Silverpoint

Venus Disarming Cupid

Venus Disarming Cupid, Corot, 1852/57
Art Institute of Chicago

Corot, Venus Disarming Cupid, 1852/57. Charcoal, with stumping, scraping and erasing, heightened with white gouache, on dark cream wove paper with inclusions.

Pins mark where to look before you draw.

The Art Institute of Chicago · Regenstein Endowment Fund

Master studyMassThe late charcoals · 1860 to 1875

Venus Disarming Cupid

Figures as a mass under trees, in charcoal

1852 to 1857, charcoal with stumping, scraping and erasing, heightened with white: two figures under a great dark tree, light coming from the right. Corot treats the figures exactly as he treats a tree: as masses with a lit side, lifted. A figure study for landscape people.

Difficulty
Time
about 2 h
You draw with
willow charcoal, charcoal pencil, kneaded eraser
Erasers as drawing toolsLight on formCharcoal: the late Corot methodHard, soft and lost edges

Why this one

  • Figures handled as lifted lights inside a dark field, the same method as the trees.
  • Scraping and erasing as drawing: the eraser is the pencil here.

From your kit

The whole kit →
  1. 1Willow 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.
  2. 2Pitt Matt 14B, knife-sharpened stands in for the charcoal pencil: trunk, branch zig-zag, the one accent.
  3. 3Kneaded eraser (warm it) and the clean Mono Zero lift the lights out of the mass; the Mono Zero for sky holes and lit edges.
  4. 4Alpha 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 cheap newsprint
  • Willow charcoal, medium
  • Charcoal pencil
  • Kneaded eraser
  • Stump
  • Workable fixative
  • white chalk or white charcoal pencil (optional)

Watch first

All videos →

Laying a charcoal ground and lifting the lights out, the late-Corot method.

YouTube
Atmospheric charcoal landscape drawing tutorialMad Charcoal · Broad charcoal masses and lifted lights; the closest thing on YouTube to a late Corot being made.Drawing from imagination: tips on improving visual memoryProko · The memory exercises behind Corot's souvenir method.

The plan

3 stages · ~105 min
  1. 1

    Tone first

    15 min

    Lay a mid charcoal tone over the whole sheet except the sky gap. The figures are in there somewhere.

    Checklist0 / 1
  2. 2

    Lift the figures

    50 min

    Shape the kneaded eraser to a wedge. Lift the figures' lit sides out of the tone as simple planes: a shoulder, a thigh, a head. Darken their shadow sides with the stick. No outlines.

    Checklist0 / 2
  3. 3

    Tree and finish

    40 min

    Deepen the tree mass, soften its base, lift two or three leaf-tops. A touch of white chalk on the brightest figure plane if you have it. Fix. Box.

    Checklist0 / 2

What it should look like

  • Two figures that emerged from the dark rather than being drawn onto it.

Where it goes wrong

  • Outlined figures. Habit. Lay tone over them and start again with the eraser.

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 nextWounded Eurydice

Before this, ideally

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