Landscape (1865/70)
Corot, Landscape, 1865/70. Oil on canvas.
Pins mark where to look before you draw.
The Art Institute of Chicago · Henry Field Memorial Collection
Landscape (1865/70)
A bare tree, a pond, a boat: the simplest souvenir
1865 to 1870: a tall dead tree on the right, a soft mass of foliage on the left, a pond with a boat, the far shore pale. One of the simplest late canvases, and a good first painting-to-value exercise: four shapes and a vertical.
In pencilGraphite in four values, the dead tree as the only line.
- Difficulty
- Time
- about 1 h
- You draw with
- 2B, 4B graphite
Why this one
- Four shapes and one line: an ideal first value study.
- The dead tree is a branch-logic exercise in isolation.
From your kit
The whole kit →- 1Grafwood 2B, 4B 2B, 4B for the darks, on their sides for mass. Long points from the Blackwing on everything up to B.
- 2Pitt Matt 8B to 12B for the big tone passages: matt, so the dark mass reads as tone, not shine.
- 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.
- 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 →Two- and three-value notan, the exact exercise the Mass studies start with.
YouTube
The plan
3 stages · ~60 min- 1
Four values
10 minThumbnail: sky, water, foliage mass, far shore.
Checklist0 / 1 - 2
Shapes then the line
40 minLay the four shapes with the side of the pencil. Then the dead tree with the point, from the ground up.
Checklist0 / 2 - 3
Audit
10 minSquint. Box.
Checklist0 / 1
What it should look like
- Four quiet tones and one branching line.
Where it goes wrong
- The tree drawn first. It is the obvious thing. Shapes first; the tree sits on them.
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?
