The Tower of Henry VIII
Corot, The Tower of Henry VIII, 1856. Cliché-verre on ivory photographic paper.
Pins mark where to look before you draw.
The Art Institute of Chicago · Gift of the Print and Drawing Club
The Tower of Henry VIII
A building in a scribble
1856: a small square tower in the middle distance, a figure on the slope, trees scribbled either side. Corot's architecture at its most casual: the tower is six straight strokes in a field of curls, and that contrast is why it reads.
- Difficulty
- Time
- about 1 h
- You draw with
- scratchboard and stylus, or 4B tone and a precision eraser
Why this one
- Straight marks against curved marks: the simplest way a building separates from landscape.
- Part of the Towers body of work, in its loosest medium.
From your kit
The whole kit →- 1Grafwood 4B laid flat, then the Mono Zero lay an even tone with the side, then draw the lights out with the eraser as if it were the stylus.
- 2Kneaded eraser (warm it) and the clean Mono Zero press-and-lift corrections only; the Mono Zero for a single sharp light.
- 3Alpha sketchbook 9 x 6 draw at the book's size and keep the proportions; date the page.
In general, this study asks for
- A scratchboard (black clay-coated) and stylus, or
- 4B graphite laid as a flat tone plus a Tombow Mono Zero eraser
Watch first
All videos →Curators handle Corot's actual glass plates and prints. French; the images carry it even without captions.
YouTubeThe plan
2 stages · ~50 min- 1
Curls, then straights
40 minScratch the landscape in curls and loops. Then the tower in straight, ghosted strokes. Then the figure by omission.
Checklist0 / 1 - 2
Compare
10 minInvert and compare. Box.
Checklist0 / 1
What it should look like
- A scribbled landscape with one straight-edged thing in it that is obviously a building.
Where it goes wrong
- The tower scribbled like the trees. Momentum. Stop, breathe, ghost each straight line.
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.
Status
How did it go?
Before this, ideally
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