Silverpoint

Figure library · 58 diagrams · page 10 of 10

Every diagram in the program

The teaching figures on their own, large, in order. Each one links to the technique it illustrates. Useful pinned beside the board when you only need the picture.
  1. A landscape where the focal point, a tower, has the strongest contrast, the sharpest edges and the only fine detail, while everything else is softer and closer in valuehere only: 1 beside 9,sharpest edge, onlydetaileverywhere else: softer edges,narrower value range, no detailThe eye goes where contrast, sharpness and detail coincide. Allow that to happen inexactly one place.Spend your darkest dark and your whitest white together, once, on purpose.

    Focal hierarchy

    focal-hierarchy

    Focal hierarchy →
  2. Corot's framing device: dark foreground trees on both sides and a dark ground close the picture around a small, pale, distant view in the centrethe picture inside the pictureDark frame, light centre. The eye is funnelled to the distance and stays there.Corot's "Environs of Rome" and his late souvenirs use this frame again and again.

    The framing device

    framing-device

    The framing device →
  3. Depth built from overlapping planes: five layers from foreground to sky, each overlapping the one behind, each lighter and softer, with sizes shrinking5 · sky4 · far hills3 · middle2 · near field1 · foregroundOverlap is the strongest depth cue there is. Make each plane clearly in front of thenext, then grade the values.Five planes is a landscape. Two is a backdrop.

    The depth stack

    depth-stack

    The depth stack →
  4. Format and horizon: a landscape format with a low horizon for a big sky, a landscape format with a high horizon for a big ground, and a portrait format for a tall subject; never the horizon in the centreLOW HORIZON · SKYHIGH HORIZON · GROUNDPORTRAIT · TALL SUBJECTCENTRED · CUT IN HALFDecide what the picture is ABOUT.Sky? Horizon low. Ground and buildings? Horizon high.One tall thing? Turn the paper.The first decision on every page is where the horizon goes. Make it before the first mark.

    Format and horizon

    format-and-horizon

    Format and horizon →