Da Vinci : painting techniques unveiled ...

Da Vinci or baptized as "Leonardo Da Vinci" was born on April 15, 1452.He is easily recognized as one of the greatest painters the world has ever known.He was also known for being a "chronic procrastinator"

"It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things."

-- Leonardo Da Vinci

Da vinci acquired great fame in his entire life for his varied works as a sculptor , draftsman , engineer , painter in the renaissance period .

His numerous skills have earned him the  title of "Renaissance master"

He was greatly infuenced with science ,his this fascination towards science and his in-depth study of human anatomy aided him in mastering the realist art form.

While Leonardo's contemporaries(other painters) were known to create static figures in their works.

Leonardo always tried to incorporate movement,,break the trend and highlight expression into his own paintings. All the personages,portraits, in his works are painted with great accuracy and outstanding details that it is sometimes said that Da Vinci painted from the bones outward(out of the blue)

He lived till the age of 67 only but had a lopng lasting impression impression on everyone even today, by his works

There are only 20 notebooks and few paintings by DaVinci as records preserved now over the hundreds of years since Leonardo's time not more than this could be gathered as  His life experiences all influenced his works and often, his paintings never left the sketchpad, or were only partially completed, as Leonardo often abandoned his commissions in order to flee from social situations.

His most  well reknoned works ,famous paintings, and the most popular Da Vinci posters around, are those of

                                                   "The Last Supper"

A mathematical and Astrological Puzzle Plus a secret Musical Score 

Like mona lisa . the last supper has also been the target of much speculation , usually centered around supposed hidden messages  found within the painting .

Slavisa Pesci , an information technologist , created an interesting visual effect by overlaying a semitransparent , mirrored version of the painting on top of the original .The result is that two figures that look like Templar Knights appear at both ends of the table , while someone who is possibly holding an infant to Jesus' left 

GIovanni Maria Pala , an Italian musician, has also indicated thatthe positions f hands and loaves of bread can be interpreted as a note on a musical staff , and if read from right to left , as was characteristic of Da vinci's writing they form a musical composition.

Sabrina Sforza Galitzia , a Vatican researcher , claimed to have deciphered the "mathematical and astrological " pzzle in Leonardo's "The Last Supper". She said that he foresaw the end of the world in  a "universal flood" which would begin on march 21, 4006 and end on November 1 that same year . She believed that this would mark "a new start for humanity"

                                                    "The Mona Lisa"

                                                              " Vitruvian Man" 

The Proportions of the Human Figure.-Da Vinci modeled his perfect human form after the proportions laid out by Vitruvius, an ancient Roman architect. The angry-looking man drawn by Da Vinci has reason to smile - he's now considered one of the most recognizable figures on earth.

PAINTING TECHNIQUES: 

Throughout his entire lifetime , Da vinci developed several painting techniques 

• From painting on a dry stone wall to using wetplaster on the work surface he was requested to paint(paid basis).
• He typically painted from oil paints prepared by himself from ground pigments , in later part of his career he even worked with Tempera , made from Egg White
•  The surface which he chose to work at included a canvas , board , or stone , while painting a mural.
•  As he began to paint , he would start by covering the canvas with a pale gray or brown colour , using the neutral colour for underpainting , after which he painted withy a fine layer of transparent glazes within a small range of  tones (shades). Typically , the colours he widely used included natural hues 
• Da vinci never liked using intense or bold colours or bold colours or tints in contrasting colours .  
•  By using such a small range of colours , he was able to give his finished works a more attractive appearance

 

Wall Painting

 PALLETE COLOURS :

• The Leonardo Da Vinci painting technique used natural hues that were muted in intensity . 
• Most often , his works used blues , browns and greens in accordance to the earth itself 
• He also incorporated neutral grays , typically for underpainting .

GLAZES:

• Leonardo incorporated glazes using the Da Vinci painting technique of "Sfumato"
• Meaning , "like smoke" smufato basically includes applying dark glazes in place of blunt colours to add a depth and a shade that could not achieved if it was not used . 
• Da Vinci also explained for how he created compound colour(mixed shadings) by painting a transparent colour lies over another colour different from it . This technique what he described as a compound colour , that is composed of the colours he used only , but which differs from and is identical each of the simple colours that he widely used .
• One of his most well-known paintings , The Mona Lisa , displays some of the techniques used by Da Vinci in its grandeur in his passionable work 
• For instance , the use of sfumato(smoke illusion technique) gave the painting an illusion of somberness and mystery , while his choice of colour palette reflects why her lips and eyes are so pale (sadness and smile alterness ) 

"Thence , on going through a variety of stuff , what i can conclude is that Da Vinci was a great genius in the field of painting .Me, myself being a painter , a lover of art , look up to his work with great respect and amazement , for he brought into a new insight of science to his paintings in the era when science was not that advanced or well-known even . His intellect untoubtedly places him on the hall of fame of human race . I personally , work on human anatomy , and figurs and postures in huamn body language in my pieces of work as a painter , so to me the father to my art is "Da Vinci " who not just introduced but also vividly explained a whole dimension in the field of creative instincts of human brain.... "

(Sources:
http://www.davincilife.com/article4-davinci-painting-technique.html
http://www.livescience.com/11329-leonardo-da-vinci-10-ideas.html
wikipedia , google and a variety of books .  )