Silverpoint

Ely Cathedral across the fen

Ely Cathedral, Muirhead Bone, 1903
Cleveland Museum of Art

Muirhead Bone, Ely Cathedral, 1903. drypoint.

Pins mark where to look before you draw.

The Cleveland Museum of Art · Bequest of James Parmelee

Master studyLine + Mass

Ely Cathedral across the fen

A cathedral the size of a thumbnail, and a landscape that makes it enormous

A long, low 1903 drypoint: flat fen, a hedge, a tree at the right, and far off on the horizon the silhouette of Ely Cathedral, smaller than your fingernail. Bone makes the building huge by drawing almost nothing of it and everything in front of it.

In pencilA drypoint line is an etched line with a burr: it prints soft and dark where the burr held ink. Copy the near tree with a 2B held lightly for that softness, and the cathedral with a needle-pointed H.

Difficulty
Time
about 2 h
You draw with
H, HB, 2B graphite
Format and horizonAerial perspectiveThe depth stackThe receding groundThe ruin's silhouette

Why this one

  • Scale by distance: the smallest thing on the sheet is the subject.
  • A panoramic format and a very low horizon.
  • Foreground texture that pushes the cathedral back into air.

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 →

Five hills, five values, in graphite.

YouTube
How to draw atmospheric perspective step by stepDraw Sessions · The same idea in a full landscape.

The plan

4 stages · ~90 min
  1. 1

    Format and horizon

    10 min

    Measure the plate: it is more than twice as wide as tall. Draw the envelope at that proportion and place the horizon low, as a fraction of the height you have measured.

    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 low horizon in a wide format.
    Checklist0 / 2
  2. 2

    Three planes

    30 min

    H for the far plane: the cathedral silhouette and the horizon line, as pale as you can. HB for the middle: hedges, field edges. 2B for the near tree and the foreground strokes. One grade per plane and never cross them.

    Aerial perspective: five overlapping hills, each lighter, bluer-feeling, lower in contrast and softer-edged than the one in front of itnearestfarthestvalue range shrinks with distanceAir is a veil. Each mile adds a layer. Distance is drawn with a lighter pencil, not with smaller detail.
    FigureNear dark, far pale.
    Checklist0 / 3
  3. 3

    The fen's texture

    40 min

    Horizontal strokes across the ground plane, close and dark near the bottom edge, wider and paler toward the horizon. The tree as a mass with a few branches drawn into it. Stop before you touch the cathedral again.

    The ground plane graded from darker and textured near the viewer to lighter and smoother in the distance, with cast shadows anchoring objects to itdarker+ texturecast shadow glues it downNear ground: more texture, more contrast, darker. Far ground: a flat pale wash. Nocast shadow = floating.The ground is a plane that recedes, not a backdrop. Draw it going away.
    FigureSpacing opens with distance.
    Checklist0 / 3
  4. 4

    Compare

    10 min

    Is Ely huge? If not, the foreground is too timid. Note, date, box.

    Checklist0 / 2

What it should look like

  • A tiny pale cathedral that feels enormous.
  • A foreground darker and busier than anything behind it.
  • Three planes you can name by grade.

Where it goes wrong

  • The cathedral gets drawn. It is the subject and you want to honour it. Honour it with distance. Four lines, H, and leave it.

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 ~120 min

Status

How did it go?

Up nextLiverpool Cathedral under scaffolding

Before this, ideally

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