If you're asking about his oil paints, he ground his own pigments and mixed them with an oil base. One scientist I spoke with suggested that Da Vinci's oils were usually things like poppy seed oil, and other water-soluble (or mixable) oils.
Today, water-soluble oil paints (such as Grumbacher's Max line, and Winsor & Newton's water-soluble oils) are probably close to what Da Vinci used.
If you're asking about what he used to thin his oil paints as he worked: I think The Artists Handbook includes a recipe that's close to what he used as a painting medium, and -- as I recall -- copal oil is a major ingredient. Though there are some questions about how archival copal oil (or copal oil varnish) is, so modern artists often mix it with linseed oil and sometimes a drop of Japan drier.
?
2016-10-13 03:42:47 UTC
Leonardo Da Vinci Medium
anonymous
2016-04-02 08:33:48 UTC
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Many of Leonardo's works are in oils on canvas, but some are murals (The Last Supper for example). A problem is he tended to work on dry walls rather than wet plaster - so they aren't true frescos. The method he used - sealing the stonework with pitch, gesso and mastic and then painting in tempera - started to deteriorate very quickly. Michaelangelo's medium would be marble, sculpture is the method.
angela l
2010-04-05 13:29:31 UTC
It depends on what he was painting; For the Last Supper he painted onto a dry wall rather than on wet plaster, so it is not a true fresco painting. He first sealed the stone wall with a layer of pitch, gesso and mastic, then painted onto the sealing layer with tempera
As regards his other paintings, he painted usually in oils on canvas or board; or occasionally tempera on canvas.
anonymous
2010-04-05 14:41:14 UTC
A variety of mediums.
Just a single medium? That's it?
Soares
2010-04-05 17:13:19 UTC
Everyone else pretty much covered it, but he's also known for a lot of his drawings, done in charcoal (or in his journals, ink and chalk.)