If thou shouldst paint mountains in a good style and to look natural, take some large stones full of cracks and copy them.

The most perfect steersman that you can have, and the best helm, lies in the triumphal gateway of copying from nature. And this outdoes all other models and always rely on this with a stout heart, especially as you begin to gain some judgment in draftsmanship.

This is an occupation known as painting, which calls for imagination, and skill of hand, in order to discover things not seen, hiding themselves under the shadow of natural objects, and to fix them with the hand, presenting to plain sight what does not actually exist.

When painting the faces of young persons ... use the yolk of the egg of a city hen, because they have lighter yolks than those of country hens.

Mystery is the art of eliciting unseen things hidden in the shadow of natural ones... and serving to demonstrate as real the things that are not.

Take note that, before going any farther, I will give you the exact proportion of a man. Those of a woman I will disregard, for she does not have any set proportion.

In the first place you must study drawing for at least one year then you must remain with a master at the workshop for the space of six years at least , that you may learn all the parts and members of the art...drawing without intermission on holidays and work-days

If you imitate the forms of a single artist through constant practice, your intelligence would have to be crude indeed for you not to get some nourishment from them.