn from Leonardo is to keep a notebook both for collecting visual data and information but also for Designing and keeping a record of one's designs if you ever run out of ideas or inspiration you can always go back to Old notebooks and use them as resource material after Leonardo died one of his students took his notebooks and used them to write the book A Treatise on painting to transmit some of Leonardo's writings onto future students Val de Arno landscape dated 5 August 1473 is the first dated landscape drawing in the history of Art from this Leonardo taught me to always date and label a drawing in my Sketchbook I always write the date and location when I'm doing on-site drawings over the years I have always kept sketchbooks and I use them to record ideas draw from life to learn and to design whole projects I've learned that I can design a whole architectural project from start to finish just by sketching in my notebooks I don't really need to make a model or use computers to design an architectural project anymore many famous Architects and designers also keep sketchbooks and use them in their design process calatrava for example develops ideas for projects through his watercolor sketches Stephen Hall too draws every day in his Sketchbook with watercolor Herman hertzberger's sketches are very reminiscent of Leonardo's in their analysis of form the practice of keeping a Sketchbook is highly important for any architect artist or designer drawing as visual thinking the most important thing to learn from Leonardo is drawing as a means of visual thinking drawing is a main way to observe and record the world this enables us to analyze forms slowly and precisely in a way that photography or other techniques cannot by learning and studying from nature we can learn a whole language of visual form making that can be used by any architect artist and designer so what are the main things to remember when learning from Leonardo first study his drawing techniques and methods this teaches us a lot second always keep a notebook and work in it on a regular basis this should be the foundation of any architect's design process lastly be a visual learner and constantly think visually in this way one may learn and grow throughout one's whole life and career as a designer I hope this video encouraged you to experiment with different drawing techniques and processes and to learn from Leonardo visual thinking is perhaps one of the most important things a designer can learn I'm Jamie Roberts if you like this video please like And subscribe

Channel: Roberts Architecture

Views: 141,751

Keywords: Leonardo da Vinci, Map of Imola, Renaissance man, Andrea del Verrocchio, Michelangelo, Calatrava, Steven Hall, Herman Hertzberger, Visual Thinking, Jaime Roberts

Id: SBcIYunBFA8

Length: 11min 24sec (684 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 03 2023