Sketch for a Landscape (verso)
Corot, Sketch for a Landscape (verso), 1827. graphite.
Pins mark where to look before you draw.
The Cleveland Museum of Art · Gift of Robert Hays Gries
Sketch for a Landscape (verso)
The two-minute envelope
On the back of the Marino sheet Corot roughed a landscape in a few strokes and stopped. It is a thumbnail that never became a drawing, and that is exactly why it is useful: it shows the first thirty seconds of his process with nothing after it. Copy it ten times, fast.
- Difficulty
- Time
- about 0.5 h
- You draw with
- 2H graphite
Why this one
- It is the envelope stage alone, from the master's own hand.
- Repetition at this speed trains the shoulder and kills preciousness.
From your kit
The whole kit →- 1Grafwood 2H 2H for layout and line. Long points from the Blackwing on everything up to B.
- 2Kneaded eraser and the Mono Zero press-and-lift corrections only; the Mono Zero for a single sharp light.
- 3Alpha 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
- 2H
Watch first
All videos →Tripod and overhand grips, and drawing from the shoulder. Watch before Foundations session 1.
YouTube
The plan
2 stages · ~25 min- 1
Ten in twenty minutes
20 minSet a timer for two minutes. Copy the verso. Stop when it rings whether or not you are finished. New sheet, repeat. Ten times. The seventh will be better than the first and you will not be able to say why.
Checklist0 / 2 - 2
Pick one
5 minLay all ten out. Choose the one that is most like his. Write on it what the difference was.
Checklist0 / 1
What it should look like
- Ten sheets of a few long strokes each, getting looser and more confident.
Where it goes wrong
- Running past the timer to finish. The point is the start, not the finish. Stop. Unfinished is correct here.
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?
