Translucent Flesh Shadows; A Wild Site; An Invented Animal
Soft shadows for young flesh, shading trees and grasses, and composing a lifelike serpent from real beasts
A text leaf from Part Three of the Treatise on Painting. It reminds the painter that young flesh must not have hard, stone-like shadows, since flesh is somewhat transparent — as a hand held between eye and sun glows red — and offers the trick of casting a shadow with one's own finger to gauge it. A short chapter on depicting a wild site relates leaf-shape to depth of shadow, and another explains how to make an invented animal look natural by borrowing limbs from real beasts, giving a serpent the head of a mastiff, cat's eyes, a porcupine's ears, and more. A final chapter heading opens on choosing sites that give relief with grace.
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Soft, translucent shadows for young flesh
In young people the shadows should not be sharply terminated as in stone, because flesh has something of the transparent — as seen in a hand held between the eye and the sun, which glows reddish and luminous. To judge the shadow flesh requires, cast one with your own finger, holding it nearer or farther to make the shadow lighter or darker.
Composing a lifelike invented animal
No animal can be invented whose limbs do not resemble those of some real beast. To make a feigned animal — say a serpent — appear natural, take the head of a mastiff or hound, the eyes of a cat, the ears of a porcupine, the nose of a greyhound, the eyebrows of a lion, the temples of an old cock, and the neck of a water tortoise.
Shading trees and grasses in a wild site
In depicting a wild spot, trees and plants more branched with slender twigs should have less darkness of shadow, while those with larger leaves are the cause of greater shadow.