Luster on Leaves and Matching Their Colors Exactly
Hairy leaves take no luster; test pigment mixtures on a real leaf
Closing this run of tree chapters, Leonardo finishes the point that a leaf's luster reflects the color mirrored in its glossy surface rather than the leaf's own color, and adds that a hairy-surfaced leaf takes no luster, that a sparse, thin-branched bush casts less shade, and that a grass-leaf is most jagged nearest its seeding and least jagged nearest sprouting. A final precept advises painters who distrust their own eye for leaf-color to lay their pigment mixtures directly onto a real leaf of the tree they wish to imitate; when the mixture cannot be told apart from the leaf, the color is a true match, and the same test serves for any other they wish to copy.
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Luster mirrors nearby color; hairy leaves and sparse bushes (a, b)
A leaf's luster shows the color mirrored in the density of its glossy surface rather than the leaf's own natural color. a. A leaf with a hairy surface receives no luster. b. A bush is less shadowy the sparser it is and the thinner its branching.
Jagged grass-leaves near seeding, smoother near sprouting (d)
d. Of the leaves of grasses, the one nearer to its seeding is the more jagged, while the less jagged is nearer to its sprouting.
Match leaf color by mixing pigment on a real leaf
Painters who do not fully trust their own judgment in reproducing the true colors of leaves should take an actual leaf of the tree they wish to copy and make their pigment mixtures upon it. When the mixture cannot be told apart from the leaf's color, the color is a full imitation; and the same test serves for any other leaf they wish to imitate.