Silverpoint

The Meeting in the Woods

The Meeting in the Woods, Corot, 1871
Art Institute of Chicago

Corot, The Meeting in the Woods, 1871. Transfer lithograph on cream China paper laid down on white wove paper.

Pins mark where to look before you draw.

The Art Institute of Chicago · William McCallin McKee Memorial Endowment

Master studyMassThe lithographs · 1871 to 1874

The Meeting in the Woods

Figures under trees: a dark interior with one light gap

1871: two figures meeting under a canopy, a light opening beyond. A woodland interior, which is harder than a woodland edge because the light comes from behind. The figures are silhouettes; the gap is the subject.

Difficulty
Time
about 2 h
You draw with
4B and 6B graphite on their sides, charcoal pencil
Focal hierarchyThe framing deviceFigures for scaleHard, soft and lost edges

Why this one

  • Backlight: the gap is the lightest value and everything near is dark.
  • Figures as silhouettes against light, like the cliché-verre rider.

From your kit

The whole kit →
  1. 1Grafwood 4B, 6B 4B, 6B for the darks, on their sides for mass. Long points from the Blackwing on everything up to B.
  2. 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.
  3. 3Pitt Matt 14B, knife-sharpened stands in for the charcoal pencil: trunk, branch zig-zag, the one accent.
  4. 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.
  5. 5Alpha 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, medium tooth
  • 2B, 4B, 6B with long points
  • Kneaded eraser
  • Precision eraser
  • Slip sheet

Watch first

All videos →

The drawing stage only: litho crayon on stone behaves like charcoal on toothed paper. That is why the Corot lithographs look like his fusains.

YouTube
How to draw a moody charcoal landscapeMad Charcoal · Value grouping and a dark foreground frame, in charcoal.

The plan

3 stages · ~100 min
  1. 1

    Gap first

    10 min

    Draw the shape of the light gap. Everything else is darker than it.

    Checklist0 / 1
  2. 2

    Canopy and ground

    60 min

    Side of the stick, masses around the gap, darkest nearest the viewer. Keep grain.

    Checklist0 / 1
  3. 3

    Figures and compare

    30 min

    Figures as two dark silhouettes against the gap. Lose their lower edges into the ground shadow. Compare, box.

    Checklist0 / 2

What it should look like

  • A dark wood with a bright gap and two shapes meeting in front of it.

Where it goes wrong

  • Figures outlined. They are people. They are two dark shapes. No line around 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.

00:00of ~120 min

Status

How did it go?

Up nextWillows and White Poplars

Before this, ideally

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