Jump-start your creativity: exploring Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks

Learn to use Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks to unleash your creativity! The exercises in this class will sharpen your observation skills, curiosity and ability to think outside the box. You'll emulate Leonardo da Vinci in the art of observing people, nature and the universe. Using Leonardo da Vinci's sketches, drawings and pictures as inspiration, you'll find out how to document your own thoughts and ideas.

Lessons
1. The wisdom of Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks Prepare to have your mind opened wide! This lesson introduces you to the notebooks of one of the greatest minds of all time. You'll find out how to access Leonardo da Vinci's manuscripts online, explore some of his odd journaling practices and get his advice for living life. 2. Discover and develop: da Vinci's drawings as inspiration Learn how Leonardo da Vinci came to pursue art, how he kept his notebooks and what he believed were the most important tools for his trade. Use this information to develop and document your own creative path and determine where you are on your journey. 3. Use da Vinci's sketches as your creative guide Leonardo da Vinci is not only famous for his paintings like the Mona Lisa, but also for the many sketches in his notebooks. Learn the importance of images, look at Leonardo's sketches, choose tools to capture your images and try some idea mapping techniques. 4. Da Vinci's notebooks: combining thoughts and ideas in new ways Take the fun and important step of combining art and science, ideas with experience, clarity with contradiction and the present with the future. As your ideas expand exponentially, record them in your own Leonardo-style codex.

The wisdom of Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks

Prepare to have your mind opened wide! This lesson introduces you to the notebooks of one of the greatest minds of all time. You'll find out how to access Leonardo da Vinci's manuscripts online, explore some of his odd journaling practices and get his advice for living life.

An introduction to Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks

Leonardo da Vinci painted the world-famous masterpiece, the Mona Lisa , often thought of as one of the greatest paintings ever. He is also frequently noted as one of the most creative geniuses of all time. Although he lived over 500 years ago, many of his painting techniques and writings concerning art and science were so advanced that artists and scientists today still call upon his work for inspiration and information. Leonardo created a substantial volume of handwritten documents during his adult life; in this course, you'll get a whirlwind tour through those documents. When Leonardo diligently created his handwritten notebooks in the 15th century, it's almost as if he knew that future artists and creators would fall into creative ruts and need a model to follow! To say his notebooks are full of ideas and inspiration is an understatement.

Figure 1-1: A Leonardo sketch often thought to be a self-portrait of the artist in his 60s. In this course, you'll peek into the notebooks and then: Try observing, writing, and sketching like Leonardo Receive advice on art and life in Leonardo's own words Learn how to make ideas into images Evaluate old and new methods of capturing ideas Begin combining thoughts and concepts in new ways

Creative genius and da Vinci's notebooks

In each of four lessons, we'll draw creative inspiration directly from Leonardo's notebook sketches and writings. Here's what each lesson will cover: Lesson 1 introduces you to Leonardo's 500-year-old notebooks. You'll find out where the originals and translated versions can be viewed and get an overview of what the documents contain. Learn about Leonardo's odd writing style and try reading and writing in mirrorimage. Lesson 2 follows Leonardo's sketches along the winding path from nature appreciation to painting to matters of science. Inspired by Leonardo's intertwined interests and studies, you'll be encouraged to determine where you are on your creative journey and where you plan to go. You'll try sketching and read Leonardo's advice for art and life. Lesson 3 focuses on images. Leonardo emphasized communication through images in his notebooks. You, too can learn to translate your thoughts and intangible ideas into images. Today even non-artists can create realistic sketches with the advent of modern tools for capturing and editing images. Lesson 4 encourages comparing similar and dissimilar objects and concepts as Leonardo did, provides exercises for stimulating both sides of your brain, and helps you plan and publish your own Leonardo-style codex.

Next up
Let's get this creative journey through Leonardo's notebooks underway!

Accessing and exploring Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks

Although generally called "notebooks" in this course, Leonardo's papers are sometimes referred to as manuscripts, codices (plural of codex), journals, sketches, or notes. Leonardo's notebooks are actually a combination of loose pages of various sizes and bound items. According to some estimates, Leonardo wrote and meant to leave behind over 20,000 notebook pages. When he died in 1519, he left his stack of papers to a student, who then left them to his (student's) son, who sold and dispersed the papers.

Read some of da Vinci's notebooks

Thanks to online ebooks and translations, you're now able to read some of da Vinci's notebooks from the comfort of your home or office. HP desktop PCs are the affordable and reliable desktop solution for your business.

Leonardo was born in 1452. Christopher Columbus was one of his contemporaries.

Over the years, some papers were scissor-cut and pasted into scrapbook-type documents, some papers maintained their original form, and some were shuffled, organized, and bound with other papers. And some were, unfortunately, lost.

Where in the world are the notebooks?

Today, the surviving Leonardo notebooks reside piecemeal around the globe, mostly in Europe. You may have heard of some of Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks by names like Codex Leicester or Codex Atlanticus. These are sets of papers (in most cases, bound) kept in private or public collections. For example, Leonardo da Vinci's small (fewer than 100 pages) Codex Leicester is owned by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and occasionally makes museum appearances around the world. Codex Leicester is thought to have been bound by its creator. By comparison, Codex Atlanticus is a 12-volume, 1200-page set that resides in a library in Milan, Italy. A 17th-century owner of the notes moved pages and pieces of pages around, gluing items from separate pages onto single pages in some cases, and added the binding. For a more complete list of locations of original codices and collections, read this PDF: Location List: Original Leonardo da Vinci Documents. Please note: The location list is not necessarily permanent or definitive. Before you plan your world tour to view the documents, be sure to get up-to-the minute location information, starting with an Internet search for terms such as "Leonardo da Vinci," "codex," "notebook," "sketches," and "manuscripts."

Where to find copies and translations

Thanks to technology and some dedicated scholars, English translations of many of Leonardo's words and rough copies of the sketches are pretty easy to find. In 1883, Jean Paul Richter decoded the text, copied the sketches from the original manuscripts from various European collections, and put all of his work into a two-volume set. His English-translated volumes are available in print and online. You can buy The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci in hardcover or paperback at most book stores and at online booksellers, or borrow one or both volumes from a library that has copies. An Internet search can direct you to free online Richter translations and associated downloadable, printable e-books. Here are two good sources: Project Gutenberg is a vast electronic repository of key books and texts. The site offers a text-only version of the notebooks available for free download. This version is good for times when you want to focus on what Leonardo wrote. The Internet Sacred Text Archive is a free archive of online books about religion, mythology, folklore, and more. To find full-scan version that includes both the text and the graphics from Richter's two-volume book, click Age of Reason in the column at the left and scroll down to the Leonardo da Vinci link. In this course, when you see a Leonardo quote with a number in parentheses after it, the

number refers to the notebook passage in the Richter volumes. Many, though not all, of the museums that house Leonardo manuscripts maintain Web sites where you can view original pages of text and sketches or English translations with or without sketches included. So another way to view some of Leonardo's notebooks online is to search for a specific codex on the Internet or to visit the Web site of the museum or library that houses the originals. Finally, you can find information about Leonardo and his works in any number of publications. There is no shortage of Leonardo da Vinci books on the store shelves. Look for the most current publications and for those that contain high-quality reproductions of the sketches.

Next up
Get a quick overview of what's inside the notebooks.

What's inside Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks?

The number of subjects that Leonardo studied and became knowledgeable in is mind-boggling. Although Leonardo da Vinci was first a master painter, he became a recognized expert in other fields as well. His notebooks contain a wide spectrum of advice, theories, and drawings related to the following subjects: Anatomy Architecture Astronomy Botany Color Decoration/composition Flight Geography Humor Landscapes Light Natural disasters Natural formations Painting Perspective Philosophy Physiology Proportion Sculpture Warfare technology Wellness Zoology The notebook pages on all subjects contain both text and images. In general, Leonardo's written text discusses things like instructions for drawing and painting, labels for technical diagrams, imaginative stories, and advice for future generations. In general, the sketches and drawings depict ideas for inventions, painted compositions, and commissioned works of art, as well as in-depth studies on matters of science. Figure 1-2 is an example of Leonardo's simpler sketches.

Figure 1-2: Leonardo's observations on objects' shadows. Enlarge image

Here's the accompanying translated text for the diagrams in Figure 1-2: The cast shadow will be longest when the light is lowest. The cast shadow will be shortest when the light is highest. (167) Figure 1-3 shows Leonardo's thoughts on the relationship between the dimensions of human heads and feet.

Figure 1-3: Leonardo's observations on the relative lengths of human heads and feet. Enlarge image This text accompanies the diagram in Figure 1-3: The foot, from where it is attached to the leg, to the tip of the great toe is as long as the space between the upper part of the chin and the roots of the hair a b; and equal to five sixths of the face. (325)

Notable notebook facts

Leonardo's notebooks have three distinguishing characteristics. 1. The notebooks are not orderly. Apparently, Leonardo did not wish to take the time during his life to organize his manuscripts himself. Grocery lists and sketches of faces are intermingled with things like studies of babies in the womb, how raging water flows, and designs for a helicopter. Some pages contain multiple quick sketches with text between, while some pages contain nothing more than a single, detailed sketch. 2. The notebooks contain little or no ramblings about Leonardo's personal life or personal feelings. There are only two short factual sentences concerning the death of his father: On the 9th of July 1504, Wednesday, at seven o'clock, died Ser Piero da Vinci, notary at the Palazzo del Podest, my father -- at seven o'clock, being 80 years old, leaving behind 10 sons and two daughters. On Wednesday at seven o'clock died Ser Piero da Vinci on the 9th of July 1504. -- Richter, Sections 1372 and 1373, p. 416 However, occasionally, an everyday to-do list presents itself (Richter, Sections 1382, 1397, 1405, and 1411): Ask maestro Lodovico for "the conduits of water." Have some ears of corn of large size sent from Florence. 24 tavole make 1 perch. 4 trabochi make 1 tavola. 4 braccia and a half make a trabocco. A perch contains 1936 square braccia, or 1944. Pulleys -- nails -- rope -- mercury -- cloth, Monday.

1. Almost every text entry is written with backwards letters that go from right to left -- what some people simply call "mirror-writing." You'll get a chance to try it for yourself in the next section.

Leonardo's journaling habit

Simple math tells us that Leonardo was a religious journal keeper. The bulk of Leonardo's known notebook pages were created in the 41-year period between 1478 and 1519. There are around 7,000 pages around today (more or less), and it is believed that only one third to one fourth of the original manuscripts survive. So originally there could have been four times that amount, or 28,000 pages.

Leonardo made most of his journal entries between age 26 and 67.

If there were originally about 28,000 pages, that means that over the course of 41 years Leonardo must have created his notebooks at an average rate of nearly two pages per day: approximately 13 pages per week, or about 683 pages per year. So if you want to match Leonardo's journaling rate, you'd have to create about 13 pages per week. Here's how that math works out: 13 pages/week x 52 weeks/year x 41 years = 27,716 pages At a minimum, to keep up with Leonardo, you'd need to generate between 150 and 200 pages a year. That's at least one or two decent-sized spiral notebooks, annually. If you've resisted the journaling trend, perhaps this knowledge may inspire you to explore journaling further. At any rate, during this class, keep Leonardo's huge stack of handwritten papers in mind as we go through these lessons and ask you to make one or two sketches or journal entries!

Next up
Now that you've had quick introduction to the breadth and depth of Leonardo's writings, let's look at the actual writing.

Mirror writing: try writing like Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci was left-handed. His handwriting is unusual, even for a southpaw, because his paragraphs and sentences originate from the right and move toward the left with the letters reversed. Most of his text can be read with a mirror or by holding a printed page face down over a light source. An example of Leonardo's handwriting is shown in Figure 1-4.

Print samples of his writing

To do the mirror test on da Vinci's writing, print samples with HP LaserJets, which provide highquality

printing that's both fast and reliable.

Figure 1-4: Sample of Leonardo-penned text. Enlarge image There have been numerous theories proposed about why Leonardo wrote mirror-style, including that he wanted his notebooks to be encoded and secret from prying eyes. Others suggest that he chose to write from right to left so that his left hand would not smudge the wet ink as he went along. Scholars who have tried to mimic his writing and reading style generally report that this type of text is, with a bit of practice, easy to create and to read.

Some contemporary lefties include ex-presidents Clinton, Bush Sr., Reagan, and Ford; talk show hosts Jay Leno and Oprah Winfrey; athletes Ty Cobb and Martina Navratilova; and musician Kurt Cobain of Nirvana.

As far as the left-handedness is concerned, some have thought that an injury may have prevented Leonardo from writing and drawing with his right hand. Others maintain he was simply born left-handed. So in order to "decode" Leonardo's original writings, you need to be able to decipher his penmanship in general (there were not typewriters or word processors back in those days), to read it backwards, and to understand Italian. Figure 1-5 is a modern example of simple mirrorimage text that can give you at least some idea of what it feels like to try to read the original documents. The passage is a Leonardo quote translated into English and reproduced in a common computer font.

Figure 1-5: Mirror image of an English translation of a Leonardo quote. Enlarge image Can you read and understand the passage in Figure 1-5? As an exercise, use your mouse to select and print the image in Figure 1-5 onto ordinary printer paper. See how easy the passage is to read if you hold the printed page flipped over in front of a light source or in a mirror. Want to try to emulate Leonardo's writing? Try creating a sentence in mirror image. Using pen or pencil, write a line or two from this quote starting from the right and with reverse letters. Here are two tips to help you with this: The exercise may be easier if you use your left hand. Check your work by trying to read your effort in a mirror. The quiz associated with this lesson will contain a question about the passage quoted in Figure 1-5, so be sure to print and read the passage.

Here are a few more interesting facts about Leonardo's notebooks. Leonardo wrote and drew as inspiration and observations happened upon him -- this may be one of the reasons why his notebooks were almost devoid of order and organization. However, he generally did keep one thought per page or else noted when a thought would continue on the next page. He wrote on both sides of the paper. He used pen mostly, but not always. Some of his sketches are hurried and simple; others are elaborate and contain revisions or additions that were made years later. He wrote from right to left with reverse letters, mostly. He utilized shorthand symbols occasionally and rarely used proper punctuation. Many of his sketches are coupled with design measurements, mathematical concepts, or theories about physical science. He bound some pages together; other pages were left loose. Papers varied in size. It wouldn't be unusual to find his grocery list on the same page with an idea for the construction of a cathedral. Despite the fact that Leonardo did not personally organize his manuscripts, he definitely did us a huge favor by documenting his work, his thinking, and his advice in explicit detail.

Moving on
In this lesson you learned why Leonardo's notebooks are such an amazing creative resource. Collectively, they contain thousands of pages of Leonardo's amazing insights, inventions, and progressive ideas. Five hundred years later, people can still turn to the manuscripts in museums and libraries, on the Internet, or in books for information and inspiration. Clearly, capturing and documenting creative insights and ideas was important to Leonardo. In Lesson 2 you'll extract information about Leonardo's personal discovery and development

process from the notebooks. You'll learn how Leonardo came to pursue art, how he branched out from there into matters of science, and what tools and habits he thought were important. You'll also re-think your own creative path in terms of how it compares to Leonardo's. We hope you enjoyed today's lesson. Be sure to take the following steps to complete Lesson 1: 1. Complete the Lesson 1 assignment. 2. Take the Lesson 1 quiz. 3. Visit the class message board to see what your instructor has to say or to chime in on student discussions. See you on the Message Board and then back in class for Lesson 2!

Assignment #1
Go to sacred-texts.com and read some of Leonardo's translated text from work done by Jean Paul Richter in the 1800s. (To locate the files, click Age of Reason in the column at the left and scroll down to the Leonardo da Vinci link.) What are some things Leonardo observed or theorized in his writings? Report your findings to the Message Board, if you like. Also, please share any other Web resources you may have discovered that contain more information about Leonardo's notebooks.

Quiz #1
Question 1: True or False: Leonardo's notebooks are between 50 and 100 years old. A) B) Question 2: Choose the answer below that fills in the blank correctly. In the mirror-image example in Lesson 1, Leonardo says of nature: "in her inventions nothing is wanting; nothing is ____..." A) B) C) D) Question 3: True or False: Leonardo was left-handed. A) B) Question 4: Leonardo studied which of the following subjects? (Check all that apply.) A) B) C) D) E) Astronomy Botany Sculpture Light Painting True False wrong hoping worried superfluous True False

Discover and develop: da Vinci's drawings as inspiration

Learn how Leonardo da Vinci came to pursue art, how he kept his notebooks and what he believed were the most important tools for his trade. Use this information to develop and document your own creative path and determine where you are on your journey.

Cross creative paths with Leonardo

In Lesson 1 you learned about the wonderful world of Leonardo's handwritten and hand-sketched notebooks. You found out how to access English translations of the text and got an overview of the topics he studied. You learned about some of his journaling oddities and about his distinctive and unusual writing style. Then you tried to read and create your own mirror-image text. Leonardo definitely had a lot to say and he expressed himself very well, backwards writing or not. But when we read his notebooks, it's his images that shine the brightest. He was, after all, a master painter. His Mona Lisa is one of the most revered art pieces in the world today. The images in his manuscripts are also artistic wonders; they show us what he studied, what he loved, and how he prepared for his painted masterpieces. Today's lesson journeys through the images in Leonardo's notebooks and explores details and clues about the man and his creative process along the way. We hope the images and interpretations will inspire you to evaluate your own creative journey and perhaps even change course.

Leonardo's early drawings

Leonardo loved to draw from a young age. According to one of the early biographies of Leonardo, one of his first commissioned drawings, requested by a family friend, was a shield. It turned out the finished drawing was too unusual for the requestor, though, so Leonardo's father sold the drawing at a nearby market. In the years that followed, Leonardo was sent by his father to apprentice with a master artist. After a six-year apprenticeship, the 20-year-old Leonardo da Vinci was deemed a master painter. The earliest surviving sketch by Leonardo da Vinci is dated August 4, 1473, when Leonardo was 21 years old. The subject matter of the sketch? A natural landscape. The fact that a landscape is the focus isn't terribly surprising, since Leonardo was fascinated by nature and he lived in the beautiful hills of Italy. What is noteworthy, though, is that Leonardo did literally sit down and observe nature closely. And that is something we can all do!

Watch grass grow

So here's a tip from Leonardo on how to get your creative juices flowing. Go sit and watch nature. Watch grass grow, as they say. After you spend a few minutes or the better part of a day observing nature from an open bus window, your back porch, or a park, document your observations. Record your observations about nature any way you choose. Grab your digital camera, pick up a soft lead drawing pencil and sketch pad, sit down at your piano, or start with a blob of sculpting clay. You get the idea. Create something in response to your observation. Draw a pile of leaves. Write a melody or poem about the interesting cloud formations or lack of color in the sky. If you don't have an artistic implement in mind or handy, then simply sketch what you see using pen and paper. Don't worry about the quality of your sketch. This class is not about perfection -it's about noticing details and unleashing your creativity. Figure 2-1 shows another landscape sketch from Leonardo's notebooks.

Figure 2-1: Landscape sketch from Leonardo's notebooks. Nature is a marvel! Wherever you are, enjoy the outdoors and be inspired by it.

What keeps your interest year after year?

Leonardo believed deeply in the beauty of nature. As he grew as an artist and a scientist, he didn't lose his interest in landscapes. His studies of plant and animal life, water flow, natural disasters, and astronomy all started from simple observations of the outdoor world around him. The brilliant and famous Mona Lisa was painted 30 years after the 1473 landscape sketch. Still, if you look closely at the Mona Lisa , you will see that behind the mythical smile, Leonardo paid attention to every detail of the natural environment in the background. The young Leonardo also had a penchant and talent for drawing horses and portraits. Drawings of both horses and people also appear in notebooks he kept through his later years. This leads us to another question for creative thought: Did you have any childhood or youthful interests that you are still interested in today? If so, what are those things? If you'd like to share your thoughts, post your answers to the class discussion board.

Next up
See where nature took Leonardo after his first landscape sketch.

Beyond the landscape

As Leonardo grew older, he always seemed to find new things to learn, study, and transform into art. Leonardo was not one to stop when he mastered something. He kept studying, exploring, questioning, and digging deeper. In fact, he chose to continue to work under his teacher even after he became a master painter. Leonardo was a constant student! We also know this because of his notebook entries. Let's look at a few more of them. Figure 2-2 is an example of how Leonardo microfocused on aspects of the landscape to observe and learn the finer details.

Figure 2-2: Tree studies from Leonardo's notebooks. Leonardo spent so much time studying trees that he could look at a tree and accurately determine its age. This was quite a talent, since back then counting trunk rings had not yet become a practice. Figure 2-3 shows how Leonardo observed landscapes from different angles. Remember that, although he had access to hills, there were no blimps or airplanes to assist an artist with getting a complete bird's-eye view of the area. Regardless of the difficulty, Leonardo created high-quality aerial landscape sketches -- in other words, relief maps.

Figure 2-3: A map sketch from Leonardo's notebooks. Enlarge image Figure 2-4 shows another of Leonardo's studies of nature from nature: the flow of water and current.

Figure 2-4: A water flow study from Leonardo's notebooks. Eventually, Leonardo prepared a whole set of documents on water studies. In his younger days, Leonardo wanted to make his paintings the very best they could be; in some cases, he studied certain things as part of his apprenticeship as a painter. But mostly, he dove in and studied various subjects in depth simply because he was interested and fascinated, and eventually wanted to share his observations. He branched out from landscapes to the miniscule details of plants, animals, and people. His studies encompassed natural phenomena, physics, internal workings of living things (i.e. anatomy), and more. Figure 2-5 from his notebooks is another example of how from observing nature, he once again began going in a new, simple, yet scientific direction. In this case, he was studying how the sun appeared large when viewed as a reflection in wavy water.

Figure 2-5: A sun reflection study from Leonardo's notebooks. Enlarge image Here's the accompanying text for the diagram in Figure 2-5: The sun will appear larger in moving water or on waves than in still water; an example is the light reflected on the strings of a monochord. (878) The more notebook entries and sketches you explore, the more you realize that to Leonardo, art and science were one and the same.

Next up
Nature studies took Leonardo from landscapes to leaves and to light and reflection. Where else did Leonardo venture in his studies?

Even further beyond the landscape

In the years between 1472 and 1482, after his apprenticeship was over, Leonardo worked as a professional artist and among other things, painted the well-known Adoration of the Magi. In 1482, when war was raging all around him, the 30-year-old loyal patriot Leonardo decided to pursue designing military weapons. He continued working on the engineering aspects of many of his artistic designs for most of the rest of his life. By the early 1500s he was designing elaborate wartime machines and defense maps. For a few years, he worked on a commissioned horse sculpture that didn't actually get built during his lifetime. All the while, he continued to paint, learn painting techniques, and develop improved techniques in his field. He also continued to study various subjects that either related to his paid work or fueled his imagination and curiosity. Leonardo died in 1519 at age 67 after spending his final few years philosophizing, decorating, studying pure science, and designing buildings.

Universal Leonardo
Universal Leonardo is an excellent site that gives an overview of the many facets of Leonardo da Vinci.

Combining art and science

As we've seen, Leonardo's childhood drive to draw landscapes, portraits, and horses led to a lifetime as a professional artist. The more knowledge he attained, the more he sought. Eventually, he became a recognized expert in numerous fields relating to both art and science. Leonardo studied math and geometry in order to incorporate the principles into realistic drawings and paintings. He studied under respected teachers and collaborated with other skilled artists to hone paint formulas and practices. He developed modern recipes and techniques while devoting himself to the pursuit of truth and beauty, to helping his country, and to technological progress. He trained his eyes to be his most valuable tool in life and art. According to eyewitness accounts, he could accurately draw and study birds in flight because his eyes were so keen that he could capture detail as birds flew quickly by. And he wished to share all of his knowledge! Figure 2-6 shows a sketch by Leonardo, building designer and architect. A bridge design from one of Leonardo's notebooks was constructed in Sweden almost 500 years later.

Figure 2-6: Mausoleum design from Leonardo's notebooks. Figure 2-7 shows several specific studies in surface anatomy and muscles. Some of Leonardo's detailed sketches of the inner and outer parts of the human body still appear in anatomy books today.

Figure 2-7: Studies of surface anatomy from Leonardo's notebooks. Sometimes Leonardo's notebook pages combine art and science in an obvious manner. Figure 2-8 shows his careful studies of human head proportions; he measured them so he could reproduce them accurately in his artistic works.

Figure 2-8: Human head proportion study from Leonardo's notebooks.

Other times Leonardo focused solely on art or science, as shown in this page devoted to mathematical studies. The applications could have been specific or general -- for an art commission or for his next creative engineering invention.

Where do your interests take you?

Leonardo's interests took him inside tree trunks, into space, and into fields of science and engineering. Now would be a good time to ponder the question: Where could your creative interests take you? Try this exercise. Think back to your childhood. What childhood interest have you maintained to this day? If you can't think of one, then choose any current interest or passion you have. Boil down a description of this passion or interest in one sentence. Write the sentence. Then begin thinking of the interest as a field of study. What parts of this field would you be interested in spending more time studying? For example, if your creative interest is ballet, would you be interested in studying how a pointed toe can support a person's body weight? If your creative interest is writing fiction, would you be willing to study a time period or a geographic location in detail in order to be more precise about the setting of the story? Jot down any ideas you have about in-depth subjects of study to move you along in your creative pursuit. Next, think larger. What related matters that are outside the box a bit could you study? For ballet, would you be willing to study abdominal muscles, costume-making, or composers of ballet music? If you make pottery, could you experiment to see if you could develop a scientific formula for unbreakable ceramic? Jot down ideas that come to you about going above and beyond in this creative endeavor. After looking both inward and outward from your area of creative interest, where do you think you are on your creative journey? Are you just now drawing your first landscapes? Have you studied your field from multiple angles in order to develop progressive techniques and to become a recognized expert? Do you have enough information about your field to create a Leonardo-style codex? Are you somewhere between your first landscape and your notebooks full of expertise? Where would you like to go from here? There are no right or wrong answers to these questions. Report your progress or status in your creative field to the class Message Board if you wish.

Next up
Every artist needs the right tools. Find out what Leonardo used, and choose modern equivalents.

Living like Leonardo

Leonardo's most important tools were his eyes. If he were here today, he'd probably tell us to rely more on what we see for ourselves than on any other handed-down wisdom we may receive. He chose a variety of tangible tools for his creative studies. For most of the studies in his notebooks, he used paper. He used a variety of treated papers in colors like blue, red, and brown, and two ink colors: brown and black. Earlier notebooks entries are often done with black, red, and white chalk or charcoal. He did some of his studies, like drapery studies, on canvas or using a drawing technique called silverpoint. Other tools he used as a professional artist included paint mixing tools, recipes, and ingredients; studio space; books written by experts in his field; and person-to-person instruction and collaboration. Leonardo probably carried something with him at all times to make quick sketches with. Click the links below to see some online studies that illustrate the variety of media Leonardo used for his studies.

A drapery study done in silverpoint and white highlights on red media A portrait study done with a combination of black and red chalk and pen and brown ink

Today's pen and paper

Leonardo used tinted papers so he could add white highlights and therefore make drawings look more realistic. He may have chosen whatever was handy to make his quick sketches, and in some cases went back to chalk sketches to add fine details in pen. Naturally, in any creative endeavor, some tools are better than others; sometimes a modern tool is best, and sometimes it isn't. Leonardo used paper. You can draw and write on paper too if you wish. But you have the additional option of using paper that is preprinted with lines. Imagine! Or you can type or draw with an electronic device like a computer, PDA, or digital drawing tablet. You can write on white boards or sticky notes, make a sketch on the back of a cocktail napkin, or take photos and have them printed at the drugstore. Leonardo used writing implements common or easy to acquire in his day. You have almost unlimited access to writing tools from crayons and colored pencils to laptop keyboards and styluses. Not only do you have ready access to myriad writing and drawing media, you also have access to photographs. For example, you can reproduce a photo using a scanner or copier or tear pages from your own magazines for further study. You can find information and document your thoughts and pictures on the Internet or on your own electronic storage media for later viewing. Technology is getting more affordable and available to today's artists. Plus, the Internet connects people from around the globe, making online inspiration and collaboration possible in ways unimaginable in Leonardo's day.

Next up
Now that you've thought about your initial creative interests, where you can go from there, and learned about old and new Leonardo-esque tools, get Leonardo's advice for art and life.

Leonardo's advice for art and life

Leonardo's notebooks are ripe not only with information and scientific theories, but also with advice from his life experiences. Leonardo had this to say about perspective in creating realistic two-dimensional works of art: Perspective is nothing else than seeing place [or objects] behind a plane of glass, quite transparent, on the surface of which the objects behind that glass are to be drawn. These can be traced in pyramids to the point in the eye, and these pyramids are intersected on the glass plane. (83)

You can study perspective by sketching a scene as you see it through a window. Draw with an erasable ink or grease pen directly on the glass.

Here's what Leonardo had to say about the application of science to art: Those who fall in love with practice without science are like a sailor who enters a ship without a helm or a compass, and who never can be certain whither he is going. (1161) As anyone can see after even a quick study of the man and his notebooks, Leonardo was a fan of direct experience and not a fan of critics: And those men who are inventors and interpreters between Nature and Man, as compared with boasters and declaimers of the works of others, must be regarded

and not otherwise esteemed than as the object in front of a mirror, when compared with its image seen in the mirror. For the first is something in itself, and the other nothingness. (11) The notebooks offer lots of other tips and advice, too. Browsing through several thousand original notebook pages reveals a wide range of methods that Leonardo used to study what he saw around him. Take a look at this list, and be prepared to use it for the Lesson 2 assignment. (You can also download and print this PDF file containing the list.) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. Study Emulate masters, practice Question Observe Experience Measure Branch out in new directions Sketch Paint Apply math and geometry Visualize in three dimensions Pursue good Focus on details Document Get necessary solitude

Moving on
In this lesson you got an overview of Leonardo's creative journey, his explorations from art into science, his tools, and his advice. You learned how he started pursuing art, the various directions he took from there, and what tools and life habits he thought were important. You found out how you might apply aspects of today's lesson to your own creative journey and get inspired by Leonardo's path and methods. Lesson 3 focuses on visual representations of ideas and shows you some ways you can make your thoughts visible and memorable. You'll look at some more Leonardo da Vinci sketches, choose convenient tools to capture your images, and try some sketching exercises. We hope you enjoyed today's lesson. Be sure to complete the assignment and quiz for this lesson, then visit the class Message Board to share insights, see what your instructor has to say, or to chime in on discussions. See you on the Message Board and then back in class for Lesson 3!

Assignment #2
Fill in the blanks. Print and handwrite the answers to this assignment. As a child, I was fascinated by __________________________________________. I was also fascinated by _______________________________________________. Today I am fascinated by ______________________________________________. A childhood interest that I still have today is ______________________________________________.

Three things I could study or have studied related to my creative interest are: 1. ____________________________________ 2. ____________________________________ 3. ____________________________________ Three fascinating things I've learned while pursuing my creative interest are: 1. ____________________________________ 2. ____________________________________ 3. ____________________________________ On my journey, my first landscape (whatever your equivalent of Leonardo's first landscape drawing is) will be/is/was _______________________________________. On my journey, my Mona Lisa will be/is/was _______________________________________. If Leonardo were coaching me personally on my creative journey, he would probably tell me to ______________________________________________________. I'll know I'm ready to prepare a Leonardo-style codex when ______________________________________________________. The next step I plan to take on my creative journey is _______________________________________________________.

There are no right or wrong answers. Feel free to skip questions, to repeat answers, or to include multiple items on a single blank. This exercise is designed to get you thinking about the way you are pursuing one or more of your creative interests.

If you'd like to share any insights you gleaned from this assignment, feel free to do so on the Message Board.

Quiz #2
Question 1: What is the subject matter in the earliest-known surviving Leonardo sketch? A) B) C) D) Question 2: Which of the following sketch subjects appear in Leonardo's notebooks? (Check all that apply.) A) B) C) D) E) F) G) H) Maps Water flow Reflection of sunlight Trees Building designs Drapery Engineering concepts and machines Horses A self-portrait A landscape A cannon A human heart

Question 3: True or False: It is likely that the adult Leonardo carried something to sketch with at all times. A) B) Question 4: True or False: Leonardo sketched with chalk and also with ink. A) B) True False True False

Use da Vinci's sketches as your creative guide

Leonardo da Vinci is not only famous for his paintings like the Mona Lisa, but also for the many sketches in his notebooks. Learn the importance of images, look at Leonardo's sketches, choose tools to capture your images and try some idea mapping techniques.

Sketching 101
In Lesson 1 you cracked into Leonardo's notebooks and tried mirror-writing. In Lesson 2 you followed Leonardo's creative path through art and science, learning about tools he used and methods he advocated. You were encouraged to make comparisons between your creative journey and his. Today's lesson talks about images and sketches and incorporating them into your creative work. You'll get an overview of modern alternatives to drawing, learn some ways to sketch ideas, and pick up some good old-fashioned drawing advice from Leonardo.

The sketch as Leonardo's creative workhorse

Leonardo was a sketching fiend. Both the quantity and quality of sketches in his notebooks attest to that fact. Although he was a master painter, when he died, he left us hundreds more sketches than painted masterpieces. He sketched for various reasons: to prepare for paintings, to develop engineering and technology, to design architecture, to plan sculpture, and to document his observations on flight. The images you saw in Lesson 2 illustrated how Leonardo drew to study objects and natural wonders that fascinated him, and how he often incorporated those studies into his paintings. Figure 3-1 shows another example of a preparation sketch that was probably created for his well-known Last Supper .

Figure 3-1: Compositional sketch, possibly of the Last Supper, from Leonardo's notebooks. Enlarge image In addition to sketching the results of his observations and studies of horses, plants, events, motion, proportions, human anatomy and facial features, landscape, color, drapery and lighting, Leonardo also sketched to try new drawing techniques and viewpoints. Figure 3-2 shows horses drawn in various poses and from various angles.

Figure 3-2: Horse study sketches from Leonardo's notebooks. The sketches in Figure 3-2 were likely done in preparation for a commissioned horse sculpture. After all the planning, the horse did not get constructed in Leonardo's lifetime because the sculpture's raw materials were needed in the war effort. A version was erected in the twentieth century, though. The statue was unveiled in Milan, Italy, in 1999, exactly 500 years after the original clay model was destroyed.

Sketches are for everyone

Leonardo didn't invent the sketch or communication by images. Other geniuses who made use of sketches and visual representations in their letters, personal notebooks, or published works include Galileo, Sir Isaac Newton, Thomas Edison, and Thomas Jefferson. Today, images are quite commonly used by graphic artists, by athletes studying strategic team maneuvers, by school teachers drawing on chalkboards, and more. Many people find that sketching helps bring clarity and insight to problems or hazy ideas. Working with images can sometimes solve the problem of trying to find the right words. Sketching is a valuable skill, and the resulting images can be useful in almost any creative endeavor.

Merriam Webster defines a sketch as "a rough drawing representing the chief features of an object or scene and often made as a preliminary study."

Even if you do know the right words to use, you can use sketches as communication shortcuts. It has been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. Ponder this: Which would be easier to document in one minute -- a sketch or two pages of (about a thousand) words? Sketches convey certain types of information quickly and spatially. Which of Figures 3-3 and 3-4 do you think would speak more immediately to a reader? Figure 3-3 is a page from Leonardo's notebooks that contains mostly text.

Figure 3-3: A text page from Leonardo's notebooks. Enlarge image Figure 3-4 is a sketch from Leonardo's notebooks.

Figure 3-4: A portrait sketch from Leonardo's notebooks.To maintain a high level of creative energy, try to find ways to incorporate sketches and images into your work. Your creative pursuits will benefit. You can probably also think of ways you use images in your day job, whether you're designing a better workspace or conveying ideas on a whiteboard in a meeting. Help your creativity soar by using images and sketches in every aspect of your life.

Next up
Next up, let's look at some tools to help sketchers who aren't drawing artists.

Sketching in the new millennium

If you're artistically inclined to sketch with pencil and paper, and you do it regularly, then you are already emulating Leonardo. For those not so inclined, there are other ways to capture your ideas visually. Whether or not you draw by hand, it's important to capture and save observations and thoughts. Today, technology provides for quick capturing of observations.

Capture images
Lesson 2 touched on this a little. Image capturing tools range from electronic digital devices to less advanced, yet still modern, mechanisms. It's safe to say that it's easier to capture a moment on camera today than ever before. You can use a digital camera, a camera cell phone, a camcorder, or a digital recorder. You can capture existing items by making copies by copier, scanner or fax, or by literally tearing pages from magazines and putting them into your own personal image stash. Once an image has been digitally captured, it can be edited using today's computers and readily available software, like Photoshop and many programs. The PC you're reading this on probably has some sort of drawing program loaded onto it (on Windows machines, look in your Accesories folder). So who says you need to know how to draw? Having said that, there are reasons to draw, and one of those is to get your right and left brain hemispheres working together; we'll talk a little more about that in the next lesson. For now, just capture images any way you like.

Speaking of modern capturing tools, you can also use today's technology to quickly capture audio clips. It's a great way to record great conversations, ideas, and melodies before they're gone forever.

Generate images using computer tools

In addition to using photography and digital image capturing tools, it's possible to use graphic tools to create new visual representations. Today's software helps you create charts and graphs. Programs are available to help you make digital scrapbooks and slide shows, and you can add graphical elements to them by using software shortcuts (such as making a perfect rectangle using a rectangle drawing tool). There's also the option of drawing images with your computer mouse. You can also make your own unique visual representations by using your computer to combine images into collages or stream photos and graphics into slide shows. You can blend moving and still pictures, and you can even add music. If you're sitting at a computer right now, then you already know that you can learn new skills and get fresh ideas by web-surfing or taking an online class. Do an Internet search to find lengthy lists of drawing and sketching resources. Today's computer-savvy children know that they can color and paint on the computer . With all the tools available today for modern sketchers, the hardest part is not learning to draw like Leonardo, but rather choosing which tools to use to translate your thoughts into physical images.

Next up
Learn how you can sketch processes, lineage, game plans, concepts, and questions.

Making the invisible visible

While there are an infinite number of ways you can put pictures to your instructions, goals, questions, and thoughts, today we'll show you a couple ways to sketch intangibles -- those ideas that can't be perfectly conveyed by photographic snapshots or written word.

Flow charts
A simple way to convey if/then information or various options is with a flow chart. Flow charts and related diagrams are not new. In fact, they've been in use so long that standard flow chart symbols have been developed over the years. You simply write an observation, a question, or an instruction on a piece of paper. Draw a box around it. Then draw an arrow coming out of the box, and write a few words to describe what happens next. Then put a box around that. Draw an arrow coming out of the second box, and write a few words to describe what happens next. And so on.

Flow charts by other names

Flow charts can have multiple lines coming from a single box. One type of flow chart that you may recognize is a family tree. Another derivation of a flow chart is one that depicts an elimination tournament for a sporting tournament, like the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament (i.e. March Madness). Remember when Lesson 2 talked about studying subtopics within your creative field in order to become more expert? A top-down idea map template might be helpful for brainstorming subtopics of study.

Radial clusters
On the other hand, there may be times when you need to list even more thoughts originating from the original one. In that case, a radial idea map might work. As a matter of fact, writing or quick-sketching an idea in the middle of a page and drawing and listing thoughts radially from the center can have its advantages. Leonardo worked with images in radial fashion as you can see in one of his map sketches in Figure 3-5.

Figure 3-5: A radial map sketch from Leonardo's notebooks.

Compared to flow charts, radial clusters are messier. Therefore, radial clustering can be used as a way to think through a problem in its initial stages. Consider clustering as thinking out loud without actually making any noise. Start by writing (or drawing) a concept in the middle of a sheet of paper. Circle the central concept. This anchors it and also adds visual shape if it's just plain text. Next, jot down the first thing that comes to mind about the central concept and circle it. Draw a line connecting the middle item to the secondary item. Jot down the next thing that comes to mind, circle it, and draw a line to connect it to the original concept or the concept that came just before it. Write, circle, and draw lines quickly without too much deliberation until the page is about full or until you feel done. Take a deep breath, look at your cluster, and decide what it means to you. Figure 3-6 illustrates a cluster done during a TV show commercial break. The author clustered her initial thoughts on characteristics of her dream home.

Figure 3-6: A quickly sketched radial cluster. Enlarge image Can you think of some concepts you could cluster? Do you need new thinking, clarification of your goals, or quick ideas to resolve a problem? Give clustering a try. All you have to lose is a few minutes of your time. The results of one cluster may inspire you to do another cluster on a related topic. From the clustering exercise in Figure 3-6, the author decided to do a second cluster on her dream kitchen. The more you practice writing your ideas spatially via clustering or similar idea-mapping method, the more you will get out of it. Do an Internet search on "clustering," "idea map," "mind map," or "concept map" to see related examples done by others. Then give clustering a try. It's a quick sketch, no-rules, idea-generating tool that drawers and non-drawers alike can use! If you need an additional nudge, be sure to do the assignment (a clustering exercise) at the end of today's lesson.

Next up
Although you don't need any particular drawing skills in order to sketch, drawing still has its place -- and Leonardo included drawing advice in his notebooks.

Unleash your inner artist: Leonardo's drawing advice

You don't have to be a trained or talented artist in order to capture visual ideas or create sketches. However, drawing still holds high esteem as a creativity booster. Many believe that drawing utilizes the right side of your brain, and that drawing breaks you out of the box of everyday, ordinary processing of concepts and words in logical order, which by the way, utilizes the left side of your brain.

Leonardo was whole-brained. He grasped and conveyed logical left-brain concepts, and he also had a keen sense of space, proportion, and other right-brain artistic principles. He wrote and he drew. You might also wish to try doing both so that you don't limit yourself. Among other tips, Leonardo advises sketching and doing studies before making the final project. And more than anything, he urges you to capture your observations before they get away. If you have a serious interest in realistic drawing or painting, Leonardo's notebooks deserve further study. He devoted many pages to proper proportions. For example: On a human face, the distance between the pupils of the eyes is one-third the width of the face. (142) Here are some direct quotes about drawing, translated to English, from Leonardo's notebooks: "Those who are in love with practice without knowledge are like the sailor who gets into a ship without rudder or compass and who never can be certain whether he is going. Practice must always be founded on sound theory, and to this Perspective is the guide and the gateway; and without this nothing can be done well in the matter of drawing." (19) "The painter who draws merely by practice and by eye, without any reason, is like a mirror which copies every thing placed in front of it without being conscious of their existence." (20) "If the eye is required to look at an object placed too near to it, it cannot judge of it well--as happens to a man who tries to see the tip of his nose. Hence, as a general rule, Nature teaches us that an object can never be seen perfectly unless the space between it and the eye is equal, at least, to the length of the face." (25) "Wherefore O painter! Do not surround your bodies with lines, and above all when representing objects smaller than nature; for not only will their external outlines become indistinct, but their parts will be invisible from distance." (49) Leonardo also suggested in his notebooks that drawers use hatching to indicate motion, shading to indicate lighting differences, pleasing composition, measured angles, and proper perspective and proportion.

Moving on
In Lessons 1 and 2 you explored Leonardo's notebooks, his writing, his images, and his and your creative journey. Today's Lesson 3 focused on sketching. You learned some modern uses, tools, and tips for sketching. Then you got some pencil-to-paper sketching advice from Leonardo. Lesson 4 discusses blending ideas and items to create new things, and then provides ideas for creating and publishing your creative journals. We hope you enjoyed today's lesson. Be sure to complete the assignment and quiz for this lesson, then stop by the Message Board to see what your instructor and fellow students are talking about.

Assignment #3
This exercise is designed to help you find some new ways in which you could use sketches or images more in your creative work. 1. On a blank sheet of paper, write a creative activity you enjoy doing in the middle of the page, and draw a circle around it. Feel free to use the same creative area of interest you focused on in Lesson 2. 2. Set a timer for five minutes. 3. In all directions from the center, jot down ideas for using images to enhance that activity. If something doesn't immediately come to mind, you can write the word "image" or "sketch" and go from there. Circle each idea after you write it, and draw a line connecting your thoughts to the center or to each other as you go along, freestyle. Figure 3-7 shows an example based on creating computer games.

Figure 3-7: A rough brainstorming cluster. Enlarge image 1. After five minutes, take a quick look at the unorganized brainstorming cluster you have created. Write a paragraph that describes the best idea or ideas you came up with. Were you able to generate new thinking from this clustering and writing exercise? Report your findings to the Message Board!

Quiz #3
Question 1: True or False: Leonardo sketched to prepare for paintings. A) B) Question 2: True or False: According to the lesson, computers can be used in the sketching process. A) B) Question 3: True or False: A simple way to convey if/then information or various options is with a flow chart. A) B) Question 4: With regard to drawing, Leonardo advised the following: (Check all that apply.) A) B) C) Don't draw merely by practice and by eye. Do not surround your bodies with lines. Always do your first sketch with Crayola brand crayons. True False True False True False

Da Vinci's notebooks: combining thoughts and ideas in new ways

Take the fun and important step of combining art and science, ideas with experience, clarity with contradiction and the present with the future. As your ideas expand exponentially, record them in your own Leonardo-style codex.

Connect the dots

Lessons 1 and 2 discussed observing, thinking, writing, drawing, and living a creative life. Lesson 3 focused on sketching, specifically sketching ideas. Lesson 4 pushes your creativity one step further. Today you'll be encouraged to compare and contrast items, to blend items into unique creations, to work both sides of your brain, and to think about publishing a codex of your own. In Leonardo's journal entries, it's easy to spot shapes, lines, and mathematical formulas included with portrait sketches and other drawings. Leonardo's famous Vitruvian Man sketch is a good example of how Leonardo related geometrical shapes to the human body, or in more general terms, science to art. When you look at Vitruvian Man it's clear that Leonardo compared human motion to basic shapes, and compared a circle to a square as well. Leonardo often constructed connections between seemingly different items. He pondered similarities between water flow in the earth and blood flow in the human body. He compared branches of a river to branches of a tree, and so on.

The Vitruvian Man has appeared in many books, movies, and TV shows. To learn more about the history and science behind the image and see a partial list of all the places it's appeared, read this Wikipedia entry.

Perhaps it was on one of the days Leonardo spent sitting on a hillside observing nature that he discovered a resemblance between tree trunks and rivers with branches. His notebook reads as follows: All the branches of a tree at every stage of its height when put together are equal in thickness to the trunk below them. All the branches of a water course at every stage of its course, if they are of equal rapidity, are equal to the body of the main stream. (394) And one can't help but wonder: Was Leonardo thinking about wavy hair or wavy water when he sketched the flowing streams in the upper half of the page in Figure 4-1?

Figure 4-1: Does the object at the top of the page represent water or hair? Enlarge image There is no limit to commonalities between people and things. To get a quick jump-start on thinking comparatively, you could try another type of idea sketch: a comparison chart. Choose any two items, and on either side of a piece of paper, list things that make each different from the other. Or choose any two items and in the middle of a piece of paper, list things that the two items have in common. This PDF file shows simple examples of either method. You can compare and contrast any two (or more!) objects, animals, plants, people, concepts or things of any kind. If you need something to start comparing, try apples and oranges, long hair and water, or twins that you know. What do a butterfly and a hybrid car have in common? What

do snow and electricity have in common?

By the way, in case you were wondering, Leonardo's sketch in Figure 4-1 was a study of long, flowing hair.

Next up
You've gotten inspiration and how-to for making comparisons and connections. Next, combine things outright.

Blend the dots

Leonardo didn't just compare wholly separate entities like river courses and tree trunks; according to his notebook sketches, he also mixed and matched items to create new unique things.

Leo's combos
Take a look at the result of Leonardo's imaginary man-woman combo, in Figure 4-2.

Figure 4-2: Combined man-woman sketch from Leonardo's notebooks. What did Leonardo get when he blended canvas, wood, a study of birds in flight, and some serious imagination? He got a design for a helicopter. When you visit the link above, select Helicopter from the left menu pane. There you can view Leonardo's helicopter sketch and a recent model that was created from the sketch. How did Leonardo make dragons, you might ask? Well, naturally, by combining parts from real animals! Leonardo even left this advice in his notebooks for future dragon-drawers:

If you wish to make an animal, imagined by you, appear natural -- let us say a dragon, take for its head that of a mastiff or hound, with the eyes of a cat, the ears of a porcupine, the nose of a greyhound, the brow of a lion, the temples of an old cock, the neck of a water tortoise." (585)

Make your own combos

Follow Leonardo's lead by mixing and matching in your creative life. Bring two objects together to make one result. Create a collage of drawings or photographs, put an album of various images together, or make a slide show. Combine knowledge or experience from your past to a current issue. Apply expertise in one field to another. Perhaps you could use your knowledge of gardening to weed out unwanted items from some area of your life, career, or social network. Maybe you could think of some novel ways to combine your skills with the skills of others in a new business or missionary venture. If you like painting and you like animals, learn to paint animals. After you get the hang of realistically capturing the animals you know and love, why not depict them in your favorite colors, or even invent a combo animal of your own? You may see incredible results!

Next up
Are you stuck in left brain mode or right brain mode? Cross over to the other side.

Left brain, right brain

Leonardo didn't dive single-mindedly into painting. He studied plants, animals, human anatomy, landscapes, shading, lighting, perspective, paint mixing, color, angles, and more. He studied birds, and the next thing you know he's designing a helicopter. He drew, he wrote. He painted faces, he drew logical scientific conclusions. He understood linear concepts, and he understood spatial ones. He was what some would call a whole-brain thinker. Many people today believe they are either more right-brained or left-brained. Left-brained people may work as accountants, engineers, administrative assistants, and math teachers. Right-brained people may work as fiction writers or pastry chefs. However, your career path doesn't determine the inherent inner workings of your brain. In most cases, you can cross over to the other side and find balance. Maximum creativity is likely to occur when both sides of your brain are working together. To tap into your right brain more, do any of the following: Make a cluster map of how today might turn out. Make a quick sketch of the room you're in right now from the top down (like a layout or a map). Look at cloud formations, and imagine what figures and forms they could be. Write with your left hand. Turn on some music, and use either hand to draw smooth and curvy scribbles on a page. Visit a botanical garden or candle shop, and inhale many different fragrances in no particular order. Order or prepare a beautiful salad incorporating as many colors as possible, and as you eat it, think of how much you love each item. Meditate. Think about something that makes you feel sad, and just feel sad (or choose another emotion to deliberately feel). Take a drive or a walk. To tap into your left brain more, do any of the following: Make a list of 10 things you need to do today. Read a book. Work on a crossword puzzle. Create a schedule for accomplishing a goal.

Go outside
With the ultramobile HP notebook PC, there is no reason for you to be stuck inside. Find a local cafe with wi-fi access and outdoor seating and allow nature to inspire you the way that it did da Vinci.

Create step-by-step instructions for something you do regularly (for example: how to water your yard, how to make coffee the way you like it) Stack the papers on your desk in chronological order. Memorize the names of the 50 states and capitals. If you feel new cylinders firing and it feels good, then keep doing those left-brain and right-brain exercises. Day by day and bit by bit, you will be able to develop new ideas and seamlessly drift between left- and right-brain thinking. We'll close this brief whole-brain discussion by showing another of Leonardo's sketches. Notice in Figure 4-3 how words and images sit together on the page. He left no margins, and he included a hodgepodge of subject matter including realistic drawings, geometry studies and a poem all on the same page. Is it genius, chaos, or whole-brain journaling? You decide.

Figure 4-3: Multi-topic page from Leonardo's notebooks. Enlarge image

Next up
Now that you have a few tools to push your brain from one side to the other and back again, make friends with contradictions and live like a great artist.

Contradictions and creativity

Leonardo was a man of many contradictions. Here are just a few: When he reached middle age, he still had the insatiable curiosity of a young child. Though he sought to work for the common good his whole life, he had few close personal friends. He was one of the most highly regarded painters ever, yet he chose to spend much of his time pondering matters of math and scientific discovery. Though he was a professional painter, he created less than 20 masterpieces. He could have excelled in any field he chose, yetdabbled in over a dozen different career

fields. He pursued beauty, but drew frightening dragons and was fascinated by ugly faces. He loved peace, but designed war machines. He wrote advice to guide others, but almost every word he wrote was backwards. He wanted his notebooks published, but made no attempt to bring order to his documents. What are some contradictions in your life? What makes you different, contradictory, or enigmatic? Are you small but loud? Are you trained in one field but passionate about something completely different? Do you love something you're allergic to? Accepting contradiction is part of a creative life. Beware that contradictions can cause you pain. Critics may not understand you. Your loved ones may not understand you. You may struggle to avoid harsh criticism, to get the solitude you need as an artist, to stay healthy and true to yourself, and to be careful with whom you share your preliminary sketches. But remember that Leonardo, a walking contradiction, is considered a great creative genius. So what if all your socks don't match up? It's quite possible that contradiction breeds creativity, so walk on!

Art and life

Here are some more thoughts directly from Leonardo's notebooks on living creatively: "It will be well that you should represent every thing from nature, and not despise such study as those do who work only for money." (402) "The eye will hold and retain in itself the image of a luminous body better than that of a shaded object. The reason is that the eye is in itself perfectly dark and since two things that are alike cannot be distinguished, therefore the night, and other dark objects cannot be seen or recognized by the eye. Light is totally contrary and gives more distinctness, and counteracts and differs from the usual darkness of the eye, hence it leaves the impression of its image."(30) "Where natural vivacity is lacking it must be supplied by art." (1445)

Next up
Find out how to create and publish your own modern-day codex.

Create your own Leonardo-style codex

As you get more used to jotting down your thoughts, why not create your own series of Leonardo-style notebooks to record what fascinates you?

Take your notes with you

Now that you're in the habit of jotting down your thoughts, recognize the value of an HP handheld PC, which would allow you to transfer your notes to your work or home computer, in addition to providing the connectivity features which will maximize

The logic behind Leonardo's codex

Unorganized as they are, Leonardo was deliberate about his codices. He conveyed his wisdom and advice in subject matters in which he considered himself expert. Where necessary, he enclosed proof for his theories and conclusions. He believed that documenting his life's work was more important than organizing it. He used words, realistic sketches, quick diagrams, design layouts, geometric shapes, and mathematical equations to get his points across. He was so serious about documenting his work that he devoted several decades to the task. Figure 4-4 shows how Leonardo conveyed his discoveries about proportions of the human head.

your personal productivity.

Figure 4-4: Human head proportions from Leonardo's notebooks. Leonardo was equally deliberate about exclusions from his codices. He did not include struggles in his personal life or the depths of his emotional attachments to other people (as mentioned in Lesson 1, he inserted only an occasional personal fact, to-do list, or similar item). He didn't include lessons in basic math or very basic drawing, leading us to believe that his codices were not meant for children or entry-level beginners.

According to his biographers, Leonardo da Vinci never married or had children.

A codex of your own

As you create a codex or codices of your own, think about what personal wisdom you might want to share with future generations. Try any of the tools or exercises discussed in Lesson 3 or 4 to help you decide! Here are a few questions to ponder as you initiate your codex. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Have you learned all you can from the masters your respect in your field? What are some fascinating things you've learned along your journey? Have you made any noteworthy advances in your field? What do you predict for the future of your field? Do you have enough enthusiasm to create a codex? Who is the audience for your codex?

Publish
Today, you can tap into computer technology to help you put your codex together. Drafts can be made and edited in haste. Computers can help quickly organize or re-organize your ideas, images, words, and pages until your final document is in perfect order! Then you can mass print your pages at a copy shop or online book producer. Even quicker than printing, you can publish electronically! Distribute your codex via a blog, an e-book, or a Web page.

If you have something interesting or good to say, then make a codex and publish it! Leonardo thought that good work was meant to be shared. He said so in his notebooks: "Such as harm is when it hurts me not, is good which avails me not." (699) In short, don't hide your light under the proverbial bushel basket -- find ways to publish and share your best work. Here are a few final words of wisdom and encouragement from Leonardo: "Although nature commences with reason and ends in experience it is necessary for us to do the opposite -- that is, to commence with experience and from this to proceed to investigate the reason." "Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple, or more direct than does nature because in her inventions nothing is lacking, and nothing is superfluous." "Iron rusts from disuse; water loses its purity from stagnation... even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind." "Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance and a lack of harmony and proportion is more readily seen."

Wrapping it up
We hope you've enjoyed these four lessons on jump-starting your creativity by exploring Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks: Lesson 1 introduced you to Leonardo's 500-year-old codices (i.e. notebooks). You found out where the originals and translated versions could be viewed, got an overview of the contents, and learned about some of his odd journaling habits. Lesson 2 took you on a sketch-laden tour of Leonardo's career from apprentice to master painter to world-renowned creative genius. You were encouraged to draw inspiration from his winding path and to determine the next steps in your creative journey. Lesson 3 focused on Leonardo's use of images and sketches as tools for communication and creativity and showed you some methods for sketching your thoughts. Lesson 4 encouraged comparing and combining objects as Leonardo did, provided exercises for stimulating both sides of your brain, and gave you pointers for publishing your own creative codex. We hope you've found this course informative and inspiring. Please complete the final quiz and assignment, then stop by the Message Board to share insights, creative progress, and future creative goals.

Assignment #4
From the lists of right-brain and left-brain exercises is Lesson 4, note which list looks easier to you and represents things similar to what you already do. The brain exercises that look and feel easiest to you may indicate your predominant thinking. So, from the other list, do one exercise per day for a week. You can do the same exercise each day or a different one each day or any combination. The point is to develop a habit of thinking on the lesser-used side of your brain for one week. Report to the Message Board how this assignment went for you!

Quiz #4
Question 1: Was the sketch shown in Figure 4-1 a hair study or a water flow study? A) B) Question 2: True or False: Leonardo mixed and matched items to create new unique things. A) B) True False Hair Water

Question 3: Right-brain exercises include which of the following? (Check all that apply.) A) B) C) Question 4: True or False: It took Leonardo two years to document the work that we are able to view today in his notebooks. A) B) 2003 - 2010 Powered, Inc. True False Take a drive or a walk. Visit a botanical garden or candle shop, and inhale many different fragrances in no particular order. Look at cloud formations, and imagine what figures and forms they could be.