“ When you have well learnt perspective and have by heart the parts and forms of objects, you must go about, and constantly, as you go, observe, note and consider the circumstances and behaviour of men in talking, quarrelling or laughing or fighting together: the action of the men themselves and the actions of the bystanders, who separate them or who look on. ”
Leonardo da Vinci, The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci (1478 – 1519). copy citation
| Author | Leonardo da Vinci |
|---|---|
| Source | The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci |
| Topic | perspective action |
| Date | 1478 – 1519 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | Translated by Jean Paul Richter in 1888 |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/5000/pg5000-images.html |
Context
“The density of a body of smoke looks white below the horizon while above the horizon it is dark, even if the smoke is in itself of a uniform colour, this uniformity will vary according to the variety in the ground on which it is seen.
IV. OF PORTRAIT AND FIGURE PAINTING. Of sketching figures and portraits (571-572) .
571.
OF THE WAY TO LEARN TO COMPOSE FIGURES [IN GROUPS] IN HISTORICAL PICTURES. When you have well learnt perspective and have by heart the parts and forms of objects, you must go about, and constantly, as you go, observe, note and consider the circumstances and behaviour of men in talking, quarrelling or laughing or fighting together: the action of the men themselves and the actions of the bystanders, who separate them or who look on. And take a note of them with slight strokes thus, in a little book which you should always carry with you. And it should be of tinted paper, that it may not be rubbed out, but change the old [when full]”
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