Silverpoint

Charcoal: The Large Tree, and the souvenir

A foliage mass against sky and a distant hill, labelled where its edge is hard, soft, and lostHARDcrisp against the bright skySOFTblurred where the form turnsLOSTsame value as the ground: the edge disappearsA drawing with only hard edges is a cut-out. Lose at least one edge on every form.
FigureHard, soft and lost edges
FoundationMass

Charcoal: The Large Tree, and the souvenir

A master copy in Corot's own late medium, then a drawing from memory

Copy the structure of The Large Tree in willow charcoal using side, stump and eraser, then draw it again from memory.

Difficulty
Time
about 1.5 h
You draw with
Willow charcoal, medium, Charcoal pencil
Charcoal: the late Corot methodThe souvenir methodBuilding a tree from massesHard, soft and lost edges

Why this one

  • Unit 3 of the program: Mass: the Corot Half.
  • A charcoal mass with light on top, a lost edge at the base and lifted lights inside it.
  • A memory drawing that keeps the design and drops the detail.

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 toned paper
  • Willow charcoal, medium
  • Charcoal pencil
  • Kneaded eraser
  • A stump
  • Workable fixative

Watch first

All videos →

A single late Corot looked at slowly; watch for the three divisions of light and the lost edges.

YouTube
Subtractive drawing: symmetry and value in charcoalNathan Orosco · Laying a charcoal ground and lifting the lights out, the late-Corot method.Drawing from imagination: tips on improving visual memoryProko · The memory exercises behind Corot's souvenir method.

The plan

5 stages · ~81 min
  1. 1

    Read The Large Tree

    19 min

    Study the sheet with the annotations. It is one dark mass, lit along the top, with a light sky breaking through on the right and the grain of the paper showing everywhere but the core. The museum lists the method: charcoal with stumping, erasing and wet brushwork. You will do the first three.

    Landscape (The Large Tree), Corot, c. 1865–70
    Cleveland Museum of Art

    Corot, Landscape (The Large Tree), c. 1865–70. charcoal with stumping, erasing, and wet brushwork on light brown wove paper.

    Corot, Landscape (The Large Tree), c. 1865 to 1870.

    The Cleveland Museum of Art · Bequest of Muriel Butkin

    Checklist0 / 1
  2. 2

    Lay the mass

    19 min

    Break a stick to two inches. On its side, lay the whole dark mass in one go, lightly first, then deeper where the core is. Lay the ground. Leave the sky as paper. Fifteen minutes, no detail.

    Checklist0 / 1
  3. 3

    Soften, lift, accent

    19 min

    Stump the edge where the tree's shadow meets the ground until it is lost. Lift the lit tops of the clumps and the sky gap with the kneaded eraser. With the charcoal pencil, draw the trunk and two or three branches zig-zagging up into the mass. Stop. Fix it outdoors.

    A foliage mass against sky and a distant hill, labelled where its edge is hard, soft, and lostHARDcrisp against the bright skySOFTblurred where the form turnsLOSTsame value as the ground: the edge disappearsA drawing with only hard edges is a cut-out. Lose at least one edge on every form.
    FigureHard against the sky, soft where it turns, lost into the ground.
    Checklist0 / 1
  4. 4

    The souvenir

    19 min

    Close the image. Turn your chair. On a fresh sheet, draw The Large Tree from memory, in charcoal, for ten minutes. Then open the image for one minute and say aloud what you got wrong. Close it. Draw it again. The second memory drawing will be simpler and stronger than your copy, and it is yours.

    The souvenir method: look for three minutes, turn the back to the subject, draw from memory for ten, compare for one, repeatLOOK3 minSquint. Name the 3masses. Find thelightest and thedarkest.TURNBack to the subject.No peeking.DRAW10 minOnly what youremember. Massesfirst.COMPARE1 minTurn round. Say aloudwhat went wrong.Repeat three times. The third drawing is always the best, and it is yours.Corot titled his late landscapes Souvenir because they were drawn from memory.Memory keeps the masses and the mood and drops the clutter. That is what you want.The best filter for detail is forgetting it.
    FigureLook, turn, draw, compare, repeat.
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  5. 5

    Self-check

    5 min

    Tick each item honestly. If one is a no, the session is not finished; go back to that step.

    Checklist0 / 5

What it should look like

  • A charcoal mass with light on top, a lost edge at the base and lifted lights inside it.
  • A memory drawing that keeps the design and drops the detail.

Where it goes wrong

  • Everything blended to one grey. The finger went everywhere. Stump only inside the darkest mass and at the lost edge. Lift the lights.
  • Peeking during the memory drawing. It turns back into copying. Turn the chair. Close the image. No exceptions.

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 nextEye level and one-point perspective