Peasant Girl Feeding Chickens
Corot, Peasant Girl Feeding Chickens, 1800s(?). graphite.
Pins mark where to look before you draw.
The Cleveland Museum of Art · Mr. and Mrs. Lewis B. Williams Collection
Peasant Girl Feeding Chickens
A standing figure as one envelope
Graphite: a girl bending slightly toward chickens at her feet, drawn in a few contour lines and a little hatch on the shadow side. The envelope method applied to a person: one shape, then divisions, then almost no detail.
- Difficulty
- Time
- about 1.5 h
- You draw with
- HB graphite
Why this one
- A figure handled exactly like a building: envelope, masses, detail last.
- Light, quick, repeatable.
From your kit
The whole kit →- 1Grafwood HB HB 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 and drawing pad
- HB with a long point
Watch first
All videos →Tripod and overhand grips, and drawing from the shoulder. Watch before Foundations session 1.
YouTube
The plan
3 stages · ~75 min- 1
Envelope and head count
15 minOne tapering shape for the whole figure. Measure the head: how many heads tall?
Checklist0 / 2 - 2
Divisions and contour
45 minShoulders, waist, hem as divisions of the envelope. Then the contour, broken, with weight on the shadow side only.
Checklist0 / 1 - 3
Chickens and box
15 minA few marks. Box.
Checklist0 / 1
What it should look like
- A standing figure that reads as a whole shape before it reads as a person.
Where it goes wrong
- Starting with the face. Habit. Start with the hem and the top of the head: the envelope.
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?
