Silverpoint

View of a Hill Town with a Crucifix

View of a Hill Town with a Crucifix, Corot, possibly 1830s
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Corot, View of a Hill Town with a Crucifix, possibly 1830s. Graphite on cream wove paper.

Pins mark where to look before you draw.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art · Bequest of Walter C. Baker, 1971

Master studyLineFrance in pen and pencil · 1829 to 1850

View of a Hill Town with a Crucifix

Walls, a road, a cross: the French Corot in pencil

Possibly 1830s: a town on a rise with a church at its crown, a long wall descending to the right, a wayside crucifix at the top of the road. Pale, exact, and more architectural than most of his sheets. The long wall is a one-point perspective lesson that Corot solved by sighting.

Difficulty
Time
about 2 h
You draw with
2H, H, HB graphite
Convergence without the vanishing pointSighting anglesNegative shapesLine weight

Why this one

  • The long receding wall is a convergence problem solved without a vanishing point.
  • A church, a wall, a cross: three scales of architecture on one sheet.

From your kit

The whole kit →
  1. 1Grafwood 2H, H, HB 2H, H, HB for layout and line. Long points from the Blackwing on everything up to B.
  2. 2Kneaded eraser and the Mono Zero press-and-lift corrections only; the Mono Zero for a single sharp light.
  3. 3Alpha 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 smooth cartridge
  • 2H and H with long points
  • HB for accents
  • Kneaded eraser
  • Sandpaper block

Watch first

All videos →

A street in one point from a blank page. The Old College Wynd set-up.

YouTube
Proportion: sighting anglesDrawing Fundamentals · Sighting angles with a pencil against level and plumb.

The plan

3 stages · ~80 min
  1. 1

    Horizon and wall

    20 min

    Eye level (it is high; the road rises). Sight the top and bottom of the long wall and draw them. Divide both ends into the same number of parts and connect: the convergence.

    Estimating convergence when the vanishing point is off the page: measure the near and far heights, divide both into the same number of parts, and connect the matching marksnear edge, 4 partsfar edge, 4partswindow heads, string courses, sills: all sit on these linesSight the top edge and bottom edge with the pencil (the real angles). Everythingbetween is interpolated.You never need the vanishing point. You need two true edges and a ruler for the rest.
    FigureTwo true edges; the rest is division.
    Checklist0 / 2
  2. 2

    Town by sky shapes

    40 min

    The church and the houses: negative shapes against the sky with the 2H, then firmed with the H. The cross last, as a single stroke.

    Checklist0 / 2
  3. 3

    Weights and audit

    20 min

    HB on the near end of the wall only. Everything far stays 2H. Squint: does the wall recede?

    Checklist0 / 2

What it should look like

  • A pale town over a wall that visibly runs away from you, with a cross as the pivot.

Where it goes wrong

  • Buttresses spaced evenly along the wall. Ruler thinking. They shrink as they recede. Place them on the convergence, by the diagonal.

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 nextLe Martinet near Montpellier

Before this, ideally

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