The same "literary picture book" format for adults (or YA) as Much Ado About Shakespeare and Mozart: The Man Behind the Music The Mallinson Rendel Laureate Award from the New Zealand Arts Foundation allowed Donovan to travel to Italy and visit Vinci, the artist's hometown, and see where he lived in Milan and Florence. "The reality of the Renaissance artist is a far cry from the popular image. Leonardo was not a lone wolf in his workshop but the chief executive officer and artistic director of a major creative studio," Donovan says. Donovan says Leonardo da Vinci was like a cross between singer-songwriter David Bowie, comedian Billy Connolly, fashion designer Alexander McQueen, Weta Workshop creative director Sir Richard Taylor, mathematician and physicist Sir Isaac Newton, and jazz violinist Stéphane Grappelli. "Michelangelo is 23 years younger than Leonardo and a total jerk who gets into arguments with Raphael and Leonardo," Donovan says. Some fun facts about da Vinci found in A Portrait of Leonardo : He made himself sunglasses and wore them with panache, he invented the equivalent of today's flick lighter but it was used at the time by gun makers during the Italian Wars 1494 to 1559. Donovan believes what makes da Vinci ceaselessly fascinating is that he was from an insignificant village, not born into money or sent away for special education, yet he rose to become one of the greatest thinkers of all time http://www.donovanbixley.

com/.