The Leonardo Collection aims to offer everyone an important opportunity not to be missed: the chance to progress in drawing and painting, gradually mastering one of the most fascinating means of expression.

We all have the possibility of achieving at least satisfactory results in this field, while generally few have the opportunity to devote themselves to it.

It is a widespread opinion that painting requires innate and exceptional talents, for one immediately thinks of the great Artist, the Genius of painting.

However, let us think of the great naturalness with which children draw and paint, even before they have learned to read and write.

What we want to say is that the desire and the possibility of defining and sharing one's visual experiences with others exists in all of us, and that it is part of an instinct that has been present and active since the earliest times.

In fact, drawing and painting far preceded the invention of alphabetic writing, which derives from the evolution of pictographic and ideographic systems that date back to just under 6000 years ago: this is demonstrated by the much older works of the cave man scattered in various parts of Europe and Mediterranean Africa.

Drawing, as Ingres said, comprises three-quarters and a half of painting; and paraphrasing Apelle (who advised drawing at least one line a day), we add: "The line is the drawing, indeed, it is everything".

Drawing therefore means drawing lines, that is, abandoning oneself to an abstraction; in reality, lines do not exist in nature, it is we who imagine seeing them as the limits of forms or the separation of two surfaces. The painter knows this so well that when he makes a painting he draws it, of course, but generally afterwards he makes all the lines disappear by means of colour and chiaroscuro.

But drawing can also be practised as a sole objective; in this case the lines not only remain, but acquire the dignity of a characterising element. Whatever the case, the gateway to art is and always will be drawing.

Learning to draw will therefore be the primary endeavour to which we will devote all our efforts.

In the following pages, the theoretical and practical elements that define drawing as a specific activity are developed in an organic and complete, albeit rapid, manner.

Cover paper glossy coated (glossy laminate) 265 grams

Inside pages matte coated paper 130 grams

Publisher: Vinciana