Silverpoint

Willows and White Poplars

Willows and White Poplars, Corot, 1871
Art Institute of Chicago

Corot, Willows and White Poplars, 1871. Transfer lithograph printed in brown on light gray 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

Willows and White Poplars

Two kinds of tree in one crayon drawing

1871: pollarded willows, heavy and low, against tall thin poplars, with water and a figure. Corot draws two tree characters with two kinds of mark: squat scribbled masses for the willows, long vertical strokes for the poplars. The Cleveland impression is printed in a red-brown chalk colour, which shows how close these are to sanguine drawings.

Difficulty
Time
about 2 h
You draw with
4B and 6B graphite on their sides, charcoal pencil
Building a tree from massesBranch logicTexture lives at the edgeGrouping values

Why this one

  • Two tree species as two mark vocabularies.
  • Teaches that mass and line can share a sheet.

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 landscapes, trees, foliage: graphite pencil drawing tipsSmoothie77 · Clump construction and sky holes.How to draw with charcoal pencils: landscape sketchingThe Virtual Instructor · Charcoal pencil for the branch zig-zag and the darkest accents.

The plan

3 stages · ~110 min
  1. 1

    Two vocabularies

    15 min

    On scrap: ten willow marks (side of the 6B, short, scribbled) and ten poplar marks (long verticals with the edge). Feel the difference.

    Checklist0 / 1
  2. 2

    Masses then verticals

    70 min

    Willows first as masses, lit on top. Then poplars as vertical strokes rising past them. Trunks in charcoal pencil, zig-zagging.

    Checklist0 / 2
  3. 3

    Ground, water, figure

    25 min

    Ground in side-strokes, a level water line, the figure as a dark note. Compare and box.

    Checklist0 / 1

What it should look like

  • Two obviously different kinds of tree, made with two kinds of mark.

Where it goes wrong

  • Both species drawn the same way. One habit of mark. Change grip: overhand for willows, tripod for poplars.

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 nextThe Isolated Fort

Before this, ideally

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