Silverpoint

Woman Meditating

Woman Meditating, Corot, after 1868
Cleveland Museum of Art

Corot, Woman Meditating, after 1868. oil on fabric.

Pins mark where to look before you draw.

The Cleveland Museum of Art · Gift of the Hanna Fund

Master studyMassFigures and portraits · throughout

Woman Meditating

A dark figure in a dark wood, one lit face

After 1868: a seated woman with a red shawl, chin on hand, in a dark wood. Almost everything is value 6 to 9; the face, the shoulder and the shawl's fold are the lights. A subtractive charcoal study: tone the sheet, lift the few lights.

In pencilCharcoal: tone everything, lift face, shoulder and the shawl's lit fold.

Difficulty
Time
about 1.5 h
You draw with
willow charcoal, kneaded eraser
Erasers as drawing toolsCharcoal: the late Corot methodFocal hierarchy

Why this one

  • Small lights in a big dark, on a figure.
  • The simplest possible portrait method: three lifted shapes.

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

Watch first

All videos →

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

YouTube
Train your eyes to see valuesProko · Squinting, value scales and why beginners under-read darks.

The plan

3 stages · ~65 min
  1. 1

    Tone

    10 min

    Dark tone over the whole sheet.

    Checklist0 / 1
  2. 2

    Lift three lights

    45 min

    Face, shoulder, fold. Shape the eraser; press and roll. Deepen around them.

    Checklist0 / 2
  3. 3

    Fix and box

    10 min

    Fix. Box.

    Checklist0 / 1

What it should look like

  • A figure that is mostly dark and entirely present.

Where it goes wrong

  • Lifting the whole figure. Wanting to see her. Three lights. The dark is her too.

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 nextStanding Male Nude

Before this, ideally

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