Silverpoint

15 studies · about 40 hours · 6 weeks at 20 min a day

Forrest and the etchers

Eye level, one point, the broken line, counted tone, then every Forrest plate from Old College Wynd to Dryburgh.
  1. 1
    Eye level: a standing viewer, the horizon line at the height of their eye, with things above it showing their undersides and things below showing their topsEYE LEVEL = HORIZONabove eye level:you see its undersidebelow eye level:you see its topstraddles: no top, no undersideSit down and the horizon drops. Climb a hill and it rises. It is always exactly atyour eye.Draw the eye-level line first on every architectural page. Faintly. Everything hangs from it.

    Foundation · Meryon

    Eye level and one-point perspective

    Your hallway, then a street

  2. 2
    The same old stone wall drawn with ruler-straight continuous lines, which looks like new concrete, and with Prout's broken wiry line, which looks like weathered stoneCONTINUOUS · READS AS NEWBROKEN · READS AS OLDLift the pencil mid-line. Let the line wobble, thicken, vanish and return. Suggesttwo stones per course, not twelve.Prout taught a generation that a broken line draws age. It is the most imitated trick in British architecturaldrawing.

    Foundation · Prout

    The broken line

    Copy a Prout wall, then draw an old wall near you

  3. 3
    The etcher's value scale: five steps from white paper to near-black made only with line, first parallel hatch, then a second layer crossing, then a third, then a fourthVALUE FROM LINE ONLY · HOW AN ETCHING THINKSpaperlight1 layerlight halftone2 layershalftone3 layersshadow4 layersdarkEach layer crosses the last at a new angle. Keep spacing even within a layer. Letthe line weight stay constant.Meryon, Cotman, Forrest: every shadow is counted in layers. This is the discipline the Line unit builds.

    Foundation · Meryon

    Tone from line

    A doorway in counted layers

  4. 4
    The Petit Pont

    Master study · Meryon

    The Petit Pont

    Eye level through the figures, a bridge, towers behind

  5. 5
    Old College Wynd, Edinburgh

    Master study · Forrest

    Old College Wynd, Edinburgh

    A close in one-point perspective

  6. 6
    The Back of Advocates Close, Edinburgh

    Master study · Forrest

    The Back of Advocates Close

    A timber-fronted tenement, straight up

  7. 7
    Bakehouse Close, Edinburgh

    Master study · Forrest

    Bakehouse Close

    A pend arch under a crow-stepped gable

  8. 8
    Chancellor Court (Chessel's Court, Canongate)

    Master study · Forrest

    Chancellor Court (Chessel's Court)

    Tall tenements, a pend, birds overhead

  9. 9
    Rath Haus, Ulm, from Facsimiles of Sketches made in Flanders and Germany

    Master study · Prout

    Rath Haus, Ulm

    A town hall, a square, and figures as rulers

  10. 10
    Canongate Tolbooth, Edinburgh

    Master study · Forrest

    Canongate Tolbooth

    A steeple, a clock, a forestair, a street

  11. 11
    Edinburgh Castle from West Princes Street Gardens, with the Ross Fountain

    Master study · Forrest

    Edinburgh Castle from West Princes Street Gardens

    A castle as a silhouette, with bare branches for a frame

  12. 12
    Abbotsford

    Master study · Forrest

    Abbotsford

    Scott's house across the Tweed

  13. 13
    Rievaulx Abbey, Yorkshire

    Master study · Cotman

    Rievaulx Abbey, Yorkshire

    Pointed arches, a view through, growth on top

  14. 14
    Dryburgh Abbey

    Master study · Forrest

    Dryburgh Abbey

    A ruined arcade in trees

  15. 15
    Rievaulx Abbey, Yorkshire

    Master study · Forrest

    Interior of Melrose Abbey

    A nave in one point: the plate we have not found a scan of