Harold Speed, Chapter 4: The Painter's Training
He felt that shadows were so important to art that, in the outline for his treatise, he planned that the longest section would be on that topic. “Shadows appear to me to be of supreme importance in perspective, because, without them opaque and solid bodies will be ill defined,” he wrote. “Shadow is the means by which bodies display their form. The
... See moreWalter Isaacson • Leonardo da Vinci
Creative endeavors had been divided since antiquity into two categories: the mechanical arts and the more exalted liberal arts. Painting had been classified as mechanical because it was a craft based on handiwork, like that of goldsmiths and tapestry weavers. Leonardo refuted this by arguing that painting is not only an art but also a science. In o
... See moreWalter Isaacson • Leonardo da Vinci
When away from model draw from memory. Draw also opposite or very different views from what you had in the class.
Robert Henri • The Art Spirit
"The Chinese say you need three things for paintings: the hand, the eye and the heart,” says the painter David Hockney. “I think that remark is very, very good. Two won’t do. A good eye and heart is not enough, neither is a good hand and eye.”