There is currently a trend in the Western world to re-evaluate the role of the ancient art academies and schools, as well as a great interest in eye-catching and neorealist painting. It is to meet this need and revival of interest that this book has emerged, seeking to reclaim the artistic teaching of centuries gone by and put it at the service of today's public. This book is dedicated to the famous codices of Leonardo da Vinci, a collection of notebooks packed with drawings that bear testament to the technique and creative process used by this Renaissance genius. Its pages demonstrate, analyse and summarise some of these historic treatises, aimed at teaching drawing and painting, which constituted a basic and indispensable tool for many artists from the 16th to the 19th centuries. These specialised, richly illustrated documents provided students of fine arts with a wide range of subjects, exercises and sample images that would help them understand mechanisms, structure and visual thinking. This would allow them to achieve an advanced level of drawing, composition and shading skills, unlocking ways to emulate the techniques of the great masters. Many reproductions of these ancient treatises have been published as they first appeared: as simple relics of the past, facsimile reproductions without text or advice to aid understanding. This book attempts to make up for these shortcomings. It provides a learning programme based on brief, introductory texts, followed by step-by-step exercises, which take Leonardo's teachings and adapt them to the requirements of the contemporary artist. This is an essential handbook, which seeks to share the experience and technical knowledge of a peerless master who was ahead of his time, allowing amateurs and advanced artists alike to incorporate them into their drawings and/or paintings. Excerpted from Drawing Lessons with Da Vinci: An Artist's Guide to Geometry, Anatomy and Proportion by Gabriel Martín Roig All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
