You’ve seen it a thousand times. That smirk. Those eyes that seem to follow you across the Louvre like a suspicious shopkeeper. It’s the most famous painting in the history of the world, but honestly, when people sit down to draw the Mona Lisa, they usually end up with something that looks more like a startled potato than a Renaissance masterpiece.
It’s frustrating.
We think because we know the image so well, we should be able to replicate it. But Leonardo da Vinci wasn't just sketching a lady; he was performing a complex experiment in light and human anatomy that took him years—literally years—to finish. He carried this piece of poplar wood with him until his death in 1519. If it took a genius sixteen years to feel "done" with it, don't feel bad if your fifteen-minute sketch feels a little off.
The secret isn't in the nose or the hands. It's in the atmosphere.
The Sfumato Trap: Why Your Lines Are Killing the Vibe
Most people start a drawing by outline. You grab a pencil, you draw the oval of the face, you draw the line of the lips. Stop right there. If you want to draw the Mona Lisa and have it actually look like her, you have to throw away the idea of hard lines.
Leonardo pioneered a technique called sfumato. It’s a fancy Italian word that basically means "smoky."
If you look at the original painting—and I mean really look at the high-res scans provided by the C2RMF (Center for Research and Restoration of the Museums of France)—you’ll notice there are almost no sharp edges around her features. The corners of her mouth and the corners of her eyes are blurred into the skin. This is why her expression changes depending on where you look. When you draw hard lines for the mouth, you lock her into a permanent, static grin. It looks fake.
To get it right, you need to work with layers. Think of it like looking through a fog. You should be shading the transitions between the cheek and the mouth, rather than drawing a line for the lips themselves. Use a soft graphite pencil, maybe a 4B or 6B, and a blending stump. Or your finger. Honestly, your finger works great for that smudgy, ethereal look Leonardo loved.
Getting the "Follow Me" Eyes Right
There is a lot of myth-making around the "Mona Lisa effect." People think it’s some magical trick, but it’s actually just basic geometry and the lack of a perspective shift.
When you draw the Mona Lisa, the positioning of the pupils is everything. In a 3D world, if someone turns their head, the relationship between their eyes and your position changes. But a painting is flat. If Leonardo draws Lisa Gherardini (the likely sitter) looking directly at the "camera" (the artist), she will appear to look at whoever is standing in front of the canvas, regardless of the angle.
Don't overdo the eyebrows
Here is a weird fact: she doesn't have any.
Well, she did, but they've faded over five centuries of cleaning or were perhaps plucked in the fashion of the time. In 2007, a French engineer named Pascal Cotte used ultra-high-resolution cameras to prove that Leonardo originally painted eyebrows and lashes. They just aren't there anymore. If you draw heavy, dark brows on her today, it won't look like the Mona Lisa we know. It’ll look like a modern person in a costume. Keep that brow bone smooth and subtle.
The Hands and the Pyramid
Compositionally, the painting is a pyramid. Her head is the top, and her arms form the base. This gives the drawing a sense of stability.
The hands are often the part where people give up. Hands are hard. In this piece, the right hand rests gently on the left wrist. There’s a softness to the grip. Leonardo spent a massive amount of time dissecting cadavers to understand how tendons and muscles moved. He knew that the skin on the back of the hand would stretch slightly over the knuckles.
If you're trying to draw the Mona Lisa, pay attention to the "pudginess" of the fingers. These aren't skeletal hands. They are soft, aristocratic hands. Use curved, gentle strokes.
That Background Is a Mess (On Purpose)
Have you ever noticed the landscape behind her? It’s wild.
👉 See also: Hyderabad Biryani and More: Why Most People Are Getting the Flavors All Wrong
On the left side, the horizon line is significantly lower than it is on the right. It’s physically impossible. This wasn't a mistake. Leonardo was a master of optics. By making the two sides of the background uneven, he created a sense of movement. When your eye shifts from the left to the right, the subject seems to grow or shift in height.
When you’re sketching the background, don't try to make it a realistic postcard. It’s an "imaginary" landscape—craggy mountains, a winding bridge (often identified as the Ponte Buriano in Tuscany), and a dusty road. It’s meant to look primeval. It connects the human figure to the earth.
The Anatomy of a Smile
Let's talk about the mouth. This is the "boss fight" of the drawing.
The human eye processes detail differently in different areas. Our central vision is great at detail, but our peripheral vision is better at picking up shadows. Leonardo knew this. He painted the "smile" mostly in the shadows (peripheral) while the actual line of the lips is relatively neutral.
- The Trick: Shade the corners of the mouth more deeply than you think you should.
- The Result: When a viewer looks directly at her lips, the smile seems to vanish. When they look at her eyes, the smile reappears in their peripheral vision.
It’s a literal optical illusion. To replicate this in a drawing, avoid any dark, sharp lines in the "valley" of the lips. Stick to soft, circular shading patterns.
Materials Matter More Than You Think
You don't need a 16th-century workshop in Florence, but you do need the right paper. If you use cheap, toothy printer paper, your shading will look grainy. You want something smooth—Bristol board or a high-quality hot-press watercolor paper works wonders for sfumato techniques.
If you're using charcoal, be prepared for a mess. Charcoal is great for the deep blacks of her dress (the guarnello), but it’s hard to get the subtle skin tones. Graphite is usually the way to go for beginners trying to draw the Mona Lisa.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Too much contrast: The Mona Lisa is famous for its "golden hour" glow. If your whites are too white and your blacks are too black, you lose the atmosphere. Everything should be a mid-tone.
- Making her too young: Lisa Gherardini was around 24 when she sat for the portrait, but the painting has a timeless, slightly older quality because of the layers of varnish.
- Centering her: She’s not perfectly centered. She’s turned slightly to her right (our left). Her body is in a three-quarter view, which was a huge deal back then. Before this, most portraits were profile views (like a coin).
Step-by-Step Reality Check
Forget the "how to draw" books that give you five circles and then a finished masterpiece. That’s not how art works.
First, block in the giant triangle of her body. Just a light sketch. Then, find the eye line. It’s roughly halfway down the head—most people place the eyes too high up on the forehead.
Second, map out the hair. It’s not just "brown." It’s a series of veils and curls. She’s wearing a transparent black veil that’s almost impossible to see unless you’re looking for it. It covers the top of her hair and follows the line of her forehead.
Third, work on the chest and the "balcony" she’s sitting on. There are small columns (the bases of which are visible in the original) that frame her. Most people crop these out, but adding them gives the drawing depth.
Actionable Insights for Your Next Sketch
If you really want to improve your attempt to draw the Mona Lisa, try these specific exercises:
- The Inverse Test: Turn your reference photo upside down. Your brain will stop seeing a "face" and start seeing shapes and shadows. This is the best way to get the proportions of the mouth right without your brain's "face recognition" software messing you up.
- The Squint Method: Squint your eyes until the image becomes a blur. This reveals where the darkest shadows actually are. On the Mona Lisa, the darkest spots are the hair near her neck and the shadows under her eyes.
- Focus on the Philtrum: That little indent between the nose and the upper lip. Leonardo rendered this with incredible softness. If you get the philtrum right, the whole face starts to look more three-dimensional.
Drawing this isn't about being "perfect." It's about observation. The more you try to capture her, the more you realize how much detail Leonardo hid in plain sight. Even a "bad" drawing of the Mona Lisa will teach you more about shading and anatomy than ten easy sketches of something else.
Grab a 2B pencil. Find a high-resolution image online—the Louvre’s official website has excellent resources. Start with the shadows, forget the lines, and see what happens. You might not end up in a museum, but you’ll definitely understand the "smoky" magic of the Renaissance a lot better than when you started.