Masters of Drawing and Basic Drawing

Masters of Drawing

• Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci is known to the world as an inventor, scientist, mathematician, and most of all, an artist. Da Vinci is considered to be a true Renaissance man. He was skilled in many subjects, and is respected because of his achievements. He helped pioneer the sciences, developed new art techniques, and was one of the first people to dissect the human body.

Da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452 in Vinci, Italy. His father was a public notary in Milan, and his mother, a simple maiden. When Leonardo was little, he would always try to invent new things, he was very intelligent. At the age of 14, he became an apprentice to one of the best painters at the time, Andrea del Verrocchio. Under Verrocchio, he learned how to paint and sculpt. He also learned skills in metallurgy, drafting, chemistry, and carpentry. Out of all these, Da Vinci chose art as his main profession, but used all that he learned throughout his life.

There are only 15 paintings of Da Vinci that survive. The most famous of which is the Mona Lisa that was painted between 1503-1507. The model who posed for the painting was said to be a young merchant’s wife, but who knows. In this painting, Da Vinci used a new technique called “sfumato”, which is the hazy atmosphere in the picture. The Mona Lisa is one of the most analyzed paintings of all time, because Da Vinci’s face also fits that of Mona’s, which is unusual for any painting.

(http://totallyhistory.com/leonardo-da-vinci/)

• Michelangelo Buonarroti

Michelangelo Buonarroti was born on March 6, 1475 in Caprese, Tuscany, Italy. His father was a banker, which put his family within the middle class of the social hierarchy at the time.
rom 1534-1541, he painted The Last Judgment on the wall of the Sistine Chapel, which was commissioned by Pope Clement VII. Several prominent people are painted into this scene, which came as a surprise. Some of the town’s folk are represented in hell, particularly a certain politician, known for his underhanded dealings. Michelangelo has a self portrait in there as well; the skin Bartholomew is tearing off himself is Michelangelo but unlike the politician, he is in Heaven.

(http://totallyhistory.com/michelangelo-buonarroti/)

Basic Drawing 

In our lesson with Kat we learnt some basic drawing skills, she started of by showing us how to hold your pencil. When drawing you must hold your pencil at the top as this gives you more control and also to use your arm instead of your wrist.

We started off by practicing drawing a straight line making sure to hold the pencil at the top and moving your arm to draw the line. At first I found this quite difficult because I've always held my pencil in the middle and used my wrist to control the movement. We had to continuously draw lines from the top to the bottom, then we had to draw diagonal lines. It was slightly repetitive which meant I did lose concentration however it did help to practice holding the pencil from the top.

After we'd filled the page with straight lines, we were told to draw 2D shapes for example Circles, Squares and triangles. I quite enjoyed this as I was determined to get a perfect shape, I don't think I did to bad. I preferred drawing the circles as they were easy, the squares were a little more tricky as all sides had to the same.

Once we'd practiced drawing 2D shapes we had to make them 3D, I drew a cone, cylinder and a cube. After that we had to shade them in using our sketching pencils to give them dimension. I enjoyed doing this as I normally don't like to draw however I found because I haven't done it in a while it was quite relaxing and calming. I quite excited to practice a little more and to try make still life look more realistic. 

My Still Life 

This is my still life drawing of a MAC Lipstick, I used all the techniques I learnt from class and I tried my best to make it as realistic as possible. I really enjoyed drawing this still life and I definitely won't to continue to practice more to improve more.