Silverpoint

Pond at Ville-d'Avray

Pond at Ville-d'Avray, Corot, late 1860s
Cleveland Museum of Art

Corot, Pond at Ville-d'Avray, late 1860s. oil on fabric.

Pins mark where to look before you draw.

The Cleveland Museum of Art · Elisabeth Severance Prentiss Collection

Master studyMassSouvenirs: the late paintings · 1850 to 1875

Pond at Ville-d'Avray

The sky laid flat, a half-step darker

Late 1860s: the pond below Corot's family house at Ville-d'Avray, trees on the far bank, their reflections laid in the water, a figure at the edge. The painting that taught generations how to paint still water. As a graphite study it is the water-mirror lesson with the master's own values to check against.

In pencilGraphite value study with the 3-value view: sky, reflected sky a half-step darker, trees, reflected trees a half-step lighter, three horizontal breaks.

Difficulty
Time
about 1.5 h
You draw with
2B, 4B, 6B graphite, willow charcoal optional
Water as a mirrorThe order of values in daylightHard, soft and lost edgesThe three divisions of light

Why this one

  • Still water as a mirror, with Corot's exact value offsets visible.
  • A design of two horizontal bands (land, water) that beginners rarely get to work.

From your kit

The whole kit →
  1. 1Grafwood 2B, 4B, 6B 2B, 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
  • Copier paper and drawing pad
  • 2B, 4B, 6B on their sides
  • Kneaded eraser
  • Viewfinder cards
  • Phone set to greyscale

Watch first

All videos →

Vertical strokes, darker lights, horizontal breaks: the pond at Ville-d'Avray in method.

YouTube
Ville d'Avray, Entrance to the Wood: Corot at the Scottish National GalleryNL Cultural · A single late Corot looked at slowly; watch for the three divisions of light and the lost edges.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 · ~80 min
  1. 1

    Four values

    10 min

    Thumbnail: sky, water, trees, reflected trees. Four flat shapes.

    Checklist0 / 1
  2. 2

    Bank and mirror

    50 min

    Half sheet. Far bank and trees as masses. Water line level. Reflections straight down in vertical strokes, lights darker and darks lighter than above, all edges softer. Lift three horizontals with the eraser's edge.

    Still water as a mirror: reflections drawn with vertical strokes, a half-step darker than what they reflect, and broken by a few horizontal ripple lineswater linesky: value 1sky's reflection: value 2 (darker)Everything reflects straight down from its base. Vertical strokes. Lights darker,darks lighter. Then break it with three horizontals.Corot's ponds are the sky laid flat, a half-step darker, with the grain of the paper left for sparkle.
    FigureStraight down, a half-step off, three horizontals.
    Checklist0 / 3
  3. 3

    Figure and audit

    20 min

    The figure as a dark note. Squint: is the reflected sky darker than the sky? Box.

    Checklist0 / 2

What it should look like

  • Water that is obviously water, under trees that are obviously trees, in four tones.

Where it goes wrong

  • Reflected sky as light as the sky. Treated the water as paper. A single feather layer of 2B over the water.

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 ~90 min

Status

How did it go?

Up nextLandscape (The Large Tree)

Before this, ideally

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