Tuesday, November 20, 2018

Charles Cecil Lecture 21/11/13 - Leonardo Da Vinci


Highlight Notes:

As a draftsman, instead of defined lines. He chooses to lose the edge to direct focus to where he wants - the features. 
First artist to apply a method to dissection in anatomical study. Done in the basement of the Santo Spirito church (just a few blocks away from the location the lecture is given!).  

Compared with progression of style taken from previous last supper paintings. compositional differences.
groupings of three, center line. Feet were destroy during a sandblast in WWII, wall was miraculously saved.
Lessons from his style wasn't implemented until Raphael, founding ideas of Venetians school, and influenced Titian. 
"In large works, Leonardo said it was the hands gestures that guide the viewer through the painting more so than, and even before face expressions register."

Felt inferior because of a modest upbringing in comparison to Michelangelo whose father was a nobleman with connections to the Medici.   

Took from other artists, the stairs in perspective. 

Revolutionized with changing from the High Renaissance style he was trained in of equally describing in detail separate objects and subjects in a painting to later developing chiaro scuro and mapping paintings out according to light and dark groupings. Master of directing focus in his compositions but also with the use of light. 

he did not make a lot of paintings in his life time due to his innovative spirit and wandering mind. 

as a teenager he gained notarity for his idealized figures, "a sense of classical [in the portraits] and a sense of nature [drapery]." 

In the painting of angel, displays his love botany, understanding of atmospheric perspective.
Drapery study. 


Notes from Martinho Correia's Summer Portrait Workshop

*marble dust (Calcium Carbonate) and glue [Oxford explains how they are made]

Day 1:
Handouts (schedule, medium ratios, painting steps, terminology, Andrew Loomis geometric head sketches and planar head values)
Lecture (introduction/background, brief history of portrait painting, basic geometry, proportions and shape of head, etc), Q&A, attendee introduction, numbers drawn from a hat and "1" chooses first and so forth. 
Demo and toning of canvases with a burnt umber background (campitura). Proper board, paper, and easel setup. 
Sight-size demo. Lunch break. Each place has its own classical cast. Use sight-size to draw main outlines and filled-in shadow shapes of the cast.

Day 2 (speed varies with each individual)
Draw model portrait sight-size, focusing on main planar changes and shadow shapes. Trace over image with tracing paper and red pen. Flip side and rub charcoal over lines thorough and rub with a paper towel. Align tracing paper with canvas edge, tape, and go over lines again with pencil to transfer to canvas. Spray transfer with fixative. 

Day 3
If necessary, continue drawing from the model. 

Day 4
Work with model burnt umber on palette, slightly dampened brush with 1 linseed oil to 1 odorless thinner; flat fill in shadow shapes with correct values and also the background. May take several layers to get darkest parts to the correct value. Allow to dry.

Day 5
Add calcium carbonate* to titanium white paint or use lead white (with a drop of cobalt dryer if in a hurry) and begin layering in your whites. Thin paint allows more background to show through, impasto in highlights.

Weekend

Day 6

Day 7

Day 8

Day 9


Day 10