How to Paint Like Leonardo da Vinci

Renaissance man, Leonardo da Vinci has the unique distinction of being the man responsible for two of the most famous and reproduced paintings in history, the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. Heralded as an innovator in a variety of subjects, ranging from mathematics, to engineering, to architecture, it's da Vinci's work as a painter that continues to make the biggest impression upon history.

Instructions

Difficulty: Challenging

1. Study under an already-established artist. Da Vinci apprenticed for Florentine painter, Andrea di Cione, known as Verrocchio. At his workshop, where other acclaimed artists such as Botticelli also studied, da Vinci received a full education in the humanities.
2. Get educated on math and science. Since Da Vinci received a broad education in a variety of subjects, he paid close attention to the connection between science and fine arts, in terms of the importance of spatial relationships, anatomy and visual perception in a painting.
3. Choose Christian icons as subjects. Jesus and his disciples, the Virgin Mary, John the Baptist–these were all popular subjects of Da Vinci's paintings, not to mention the premise behind the novel and film, "The Da Vinci Code."
4. Fill your palette with earthy, muted colors to paint with, such as brown, green and blue. Avoid primary colors such as bright red and yellow.
5. Apply a dark, transparent color glaze on top of a neutral gray or brown-base paint. This creates a layered effect, which adds form to the painting and creates a soft focus. Da Vinci's soft-focus technique, referred to as sfumato, meaning "smoke," obscures the edges and details of the painting.
6. Highlight subjects in the foreground with lighter colors, and gradually darken the color scheme as you approach the background. Subjects in da Vinci's paintings often seem to glow with a mystic light, while the objects in the background take on a darker, more ominous, quality.
7. Paint a winding landscape in the background of your subject. Paintings such as Mona Lisa, The Baptism of Christ and Virgin on the Rocks all contain Da Vinci's trademark winding landscape of mountains and streams.

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