Silverpoint

Souvenir of Italy (etching)

Souvenir of Italy, Corot, 1866
Art Institute of Chicago

Corot, Souvenir of Italy, 1866. Etching on paper.

Pins mark where to look before you draw.

The Art Institute of Chicago · The Charles Deering Collection

Master studyLine + MassThe etchings · 1845 to 1869

Souvenir of Italy (etching)

A tall plate: trees, a road, a town in the gap

1866, a vertical plate: tall trees with slender trunks fill the upper two-thirds, a road runs in below, and a distant town shows between the trunks. Vertical format forces a different design from the horizontal etchings: the sky holes and the trunks do the composing.

Difficulty
Time
about 3 h
You draw with
H, HB and 2B graphite
Format and horizonSky holesNegative shapesFocal hierarchyTone from line

Why this one

  • A portrait-format landscape, which beginners rarely attempt and should.
  • Trunks as verticals against hatched foliage: negative shapes at full stretch.

From your kit

The whole kit →
  1. 1Grafwood H, HB, 2B H, HB for layout and line; 2B 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
  • Drawing pad or smooth cartridge
  • 2H and H with long points
  • HB for accents
  • Kneaded eraser
  • Sandpaper block

Watch first

All videos →

The negative-shape habit, which places Prout's pinnacles and Corot's branches.

YouTube
Printmaking process: intaglioMinneapolis Institute of Art · Four minutes that make every etching in this catalogue legible: ground, needle, acid, ink, wipe, press.How to draw landscapes, trees, foliage: graphite pencil drawing tipsSmoothie77 · Clump construction and sky holes.

The plan

3 stages · ~120 min
  1. 1

    Format and the holes

    20 min

    Turn the pad to portrait. Envelope the foliage mass and draw the sky holes as shapes first. Place the trunks by the gaps between them.

    Checklist0 / 2
  2. 2

    Foliage layers

    70 min

    Hatch the foliage in two to three layers, keeping the holes clean. Trunks in 2B, darkest where they cross the distance.

    Checklist0 / 2
  3. 3

    Town, road, audit

    30 min

    Town marks between the trunks. Road as two converging lines. Squint for the focal point.

    Checklist0 / 2

What it should look like

  • A tall drawing where the sky holes and trunks make the design and the town is the reward in the gap.

Where it goes wrong

  • Holes scattered evenly through the canopy. Pattern. Holes where clumps fail to meet; shaped like gaps between fingers.

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 ~180 min

Status

How did it go?

Up nextItalian Landscape (etching)

Before this, ideally

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