Discovery of Leonardo's Drawing Sends Me Back to High School Sketchbook

Saint Sebastian drawing by Leonardo DaVinci found in March of 2016

You might have read about the French gentleman, a retired doctor, who brought in a folder of a family heirloom collection of old sketches to a Paris auction house. One of the sketches triggered an investigation that revealed the aged drawings had been made by non other than Leonardo DaVinci himself!


*UPDATE 10 January 2017: France declares the Da Vinci drawing to be national treasure. *

I love this story! Besides being a tale about an amazing discovery, it reminded me of how much I learned from published sketches of Leonardo when I was a young high school age artist.

So I looked among my old sketchbooks (My wife will tell you that I'm something of a pack rat) and I found two sketches from my early days that show Leonardo's influence. These are not Saints but rather angel's drawn from my imagination.

Male Angel Sketch © O. Douglas Jennings. All rights reserved.

Female Angel Sketch © O. Douglas Jennings. All rights reserved.

I don't recall my exact thinking or inspiration behind these drawings but I remember using techniques gleaned from peering over Leonardo's art. There were a lot more sketches of faces, family, friends, landscapes and imaginary creatures (including my first Tigrikorn drawing) in that sketchbook.

It just goes to show how far an artist's legacy can reach through history over the centuries.

UPDATE 10 January 2017: France declares the Da Vinci drawing to be national treasure.