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From Line to Light: Leonardo’s Secret for Round, Lifelike Forms
Published 2 days ago • 4 min read
Every beginner knows the frustration: you make a preparation drawing, draw your outlines carefully, transfer them to canvas, and then start applying paint but…
“Catastrophe! The lines slowly start to disappear! It’s like loosing your safety net!”
What’s next?
Two types of reactions : 1) accept that the lines are gone but take the risk of loosing the likeness or 2) artificially try to keep a sharp outline within the paint, even when it ruins the realism and make the figure look more like a cardboard cutout than a breathing form.
From Line to Light: Leonardo’s Secret for Round, Lifelike Forms
Painting is the Natural Evolution of Drawing
The secret is to understand that painting is the natural evolution of drawing. Leonardo da Vinci himself wrote:
“The student who is desirous of making great proficiency in the art of imitating the works of Nature, should not only learn the shape of figures or other objects, and be able to delineate them with truth and precision, but he must also accompany them with their proper lights and shadows, according to the situation in which those objects appear.”
That is the painter’s challenge: lines must give way to form. Drawing teaches you clarity and structure, but painting breathes life into it. The outline exists in the preparation — but in the final work, it naturally dissolves into soft gradations of light and shadow.
And the secret that Leonardo teaches us through his works and writings is that drawing and painting are essentially the same thing.
Lady with an Ermine, Leonardo da Vinci - 1489-91, oil on panel
Look at Lady with an Ermine. It’s feels very linear, almost like a painted drawing, you could easily follow the subtle curves of this contour, the limits of the figure is pretty clear, it’s gracious, it’s elegant. The beautiful sinuous line is makes this painting so beautiful! But when you take a closer look : Where’s the line actually? There isn’t one. Her cheek curves into shadow seamlessly, the transition is so subtle you can’t tell where light stops and shadow begins. Leonardo shows us that you can keep roundness, volume, and life come not from lines, but from the mastery of transitions. That’s why his portraits feel alive — you sense flesh, not flatness.
Drawing and the Clarity of the Line
Leonardo always insisted that drawing was the foundation of everything. Without it, there is no painting.
“Two things demand the principal attention of a good painter,” he wrote. “One is the exact outline and shape of the figure; the other, the true expression of what passes in the mind of that figure.”
This means your outlines, your sketches, your preparation drawings — they matter. They give you precision and structure. But Leonardo never saw drawing as the end goal. Instead, he treated it as the scaffolding on which the painting is built. It’s there to train your eye to see the truth of the form, but eventually, you must allow the paint to take over.
Technically, what does it mean for you, as a painter ? It means that you need to find ways to make the covering of the outline progressive and controlled. Instead of brutally hiding every line with thick paint, you want to go slowly and take your time to cover the lines - using several layers instead of one.
Line Should Be Present but Not Visible
Here is the paradox: line is essential, but in a finished painting, you’re not supposed to see it.
Leonardo even warned against the tyranny of the outline:
“Take care that the shadows and lights be united, or lost in each other; without any hard strokes or lines.”
That’s the magic of his sfumato. Look closely at the Lady’s face. Where is the edge of her cheek? Or her eyelid? Or even the contour of her hand? The line has dissolved into air, into atmosphere. The form is still precise, but it’s wrapped in light. This is the painter’s challenge: keep the clarity of drawing alive, without letting the line harden into something dead.
Why Drawing and Painting Go Together
So what happens when you’ve covered your outlines with paint?
If you’ve only learned to depend on the safety net of line, you panic. But if you’ve trained in both drawing and painting, the transition feels natural. You don’t lose the likeness, because you’ve learned to see in both ways — with contour and with light.
Painting is simply drawing continued by other means. Think of your brush as a pencil that has learned to breathe. That’s why a great painter is always, simultaneously, a great draftsman. Leonardo knew that if drawing trains you how to see, painting trains you how to make others see. The two are inseparable.
To really understand Leonardo’s wisdom, you need to practice his shading yourself. Here’s a simple exercise:
Download the resource plate (a pencil outline of a passage from Lady with an Ermine — the cheek, the neck, or even the ermine’s head).
Start with the outline only. Keep it light, no heavy lines.
Shade slowly, in layers. Work from light to dark, softening every transition. Imagine smoke fading into the air — that’s how your shadows should dissolve.
Avoid hard edges. Blend carefully, let the tones melt into each other. Squint at your drawing often to check if the form is rounding.
Finish with accents. Once the roundness is there, add small dark notes in the deepest shadows for contrast.
This practice will train your eye and hand to move beyond lines, into true form. You’ll see firsthand what Leonardo meant when he said lights and shadows must “lose themselves into each other.”
Free Art Newsletter filled with the best oil painting and drawing tips, directly from the Atelier tradition. Timeless techniques to enjoy weekly to grow and inspire.
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