Willows and Farmhouse at Sainte-Catherine-lès-Arras
Corot, Willows and Farmhouse at Sainte-Catherine-lès-Arras, 1871. oil on fabric.
Pins mark where to look before you draw.
The Cleveland Museum of Art · Gift of Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Wade
Willows and Farmhouse at Sainte-Catherine-lès-Arras
A farmhouse hiding in trees
1871: pollarded willows in the foreground, a farmhouse roof showing through them, a figure on the path. The building is subordinate to the trees, which is the usual Corot arrangement and the reverse of the Forrest one. Learn to let a building be a shape glimpsed between masses.
In pencilGraphite value study: trees as masses first, the farmhouse found in the gaps, roof as the one light plane.
- Difficulty
- Time
- about 1.5 h
- You draw with
- 2B, 4B, 6B graphite
Why this one
- A building as a background shape seen through foliage: negative-shape placement.
- The willow masses are the lithograph lesson in paint.
From your kit
The whole kit →- 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.
- 2Pitt Matt 8B to 12B for the big tone passages: matt, so the dark mass reads as tone, not shine.
- 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.
- 4Alpha 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 →Clump construction and sky holes.
YouTube
The plan
3 stages · ~90 min- 1
Trees first
40 minMasses with the side of the pencil, lit on top. Leave gaps where the roof will show.
Checklist0 / 1 - 2
The farmhouse in the gaps
30 minRoof plane light, wall halftone, only inside the gaps you left. No outline beyond the gaps.
Checklist0 / 1 - 3
Path, figure, audit
20 minPath light, figure dark. Squint. Box.
Checklist0 / 1
What it should look like
- Trees with a farmhouse behind them, not a farmhouse with trees in front.
Where it goes wrong
- Farmhouse drawn complete, then trees over it. Order. Trees first. The house is what shows.
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?
Before this, ideally
