Silverpoint

The souvenir, and the review of the box

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.
FigureThe souvenir method
CapstoneLine + Mass

The souvenir, and the review of the box

Your fusion subject from memory, then every drawing on the floor

Draw the capstone subject from memory as a souvenir, then review the whole body of work and decide what comes next.

Difficulty
Time
about 1.5 h
You draw with
Willow charcoal or 4B and 6B
The souvenir methodThe three divisions of lightNotan: two, three, four valuesGrouping values

Why this one

  • Unit 7 of the program: Capstone.
  • A souvenir drawing that is simpler and stronger than its source.
  • A row of drawings on the floor that visibly improves from one end to the other.

From your kit

The whole kit →
  1. 1Grafwood 4B, 6B 4B, 6B for the darks. Long points from the Blackwing on everything up to B.
  2. 2Willow 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.
  3. 3Pitt Matt 14B, knife-sharpened stands in for the charcoal pencil: trunk, branch zig-zag, the one accent.
  4. 4Kneaded eraser (warm it) and the clean Mono Zero lift the lights out of the mass; the Mono Zero for sky holes and lit edges.
  5. 5Alpha sketchbook 9 x 6 too small for the capstone: use the largest sheet you own, or two facing pages.
In general, this study asks for
  • Drawing pad
  • Willow charcoal or 4B and 6B
  • Kneaded eraser
  • The box
  • Floor space

Watch first

All videos →

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

YouTube
Drawing from imagination: tips on improving visual memoryProko · The memory exercises behind Corot's souvenir method.Shockingly simple methods to train your visual memoryPaul Priestley Art · Look, turn, draw, compare, for beginners.

The plan

4 stages · ~95 min
  1. 1

    The souvenir (thirty minutes)

    30 min

    Without the photo and without the drawing, draw your capstone subject from memory, in charcoal or soft graphite, as masses, for ten minutes. Look at the drawing for one minute; say what memory dropped. Draw again. A third time. Keep the third. It is simpler than the capstone, and it is the one Corot would have signed.

    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. Three rounds.
    Checklist0 / 1
  2. 2

    The floor (thirty minutes)

    30 min

    Empty the box onto the floor in date order, Day One at one end, the souvenir at the other. Walk along it. Do not judge individual sheets. Watch the line get confident, the values get darker, the trees become masses, the buildings stand up. That is what twenty minutes a day does.

    Checklist0 / 1
  3. 3

    What next (thirty minutes)

    30 min

    On a sheet, write three things you can now do that you could not on Day One. Then three things that are still weak. The weak three are your next month: repeat the unit that trains each. Then choose a master from the Masters page you have not copied and copy one work. Then go outside with the sketchbook and draw a real building in real air, which is where Corot and Forrest both went, and where this program ends and your own drawing begins.

    Checklist0 / 1
  4. 4

    Self-check

    5 min

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

    Checklist0 / 4

What it should look like

  • A souvenir drawing that is simpler and stronger than its source.
  • A row of drawings on the floor that visibly improves from one end to the other.
  • A page with three strengths, three weaknesses and a plan.

Where it goes wrong

  • Judging each sheet on the floor. Perfectionism. Walk, do not stop. You are looking at the slope, not the points.

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?