THE STORY
The work of painter Gianluca Rotelli can be found in private collections throughout Italy and abroad. His paintings are executed directly from life, using the traditional techniques favoured by the great masters of the Italian Renaissance.
Gianluca Rotelli was born in Livorno, and graduated from the Accademia delle Belle Arti di Firenze in 1997.
In 2000, studying under the supervision of Daniel Graves at the Florence Academy of Art, he was awarded a scholarship in recognition of his artistic talents. During his three years of study, he learned in-depth the sight-size method and specialized in oil painting techniques. His charcoal drawings of classical statues on “carta Roma” paper can currently be seen at the exhibition gallery of the Florence Academy of Art.
In 2009, his interest in the Russian drawing method led him to study with Russian Professor Vitalii Borovik, from the Repin State Academy of Fine Arts in St Petersburg.
Anatomy for Artists
The superficial muscles of the human body must first be studied to improve the drawing and its shapes. We need to understand the superficial anatomy muscles, and bones of the human figure.
Bones are the architecture of the human body.
The pelvis, the spine, the rib cage, the bones of the arm and legs are studied first. Secondly, we will examine small groups of muscles and analyze them in each lesson.
The course will give the student the ability to imagine volumes and masses in 3D, facilitating the student in understanding the mechanisms that allow the human body to stand and move.
METHOD OF DRAWING BY LEONARDO DA VINCI
Da Vinci on Proportion and the human body:
For the human body is so designed by nature that the face, from the chin to the top of the forehead and the lowest roots of the hair, is a tenth part of the whole height; the open hand from the wrist to the tip of the middle finger is just the same; the head from the chin to the crown is an eighth, and with the neck and shoulder from the top of the breast to the lowest roots of the hair is a sixth; from the middle of the breast to the summit of the crown is a fourth. If we take the height of the face itself, the distance from the bottom of the chin to the under side of the nostrils is one third of it; the nose from the under side of the nostrils to a line between the eyebrows is the same; from there to the lowest roots of the hair is also a third, comprising the forehead. The length of the foot is one sixth of the height of the body; of the forearm, one fourth; and the breadth of the breast is also one fourth. The other members, too, have their own symmetrical proportions, and it was by employing them that the famous painters and sculptors of antiquity attained to great and endless renown.
Then again, in the human body the central point is naturally the navel. For if a man be placed flat on his back, with his hands and feet extended, and a pair of compasses centred at his navel, the fingers and toes of his two hands and feet will touch the circumference of a circle described therefrom. And just as the human body yields a circular outline, so too a square figure may be found from it. For if we measure the distance from the soles of the feet to the top of the head, and then apply that measure to the outstretched arms, the breadth will be found to be the same as the height, as in the case of plane surfaces which are perfectly square.