plate no. 3938

Portrait of a Bearded Man, possibly a Self Portrait

chalk, paperHigh Renaissanceself-portraitportraitmanbeardfacehair

what to study here

It shows how one chalk color, visible directional hatching and bare paper can model a head, with deliberately different handling for face, hair and beard.

The drawing is built almost entirely from one warm sanguine chalk on warm paper, so the whole lesson is how much form can come from hatching alone. Light enters from the upper left and carves the eye socket, cheekbone and nose ridge. Notice the contrast in edges: the face has crisp transitions, a clean cheekbone edge and a sharp nose silhouette, while the hair and beard dissolve into flowing linear marks. Hatching on the face follows the topography of the form. The beard is drawn as purely linear strokes, each following its own curl, with denser overlap on the right side and center producing the deepest shadow. Squint and the value structure reads as three groups: bare paper, warm mid-tone, and dark accents in the eye cavity, around the nose and under the beard. The paper is the lightest light, so highlights on the cheek and forehead are left unmarked rather than added. The downward, tilted gaze gives the head its introspective quality. There is no smudging or tonal wash, so every mark stays visible and can be studied directly.

key decision

The painter used a single sanguine chalk and left the paper bare for the lights, building form only through directional hatching. Face edges are kept crisp while beard and hair are drawn as looser linear strokes.

recreation guide

This artwork, identified as a chalk drawing on paper from 1513, represents Leonardo da Vinci’s mature approach to portraiture, likely a self-portrait. It is distinctive for its reliance on the artist’s documented mastery of construction and proportion, where the figure is built synthetically from a scientific basis rather than through chance observation (Source 2). The work exemplifies the High Renaissance emphasis on the 'alphabet of our art,' requiring the artist to be a sound craftsman who understands the medium's capacities to reduce thoughts to visual form (Source 1). Unlike oil paintings of the period which might employ sfumato to create shadowy, elusive effects (Source 4), this chalk drawing relies on the specific vitality of the dry medium to express the human form’s structure and character without attempting to deceive the eye into seeing nature itself, but rather presenting painted (or drawn) symbols true to the emotional idea (Source 6).

estimated time

20-30 hours over 5-7 sessions

materials

5 items

steps

4 in sequence

materials

item	purpose	modern equivalent
High-quality drawing paper	Support for chalk application	Heavyweight cotton or rag drawing paper, toned if necessary
Red chalk (Sanguine)	Primary medium for modeling form and warmth	Soft red conté or natural red chalk
Black chalk	For deeper shadows and definition	Soft black conté or vine charcoal
White chalk or lead white	For highlights and contrast	White conté or white pastel
Blending stump or tortillon	To soften transitions and create the 'smoke' effect	Paper stump or cloth rag

preparation

surface prep

The surface should be prepared to accept dry media without excessive tooth that might break the chalk, yet with enough texture to hold the pigment. Leonardo’s practice involved a deep understanding of materials; the artist must find out the particular qualities of the paper and chalk to use them to the advantage of the drawing, never attempting more than the medium is capable of doing (Source 6).

underdrawing

The underdrawing should be approached with a 'synthetic method reasoned carefully from beginning to end,' where the element of chance is not allowed a place (Source 2). The artist must possess a keen sense of construction, understanding the bony structure and muscle attachment to render the form with success (Source 8). The outline should not be rigidly tied down; instead, the artist should check for faults in proportion early, ensuring that 'everything must dovetail and fit' like a map where no space is left over or wasted (Source 2).

underpainting

Not applicable for a chalk drawing on paper. However, the principle of building up tone applies: the artist should indicate decided shadows, marked half-tones, and internal drawing to judge proportion and prove the correctness of the outline (Source 2).

color palette

Warm earth tones (Red/Sanguine)

Red chalk

General modeling of the face and beard, consistent with the warm tone often found in Leonardo's chalk studies.

Deep shadows

Black chalk

Defining the beard, eye sockets, and deep folds, creating contrast.

Highlights

White chalk

Emphasizing the nose, brow, and cheekbones to create relief.

composition

The composition likely features the figure set at an oblique angle, a characteristic Leonardo employed in works like Saint Jerome and Virgin and Child with Saint Anne to create dynamic tension (Source 4). The focus is on the head and shoulders, with the eyes and hands (if visible) having no competition from other details, reflecting the unadorned nature of his portraiture (Source 4). The construction should be synthetic, ensuring that the proportions of the head and beard dovetail correctly without arbitrary adjustments (Source 2).

step by step

underdrawing→first pass→refining→finishing

underdrawing

step 01
Begin with a light, synthetic construction of the head and shoulders, focusing on the bony structure and muscle attachments. Ensure the proportions are correct before adding detail.
Tip — Check that all parts 'dovetail and fit'; if a feature seems out of place, look for a fault in another part of the map-like construction (Source 2).
Synthetic Construction

first pass

step 02
Apply red chalk to establish the general masses of light and shadow. Do not focus on fine details yet; instead, capture the 'broad masses' to avoid being tied down to the outline (Source 1).
Tip — Avoid 'smallness' or over-modeling early on. Use the chalk to indicate decided shadows and marked half-tones (Source 2).
Mass Modeling

refining

step 03
Introduce black chalk for deeper shadows and white chalk for highlights. Blend the transitions to create a soft, harmonious effect, reminiscent of looking at the model through a colored glass (Source 3).
Tip — Ensure the colors (tones) are harmonious, even if not 'true' to the absolute local color, to produce an agreeable effect (Source 3).
Sfumato-like Blending

finishing

step 04
Refine the facial features, particularly the eyes and mouth, to capture the elusive quality characteristic of Leonardo's work. Use subtle shading to create the 'shadowy quality' known as sfumato (Source 4).
Tip — The smile or expression should be 'so pleasing that it seems more divine than human,' achieved through subtly shadowed corners (Source 4).
Sfumato

critical techniques

Synthetic Construction

Building the figure from a scientific basis, ensuring all parts fit together logically without chance. This is essential for Leonardo's accurate representation of the human form (Source 2).

Sfumato

Creating soft, shadowy transitions that make the expression elusive and lifelike. This is a hallmark of Leonardo's style, described as 'Leonardo's smoke' (Source 4).

Harmonious Coloring

Using tones that are harmonious rather than strictly 'true' to the model, to create an agreeable visual effect. This involves selecting a dominant tone for the picture (Source 3).

common pitfalls

→Being too tied down to the outline and timid to depart from it, which leads to over-modeling and smallness (Source 1).
→Attempting to deceive the eye into thinking it is looking at real nature, rather than expressing feeling through the medium's vitality (Source 6).
→Ignoring the underlying construction, leading to proportions that do not 'dovetail and fit' (Source 2).

what the sources don't tell us

Where the corpus is silent, we say so rather than guess. These are the gaps a complete recreation guide would normally cover that our source passages don't.

·Specific details of the beard's texture and length are not described in the sources, so the artist must rely on general knowledge of Leonardo's self-portrait.
·The exact pose and angle of the head are not specified in the sources, though an oblique angle is suggested by general practice (Source 4).
·The specific type of paper used by Leonardo in 1513 is not detailed, so a modern equivalent must be chosen based on general period practices.

grounded in

The technical procedure in this guide traces to the following classical art-instruction texts.

The Practice of Oil Painting↗
- ON COPYING — applied to Advice on avoiding smallness and over-modeling, and the importance of broad masses (Source 1).
- FORESHORTENING OF THE LEGS LINES CONSTRUCTION OF THE FIGURE — applied to Synthetic construction method and proportion checking (Source 2).
Laws of Contrast of Colour↗
- 306-308 — applied to Harmonious coloring and the use of dominant tones (Source 3).
The Practice and Science of Drawing↗
- XX MATERIALS — applied to Understanding the vitality of the medium and avoiding mere deception (Source 6).
The Human Figure↗
- DRAWING THE HUMAN FIGURE — applied to Importance of anatomical knowledge and construction (Source 8).

cross-referenced from

Named facts about this artwork and artist were checked against these reference pages.

Wikipedia bio — Leonardo da Vinci↗
- part 16 — applied to Sfumato technique and compositional habits (Source 4).

Read more about the corpus on the sources page and how the guides are built on the methods page.

read from the painting

observed from the image, not the label

6 dominant colors, measured

what the eye sees

Light falls from the upper left, strongly modeling the face and creating deep shadows around the eye socket, cheekbone, and nose ridge. The dominant mass is the long, flowing beard filling the lower half of the composition, which draws the eye downward after settling on the contemplative face. The head tilts slightly, with the gaze directed down and away—this introspective quality is immediate. Hair sweeps loosely behind the skull with gestural, directional strokes; the beard is far more structured, with each curl and strand explicitly traced.

value structure

The paper itself is the brightest light—around the upper left, upper right, and scattered on the cheek and forehead. A strong mid-tone dominates: the sanguine chalk sits at a medium warmth across most areas. The deepest darks cluster in the eye cavity, around the nose, and at the beard's shadowed underside where hatching overlaps most densely. Squint and you see three clear value groups: bright paper, warm mid-tone face and beard, and dark accents that punch form into the face.

observed palette and mixes

#c8946d
Sanguine chalk (iron oxide red with subtle brown undertone), primary application throughout
Face, beard structure, overall body of the drawing
#d6ad8a
Sanguine chalk slightly lighter, or layered more sparingly
Mid-tone areas of the face, lighter beard passages, hair on skull
#edcba9
Paper paper tone barely touched by chalk, or very light sanguine
Upper left, cheek highlights, upper forehead catch-light
#e2b18a
Sanguine with darker brown undertones achieved through cross-hatching density
Shadow planes under the jaw, beard shadows, eye socket

edges and brushwork

Edges vary deliberately: the face reads with sharper transitions between lit and shadowed planes—a clean cheekbone edge, crisp nose silhouette. The beard and hair, by contrast, dissolve into flowing linear marks that blur the boundary between form and background. Hatching is directional and economical; cross-hatching layers follow the topography of the face, while beard strokes are purely linear, each line a hair-strand following its own curve. No smudging or broad tonal wash—everything is built from visible, intentional mark-making.

a working sequence

01
Map the head and establish the tilt
Lightly sketch the basic head shape tilted toward the lower right. Note the proportion of face to beard—the face occupies roughly the upper third from the top of the skull to the bottom of the chin, while the beard extends twice that length below. Place the eye position about one-third down the visible face profile.
02
Block the major facial planes
Using light hatching, begin indicating the large shadow planes: the shadowed side of the nose, the darker recession of the eye socket, the jaw shadow beneath the chin, and the cheekbone's lit plane. Keep lines loose and directional at this stage. Observe how the forehead catches light while the eye is set deep.
03
Establish the beard silhouette and flow
Lightly outline the entire beard perimeter and indicate the direction of major curl groups with flowing strokes. The beard splits into two main cascades—note how each side curves and overlaps. Mark where the darkest shadows fall within the beard, typically where curls overlap or at the underside.
04
Develop the face with layered hatching
Add a second layer of hatching to the face, building value gradually. The cheekbone should become more pronounced; the eye cavity much darker with a small bright catch on the eyeball itself. The nose should have clear shadow on its right side. Work across the forehead and temple with subtle directional marks. The paper should still show through noticeably on the left side of the face and upper forehead.
05
Model the mouth and jaw transition
Carefully indicate the mouth line—it's subtle and downturned. The jaw below the mouth recedes into shadow, transitioning into the upper beard. This junction is critical: the beard begins seamlessly from the face, not floating atop it. Use close hatching where the beard emerges from the face outline.
06
Build the beard with flowing, overlapping strokes
Layer linear hatching to suggest individual curl and strand direction. Each mark should follow the flow of a curl, not cross-hatch randomly. The left side of the beard (viewer's left) is lighter and more open; the right side and center have denser overlapping that creates deep shadow. Preserve the sense of long hair by keeping strokes relatively straight and parallel within each curl group.
07
Refine the hair on the head and integrate edges
Use looser, more gestural linear strokes for the hair swept back behind the skull—these should contrast with the tighter beard work. Sharpen edges where the face plane is clearest (nose, cheekbone); soften or blur where hair and background merge. Ensure the temple-to-hair transition feels natural, not cut-out.
08
Deepen values and check unity
Go back into the darkest areas—under the beard, the eye cavity, shadow side of the nose—and add another layer of cross-hatching to push them darker. Step back frequently. The entire drawing should feel unified by the sanguine tone, with gradual value shifts, never harsh jumps except at the eye. Check that the paper's warm tone glows through the mid-tones, particularly on the cheek.
09
Final refinement and beard texture
Add delicate linear detail to the beard's surface, suggesting individual curls catching light. A few carefully placed negative lines (leaving paper bare) within the beard can add sparkle. Ensure the face feels three-dimensional and alive—the eye should read even though it's small and subtle. Verify the overall direction and contemplative mood is clear.

where studies of this painting go wrong

Over-hatching the beard with random cross-hatching instead of directional linear marks that follow curl and form—the beard will flatten and look woolly instead of flowing hair.
Making the face too dark too quickly, losing the subtle modeling in mid-tones that creates the form—the strength comes from gradual layering, not aggressive value.
Failing to preserve the paper's glow, especially on the cheek and forehead—if you over-cover with chalk, the luminous quality dies.
Hardening the edge where face meets beard, creating a cutout effect rather than an integrated transition—the beard should emerge naturally from facial anatomy.
Neglecting the eye as a focal point—it's small and subtle, but it anchors the whole portrait's psychology; if it's weak or over-emphasized, the drawing loses its introspective quality.

measured difficulty