Painting a leaf in two colours, front and reverse
Advice to the painter: foreshortened leaf-faces look bluer, so one leaf may need two colours.
This red-chalk page continues Leonardo's advice to painters on rendering foliage. Looking up at a tree from slightly below, the painter sees leaves both from the front and from the reverse, and the front faces appear the bluer the more they are foreshortened. Since one and the same leaf can show both a front and a reverse part at once, Leonardo concludes it must be painted in two colours.
On this page
A single leaf may need two colours, front and reverse
Leonardo advises the painter that, looking up at trees close by, one sees leaves both from the front and from the reverse, and the front faces grow bluer the more they are foreshortened. Because a single leaf can show both a front and a reverse part at once, it must be painted in two colours.