Having looked at Durer in an earlier research point, I focused on Leonardo Da Vinci because I have always enjoyed his drawings, and we are so lucky to have so many preserved and available to see in books and collections. Often it is difficult to access artists’ drawings rather than their grand works, but Leonardo is wonderfully accessible. I love looking at drawings because you get a direct connection to the hand and mind of the artist. It is like sitting in the same room as them and watching them work.
From ‘The Drawings of Leonardo, A E Popham, Jonathan Cape, London, 1973’, as for subsequent illustrations.
Leonardo drew animals as studies for his larger works, for instance horses for his statues or an ermine as a symbol of purity to include in a portrait, but he also filled sheets with studies of cats and dogs and other animals. I seems to me that these were never intented as prep for a larger work, just as drawing for the sheer love of drawing and affection for the subject.
The images are indeed very loving and sensitive and imbued with the character of the animal. They are often very simple with a minimum of tone. He obviously had very little time to make each drawing. Also, he was generally using metalpoint, which is unforgiving.
I decided that it would be instructive to reproduce one of his drawings, to the original scale, using silverpoint.
This drawing of a bear’s head, top left, is 7cm square, tiny. He has concentrated on the eye and the muscles around it and has given the bear great dignity. I had a couple of goes at replicating it.
In the first the skull has come out far too narrow; the top of the skull is very wide. The second sketch is slightly better, but I cannot capture the subtle muscles around the eye. The information is such a small area is immense. Copying gives a real insight in to the qualities of the drawing.
Points to take away from this:
Identify what it is about an animal you are trying to capture quickly, the shape of the skull, angle of head etc
Don’t try to draw everything, focus on the essence
If you don’t get it first time, keep trying, as in his repeated drawings of the bear’s feet.
Starrybird - OCA Drawing 1 