Silverpoint

Monte Pincio, Rome

Monte Pincio, Rome, Corot, 1840–50
Art Institute of Chicago

Corot, Monte Pincio, Rome, 1840–50. Oil on canvas.

Pins mark where to look before you draw.

The Art Institute of Chicago · Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn Memorial Collection

Master studyLine + MassOil studies, read as value · 1826 to 1840s

Monte Pincio, Rome

Architecture as a light shape against sky

The twin towers of Trinità dei Monti and the walls of the Pincio, sunlit, with figures on the road and the city's domes beyond. Dated by the Art Institute to the 1840s, so a souvenir of Rome made in Paris. It is a value study with one architectural problem inside it: a church that must be constructed true and then kept as a light shape.

In pencilStudied in graphite: a value lay-in with the side of the pencil, then the church drawn in H over it with sighted angles. The towers stay almost paper.

Difficulty
Time
about 2 h
You draw with
2B, 4B graphite, H for the architecture
The order of values in daylightTwo-point perspectiveFigures for scaleGrouping values

Why this one

  • It combines the two halves on one small panel: mass for the land, line for the church.
  • The lit building against a lighter sky is a hard value call that beginners get backwards.

From your kit

The whole kit →
  1. 1Grafwood H, 2B, 4B H for layout and line; 2B, 4B for the darks. Long points from the Blackwing on everything up to B.
  2. 2Kneaded eraser and the Mono Zero press-and-lift corrections only; the Mono Zero for a single sharp light.
  3. 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 and drawing pad
  • 2B, 4B, 6B on their sides
  • Kneaded eraser
  • Viewfinder cards
  • Phone set to greyscale
  • H with a long point

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
Learn to draw buildings using two-point perspective, narrated for beginnersCircle Line Art School · The corner view, built slowly.Camille Corot: a collection of 489 paintings (HD)LearnFromMasters · Not a lesson: a slow slideshow to leave running while you draw, to absorb the value range of a lifetime.

The plan

3 stages · ~90 min
  1. 1

    Value lay-in

    30 min

    Three-value thumbnail, then a half-sheet lay-in with the side of the pencil: sky, land, the dark tree at left. Leave the church and wall as paper.

    Checklist0 / 2
  2. 2

    The church, constructed

    40 min

    Eye level (the figures' heads). The towers plumb. The wall's top edge sighted. Draw the architecture in H, lightly, and give it only a shadow side and a cast shadow on the wall. No outline on the lit faces.

    The order of values in daylight: the sky lightest, then the flat ground that faces it, then upright planes, then undersides and cast shadows1 · sky2 · roof (tilted to sky)3 · flat ground4 · lit wall6 · shadow wall7 · cast shadow9 · open doorwayA plane's value depends on how squarely it faces the light. The sky is the light.Flat planes face it: light. Uprights glance it: mid. Undersides turn away: dark.If your ground is darker than your walls on a sunny day, the drawing will feel wrong and you will not know why.
    FigureLit wall near the top of the scale; its shadow side carries the form.
    Checklist0 / 2
  3. 3

    Figures and audit

    20 min

    Four figures: head on the eye level, a stroke to the feet. Then squint: is the church still a light shape? If you darkened it, lift it.

    Checklist0 / 2

What it should look like

  • A sunlit church that is almost paper, standing in a value landscape, with four dark figures giving it a size.

Where it goes wrong

  • Outlining the lit towers. Habit. Erase the outline; let the shadow side make the edge.

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 nextLa Cervara, the Roman Campagna

Before this, ideally

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