Michelangelo was an Italian Renaissance painter. He was considered by many to be the key Renaissance figure because of his versatility and knowledge across a wide range of disciplines. Michelangelo’s most famous paintings include The Torment of Saint Anthony, Manchester Madonna, Doni Tondo, The Entombment, Battle of Cascina, Leda and the Swan, The Last Judgment, The Martyrdom of St Peter & The Conversion of Saul (1542-50)

Leonardo Da Vinci was an Italian genius best known as a painter, sculptor and architect, though he performed well in a wide variety of disciplines. Along with Michelangelo, Da Vinci is believed to be one of the most extraordinary artists of all time with such diversity and quality attained over his whole career. Da Vinci most famous paintings include The Adoration of the Magi, Salai as John the Baptist & Annunciation.

Gustav Klimt was an Austrian painter and a key member of the Vienna Art Nouveau art scene aswell as a famous Symbolist artist. Klimt produced paintings of the highest order, which he is best known for, plus wall murals and other art mediums. Klimt’s primary subject was the female body as shown in some of his most famous works. He also is well known for use of gold leaf paint which many artists do not use frequently. Klimt most famous paintings include The Kiss, Judith & Danaë.

Vincent Van Gogh was a Dutch artist from the Impressionist era and well known for his connections to Paul Gauguin and his art collector brother, Theo. He was a pioneer of Expressionism with enormous influence on 20th century art, especially on the Fauves and German Expressionists. Some of his paintings are now among the world’s best known, most popular and expensive works of art. Van Gogh most famous paintings include Sunflowers, Starry Night, Potato Eaters & Van Gogh Self-portraits.

Claude Monet was a founder and key member of French impressionist painting and also one of the most famous landscape artists of all time, alongside the likes of Van Gogh, Turner & Constable. Impressionism is taken from the name of his painting Impression Sunrise. Claude Monet most famous paintings include Water Lilies, Japanese Bridge & Camille Monet Portraits.

Pablo Picasso was a Spanish Cubist painter and one of the most recognized figures in 20th-century art, he is best known for co-founding the Cubist movement and for the wide variety of styles embodied in his work. Among his most famous works are the proto-Cubist Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907) and Guernica (1937), his depiction of the German bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War.

David Hockney is an English painter, draughtsman, printmaker, stage designer and photographer, based in Yorkshire, United Kingdom, although he also maintains a prominence in London. An important contributor to the Pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considered one of the most influential British artists of the twentieth century. David Hockney most famous paintings include Los Angeles Pool, Garrowby Hill & Malibu.

Leonardo at a young age had the access to a lot of books. These books were scholarly texts of his friends and family. This was also the period in which he was introduced to Andrea del Verrochio, a well known painter, sculptor and goldsmith in Florence. As the workshop is one of the most prestigious intellectual centers at the time, Leonardo already had the edge and potential to become an achiever in his own right. But he would eventually exceed everyone’s expectations. Right now he is not just considered an achiever but a universal genius for all ages. As he was learning a lot from Verrochio, he painted a lot of art works. A highlight of his paintings at this time was an angel in Verrochio’s “Baptism of Christ.” The painting clearly showed that da Vinci was a better painter than Verrochio. Even if he only painted the angel, Leonardo did so much better.

After his stint at Verrochio’s workshop, Leonardo started to establish himself as an artist. About five years later he served the Duke of Milan even if he still had to complete “The Adoration of the Magi,” his first commission in Florence. For about seventeen years Leonardo lived and did many things in Milan. The highlights of these activities are his various achievements in the fields of science and art. Aside from painting and sculpting numerous works, he also designed buildings, machinery, and weapons. As if all of his achievements were not enough, he also did piles of studies on geometry, nature, architecture, mechanics, municipal construction, and flying machines.

In the years after the Duke fell from power, Leonardo continued to have more commissions with other people. He also traveled throughout Italy. The succeeding years saw him working for the Pope but he never got tired of producing achievements and studies on the other fields. Long before he died, Leonardo was already one of the greatest individuals to conquer the world.

To be successful in character drawing you need to keep in mind the difference between a prop and a character. In one line it can be said that a character normally communicates something to the viewer through facial expression, gesture or body language, whereas a prop just remains there in the scene. So your main task as a character artist is to let your creation communicate with the watcher. You will need to learn the basics of expression. Fortunately the fundamentals of drawing expressive characters are same no matter if your character is a man, a cat or a tree.

There may be times when facial expression or body language may not be sufficient for your character to express itself. For such situations you can represent your characters speech or thought using speech balloon or thought bubbles as you can find in various comic books. If your character is in motion you can use motion lines to represent that. Trailing straight lines can not only show if the motion is slow or fast it can also show the direction of the motion.

Proper use of shadows is also very important. The shadows can show the time of the day, weather. Detailed shadow will take lot of drawing effort, if you do not want to spend much time for drawing shadow you can use small patches to represent shadow which is much better than using no shadow at all in your creation. Use right kind of props to compose your scene. The props can set the mood of the scene. So be selective about the props. The right types of props can add to the expressiveness of your character.