A Treatise on Painting
by Leonardo da Vinci, John William Brown · first published 1796
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"The genius of Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) shines forth in major paintings such as the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper and his many drawings. How Leonardo accomplished these astounding works of art is shown in A Treatise on Painting, published in 1651, essentially a primer for students interested in learning the craft of drawing and painting.". "Leonardo begins with careful instructions on drawing the main features of human anatomy, and then moves on to techniques of rendering motion and perspective. He discusses aspects of good composition; inventiveness; the expression of various emotions;
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Cennini's "The Craftsman's Handbook" as well as Leonardo Da Vinci's "Treatise on Painting" are pretty good books from the 1400s and 1500s. They use oil and egg as medium instead of acrylic, but the interesting chemistry starting from a piece of rock or whatever is great to nerd out on.
on “Lapis Lazuli: A Blue More Precious Than Gold” ↗A Treatise on Painting by Leonardo Da Vinci https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Urbinas
on “Ask HN: What are the best books you've read that few others have?” ↗…painter who possesses that rare disposition, will, no doubt, arrive at great perfection. He will produce few works, but they will be such as to fix the admiration of every beholder. Leonardo da Vinci, "A Treatise on Painting.", p. 225 https://archive.org/details/davincionpainting00leon/page/224...
on “The rise of judgement over technical skill” ↗…https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/4ac93etjyg0z5y2ouq5ge/matsuda... [3] Kuehni, R.: Color Space and its Divisions: Color Order from Antiquity to the Present. Wiley-Interscience, Hoboken (2003) [4] Leonardo da Vinci, Trans. J. F. Rigaud, A Treatise on Painting (London: J.B. Nichols & Son, 1835). [5] Matt Chamings “Why are there seven colours in a rainbow?” New Scientist, Last Word, 2021. [6] Johannes Itten, The Art of Color: The Subjective Experience and…
on “Poline – An enigmatic color palette generator using polar coordinates” ↗