Examining the idea of layers in the style of Leonardo Da Vinci

The main focus on experimenting and examining layers in the style of Leonardo Da Vinci was on his piece 'Head of a girl'; this piece was chosen because it shows layers in different ways.

Different pencils are layered which created different tones, which then adds more shape and detail to the piece.

I focused mainly on the face to convey how Leonardo Da Vinci uses layers, however incorporated his use of rough sketch marks which also add line and shape to the piece.

Leonardo Da Vinci uses the combination of the layered pencil which creates tone and texture and the mark making: it creates an unfinished look, which applies emphasise on the bolder and more tonal areas of the piece.  

The layers of marks that Leonardo Da Vinci sometimes uses in his sketches are rough and create texture.
I attempted to convey the rough sketches from a section of his piece 'Study of hands'.
Layers are formed when the marks overlap, the line then creates tone and adds shape to the piece.
Also, in some cases, Leonardo Da Vinci annotates on his sketches, this creates layers to the piece due to adding more layers and meaning to the piece.

Leonardo Da Vinci

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, now known as Leonardo Da Vinci was born April 15, 1452 near Vinci, a town in Italy. Around 1483 Da Vinci moved to Milan to work as an engineer, painter, sculptor and architect; moving on from his previous job as being an apprentice in Florence to painter and sculptor Andrea del Verrocchio. For two years, 1495 to 1497, Da Vinci worked of the mural 'The Last Supper' in the Monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan. In 1499 Da Vinci returned to Florence, in which time he painted several portraits, the famous and only surviving portrait from this period is the 'Mona Lisa'. Sadly, Leonardo Da Vinci died on 2 May 1519 near Amboise in France.

Leonardo Da Vinci was not only an artist; from the discovery of the surviving thousands of pages of his notebooks, it was discovered that he wrote and drew on other subjects including flight, gravity, optics, geology and anatomy(which he used in order to paint the form of the human body more accurately), and also 'invented' the helicopter, aeroplane, parachute and bicycle.
He was a true genius, an artist and scientist; this then made his paintings scientific due to his knowledge of the human body and they show how he understood the world. He influenced and still influences many artists.

'Head of a girl' 1483 - using metalpoint on paper

'Studies of human skull'

'Drawing of a Woman's Torso' - ink on paper

'Drawing of the Torso and the Arms'

'Study of hands' - metalpoint on paper