The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci — Complete · Chapter 354Of the Selection of Beautiful Faces
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It seems to me to be no small charm in a painter when he gives his figures a pleasing air, and this grace, if he have it not by nature, he may acquire by incidental study in this way: Look about you and take the best parts of many beautiful faces, of which the beauty is confirmed rather by public fame than by your own judgment; for you might be mistaken and choose faces which have some resemblance to your own. For it would seem that such resemblances often please us; and if you should be ugly, you would select faces that were not beautiful and you would then make ugly faces, as many painters do. For often a master's work resembles himself. So select beauties as I tell you, and fix them in your mind.
588.
Of the limbs, which ought to be carefully selected, and of all the other parts with regard to painting.
589.
When selecting figures you should choose slender ones rather than lean and wooden ones.
590.