Silverpoint

Bent Tree by the Water

Bent Tree by the Water, Corot, 1860/70
Art Institute of Chicago

Corot, Bent Tree by the Water, 1860/70. Charcoal, with stumping and erasing, on cream wove paper, laid down on cream board.

Pins mark where to look before you draw.

The Art Institute of Chicago · Harold Joachim Birthday Fund, purchased with funds provided by the Alsdorf Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. William O. Hunt and Frank B. Hubachek

Master studyMassThe late charcoals · 1860 to 1875

Bent Tree by the Water

Three divisions of light, a cow, and a leaning trunk

1860 to 1870, charcoal with stumping and erasing, 45 by 55 centimetres: a wind-bent tree on a near bank, a cow, a halftone plain, a pale distance under the lightest sky. Every lesson of the Mass unit is on this one sheet: the three divisions, the branch zig-zag, lifted sky holes, lost edges, the half-step-darker water. The larger of the two charcoal copies and the better one to frame.

Difficulty
Time
about 2 h
You draw with
willow charcoal, charcoal pencil, kneaded eraser, stump
The three divisions of lightBranch logicSky holesHard, soft and lost edgesCharcoal: the late Corot method

Why this one

  • The textbook three divisions of light in a drawing rather than a painting.
  • The trunk is the branch-logic lesson: it leans, forks, thins, and every limb ends inside foliage.

From your kit

The whole kit →
  1. 1Willow charcoal, or until it arrives Pitt Matt 12B and 14B on their sides the matt grades are the closest graphite gets to willow. Slip sheet under the hand.
  2. 2Pitt Matt 14B, knife-sharpened stands in for the charcoal pencil: trunk, branch zig-zag, the one accent.
  3. 3Kneaded eraser (warm it) and the clean Mono Zero lift the lights out of the mass; the Mono Zero for sky holes and lit edges.
  4. 4Alpha sketchbook 9 x 6 draw at the book's size and keep the proportions; date the page.
In general, this study asks for
  • Drawing pad or cheap newsprint
  • Willow charcoal, medium
  • Charcoal pencil
  • Kneaded eraser
  • Stump
  • Workable fixative

Watch first

All videos →

Broad charcoal masses and lifted lights; the closest thing on YouTube to a late Corot being made.

YouTube
How to draw with charcoal pencils: landscape sketchingThe Virtual Instructor · Charcoal pencil for the branch zig-zag and the darkest accents.Subtractive drawing: symmetry and value in charcoalNathan Orosco · Laying a charcoal ground and lifting the lights out, the late-Corot method.

The plan

4 stages · ~110 min
  1. 1

    Plan the zones

    10 min

    Name each zone's range aloud. Thumbnail in three values. Count the canopy's clumps (four or five).

    Corot's three divisions of light: a landscape divided into foreground with the darkest darks and strongest contrast, a midground of halftones, and a background of pale, close valuesSKY · 1FAR · 2 to 3MID · 4 to 6NEAR · 6 to 9FAR: narrow, pale, softMID: medium rangeNEAR: full range, sharpestEach zone has its own quality of light. The far zone never borrows a dark from the near zone.
    FigureThree ranges that never overlap.
    Checklist0 / 2
  2. 2

    Masses

    30 min

    Side of the stick: ground zone, plain, distance, each in its range. Canopy as one mass, then clumps. Sky as paper.

    Checklist0 / 2
  3. 3

    Trunk, lifts, edges

    50 min

    Charcoal pencil: trunk from the ground up, leaning, forking, thinning, diving into clumps. Kneaded eraser: lit clump tops, three sky holes near the edge, the pale distance. Stump: the lost edge at the base and the far strip.

    Checklist0 / 3
  4. 4

    Cow, audit, fix

    20 min

    The cow as a dark mass. Squint and audit the zones. Fix. Box.

    Checklist0 / 2

What it should look like

  • A charcoal landscape that recedes in three clear steps, with a tree that grew.

Where it goes wrong

  • Distance too dark. Zone discipline slipped. Lift it into 1 to 3.
  • Branches ending in air. Drawn top down. Redraw from the ground up; dive each limb into a clump.

Log this session

Start the clock when you pick up the pencil. Stop it when you put it down. Log it. Every session counts toward the box.

00:00of ~120 min

Status

How did it go?

Up nextRiver with a Distant Tower

Before this, ideally

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