Interrupted Reading
Corot, Interrupted Reading, c. 1870. Oil on canvas, mounted on board.
Pins mark where to look before you draw.
The Art Institute of Chicago · Potter Palmer Collection
Interrupted Reading
A figure as three values
About 1870: a young woman with a book, looking up, white blouse, dark bodice, ochre skirt. One of the studio figures Corot never exhibited. As a value study it is three flat shapes (light blouse and face, dark bodice and hair, mid skirt) and a pose. Squint it and it is a notan.
In pencilThree-value study: light, dark, mid, as flat shapes, no features.
- Difficulty
- Time
- about 1.5 h
- You draw with
- 2B, 4B, 6B graphite or charcoal
Why this one
- A figure reduced to three values, which is how Corot built it.
- Teaches that the pose lives in the big shapes, not the face.
From your kit
The whole kit →- 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.
- 2Willow 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.
- 3Pitt Matt 14B, knife-sharpened stands in for the charcoal pencil: trunk, branch zig-zag, the one accent.
- 4Kneaded eraser (warm it) and the clean Mono Zero lift the lights out of the mass; the Mono Zero for sky holes and lit edges.
- 5Alpha 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 →Shadow shapes as flat masses first. Shown on a portrait, but the principle is identical for a tree or a tower.
YouTube
The plan
3 stages · ~75 min- 1
Three shapes
10 minThumbnail with the 3-value view: light, dark, mid.
Checklist0 / 1 - 2
Flat shapes, no face
50 minHalf sheet: the three shapes as flat tones with the side of the pencil. No features. The pose should already read.
Checklist0 / 2 - 3
Two marks and box
15 minAt most two marks for the face: an eye line and the mouth. Stop. Box.
Checklist0 / 2
What it should look like
- A figure you recognise from three tones and two marks.
Where it goes wrong
- Drawing the face. Always. Two marks. The shapes did the work.
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?
