Silverpoint

View of Genoa

View of Genoa, Corot, 1834
Art Institute of Chicago

Corot, View of Genoa, 1834. Oil on paper, mounted on canvas.

Pins mark where to look before you draw.

The Art Institute of Chicago · Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection

Master studyMassOil studies, read as value · 1826 to 1840s

View of Genoa

A whole city as four values

Genoa from the hill, 1834, on the second Italian trip: a dark foreground of roofs and gardens, the pale city stepping down to the harbour, the sea and sky above. A hundred buildings and not one of them drawn. Corot handles the city as a few planes of value, which is the only way a city can be drawn in an afternoon.

In pencilGraphite value study: four flat values (sky, sea, city, foreground) laid with the side of the pencil, then at most twenty marks for the buildings that matter.

Difficulty
Time
about 2 h
You draw with
2B, 4B, 6B graphite
Aerial perspectiveThe depth stackGrouping valuesTexture lives at the edge

Why this one

  • It is the aerial perspective lesson at city scale.
  • It teaches the discipline of implying buildings with value and a few marks.

From your kit

The whole kit →
  1. 1Grafwood 2B, 4B, 6B 2B, 4B, 6B for the darks, on their sides for mass. Long points from the Blackwing on everything up to B.
  2. 2Pitt Matt 8B to 12B for the big tone passages: matt, so the dark mass reads as tone, not shine.
  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
  • Copier paper and drawing pad
  • 2B, 4B, 6B on their sides
  • Kneaded eraser
  • Viewfinder cards
  • Phone set to greyscale

Watch first

All videos →

Five hills, five values, in graphite.

YouTube
How to draw atmospheric perspective step by stepDraw Sessions · The same idea in a full landscape.Camille Corot: a collection of 489 paintings (HD)LearnFromMasters · Not a lesson: a slow slideshow to leave running while you draw, to absorb the value range of a lifetime.

The plan

3 stages · ~90 min
  1. 1

    Four values

    15 min

    Thumbnail in four flat values. Decide which value the city is (lighter than you think).

    Checklist0 / 1
  2. 2

    The planes

    45 min

    Half sheet. Sky and sea first, then the city as one pale plane with its slope. Then the foreground dark. Keep edges soft toward the sea, firm in the foreground.

    Aerial perspective: five overlapping hills, each lighter, bluer-feeling, lower in contrast and softer-edged than the one in front of itnearestfarthestvalue range shrinks with distanceAir is a veil. Each mile adds a layer. Distance is drawn with a lighter pencil, not with smaller detail.
    FigureEach step back, a step lighter.
    Checklist0 / 2
  3. 3

    Twenty marks

    30 min

    Now at most twenty marks for buildings: a dark window, a tower's shadow side, a roof edge. Count them. Stop at twenty.

    Checklist0 / 2

What it should look like

  • A city you can feel the size of, made of four tones and twenty marks.

Where it goes wrong

  • Drawing the buildings. There are so many. Count your marks. Erase back to twenty.

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 nextA tree from masses

Before this, ideally

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