Silverpoint

The Souls of the Righteous

The Souls of the Righteous (after the Scottish National War Memorial frieze), Forrest, c. 1927
Private collection (1stDibs)

Forrest, The Souls of the Righteous (after the Scottish National War Memorial frieze), c. 1927. etching, signed in pencil.

Pins mark where to look before you draw.

Private collection (1stDibs) · Dealer photograph via 1stDibs (Toronto). The etching is in the public domain (artist d. 1943). After one of the two long bronze panels by Alice Meredith Williams in the Shrine of the Scottish National War Memorial, Edinburgh Castle.

Master studyLinePortraits · 1908 to 1943

The Souls of the Righteous

A frieze of figures after the Scottish National War Memorial bronze

About 1927, the year the Memorial opened in Edinburgh Castle, Forrest etched one of Alice Meredith Williams's two long bronze panels in the Shrine: a procession of every rank and service of the war, nurses and pipers and sappers, packed shoulder to shoulder, with a mule and a dog in the crowd. A plate only six centimetres high and twenty-five long. It is Forrest's one surviving narrative plate we could find, and the best figure study in his catalogue: a crowd drawn as one textured band, every head on one line.

In pencilAn etched frieze after a bronze relief: two translations deep. Copy it in graphite as a band of figures built from hatching that runs one way per plane, with the heads on one line and no features.

Difficulty
Time
about 2.5 h
You draw with
H, HB and 2B graphite
Figures for scaleLight on formTone from lineFormat and horizonGrouping values

Why this one

  • A crowd as a single mass with a rhythm of heads, the way the closes have a rhythm of windows.
  • Figures from a relief: the light comes from one side and every figure is a lit side and a shadow side.
  • An extreme format, four to one, that forces a procession to read left to right.

From your kit

The whole kit →
  1. 1Grafwood H, HB, 2B H, HB for layout and line; 2B for the darks. Long points from the Blackwing on everything up to B.
  2. 2Kneaded eraser and the Mono Zero press-and-lift corrections only; the Mono Zero for a single sharp light.
  3. 3Alpha 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 smooth cartridge
  • 2H and H with long points
  • HB for accents
  • Kneaded eraser
  • Sandpaper block

Watch first

All videos →

Corot drew his late figures from memory of the pose. Proko shows the drill: look, close the book, draw the gesture, compare.

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

The plan

4 stages · ~120 min
  1. 1

    The band

    15 min

    Measure the plate: about four times as wide as it is tall. Draw the envelope at that proportion, then the head line and the ground line across it. Count the figures in the plate (around twenty-five) and tick marks along the head line where each head falls.

    Format and horizon: a landscape format with a low horizon for a big sky, a landscape format with a high horizon for a big ground, and a portrait format for a tall subject; never the horizon in the centreLOW HORIZON · SKYHIGH HORIZON · GROUNDPORTRAIT · TALL SUBJECTCENTRED · CUT IN HALFDecide what the picture is ABOUT.Sky? Horizon low. Ground and buildings? Horizon high.One tall thing? Turn the paper.The first decision on every page is where the horizon goes. Make it before the first mark.
    FigureA frieze is a format problem first.
    Checklist0 / 3
  2. 2

    Figures as planes

    45 min

    H: each figure as a tall rectangle from its tick to the ground line, then the lean of each body and the overlap of each shoulder. Decide, for every pair, who is in front. No faces, no hands yet.

    The same doorway drawn without and with a small figure; the figure's head sits on the eye-level line, which fixes the scale of everythingNO FIGURE · ANY SIZEWITH A FIGURE · A CATHEDRAL DOOReye levelStanding on the same ground as you, every adult's head is on your eye level, near orfar. Only the feet move.Prout dropped two or three figures into every street. They are rulers, not people.
    FigureHeads on the line.
    Checklist0 / 3
  3. 3

    One light, two planes

    50 min

    HB: name the light direction (it rakes from one side). Hatch every figure's shadow plane in one direction, leave the lit plane as paper with a few lines for the fold of a coat or the line of a rifle. 2B: the darkest gaps between figures and the shadow under the ground line.

    Light on a sphere and a cube from the upper left: highlight, light, halftone, core shadow, reflected light and cast shadow, labelledhighlightlighthalftone (the turn)core shadow (darkest on theform)reflected light (never aslight as the lit side)cast shadow (darkest at thecontact)top planelightestfront: halftoneside: shadowEvery building is cubes, every tree is spheres. Decide where the light is before the first mark.
    FigureOne light, every figure a lit and a shadow side.
    Checklist0 / 3
  4. 4

    Compare

    10 min

    Hold yours beside the plate. Does the crowd march? Note, date, box.

    Checklist0 / 2

What it should look like

  • A procession that reads left to right as one band.
  • Heads on a line, feet on a line, and twenty-five people between them.
  • Light from one side and no faces.

Where it goes wrong

  • Faces appear. People have faces. A head is a lit side and a shadow side under a helmet. Nothing else at this scale.
  • The band sags. Heads drifted off the line. Draw the head line first and keep every head touching it, as the bronze does.

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 ~150 min

Status

How did it go?

Up nextA Forrest head, in charcoal

Before this, ideally

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