619

On the preparation and use of colours.

Use black in the shadow, and in the lights white, yellow, green, vermilion and lake. Medium shadows; take the shadow as above and mix it with the flesh tints just alluded to, adding to it a little yellow and a little green and occasionally some lake; for the shadows take green and lake for the middle shades.

[Footnote 618 and 619: If we may judge from the flourishes with which the writing is ornamented these passages must have been written in Leonardo’s youth.]

Taken from The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci edited by Jean Paul Richter, 1880.

VII * X
Notebooks of Leonoardo da Vinci
VIII: Botany for Painters and Elements of Landscape Painting.
. . .
599,
600
Of painting battle pieces.
601,
602,
603
Of depicting night-scenes.
604
Of depicting a tempest.
605,
606
Of representing the deluge.
607,
608,
609
Of depicting natural phenomena.
610,
611
Of chalk and paper.
612,
613,
614,
615,
616,
617
On the preparation and use of colours.
618,
619,
620,
621,
622,
623,
624,
625,
626,
627
Of preparing the panel.
628
The preparation of oils.
629,
630,
631,
632,
633,
634
On varnishes [or powders].
635,
636,
637
On chemical materials.
638,
639
. . .