Leonardo Technique

Step 1.

Prepare a poplar panel with rabbit skin glue sizing.

Apply a marble dust & and rabbit skin glue ground, 5 to 6 layers, 10 min. between layers, dry and sand smooth, 20 min. of sanding.

Step 2.

Transfer drawing using the pounce or carbon transfer method (or Xerox transfer)

Seal Drawing with egg water mixture 2 coats

Step 3.

Apply chiaroscuro modeling to figure with only burnt umber and sun thickened walnut oil. Be sure to use minimum of oil. Modeling must be seamless constant gradation, no planar breaking of form.

Step 4.

Apply warm/cool colors to dry chiaroscuro imprimatura. Give cool milky blues to shadows and background. Apply creamy translucent yellow whites to light mass. Smoothly fade out each of these applications

Step 5.

Begin applying translucent local color to fabrics, greenery, sky, flesh, and etcetera. You must model form by adding white when applying these local colors.

Step 6.

Apply cross border gradations of color in order to create a fading effect across entire painting. This application fuses shadow masses with shadow zones outside of the picture. These gradations may be applied in any color, however the dominant colors are earth tones and white.