Silverpoint

The Mosque, Cordova

Picturesque Sketches in Spain: The Mosque, Cordova, Shotter Boys, 1837
Cleveland Museum of Art

Shotter Boys, Picturesque Sketches in Spain: The Mosque, Cordova, 1837. lithograph.

Pins mark where to look before you draw.

The Cleveland Museum of Art · Bequest of John Bonebrake

Master studyLine

The Mosque, Cordova

A forest of arches in perspective, with two figures for scale

From Picturesque Sketches in Spain, 1837: the double horseshoe arches of the Mezquita receding in rows, columns in perspective, two figures at the bottom. The hardest arch problem in the catalogue: round arches in depth, stacked, repeating, and foreshortened.

In pencilA lithograph: copy the line and the flat tones.

Difficulty
Time
about 3 h
You draw with
H, HB and 2B graphite
An arch in perspectiveThe round archOne-point perspectiveDividing bays in perspectiveFigures for scale

Why this one

  • Round arches in perspective, in rows, in depth: the summit of the Architecture unit.
  • Columns as a measured rhythm that shrinks.
  • Figures that tell you the arches are twice a person's height.

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 →

Two centres, two arcs, in ninety seconds.

YouTube
Gothic archesTech Drawing for Carpentry and Joinery · Equilateral, lancet and drop arches constructed properly with a compass.One-point perspective street drawing, narrated for beginnersCircle Line Art School · A street in one point from a blank page. The Old College Wynd set-up.

The plan

3 stages · ~120 min
  1. 1

    Eye level, point, columns

    20 min

    Eye level low through the figures. Vanishing point where the aisle ends. The columns as plumb verticals whose spacing shrinks toward the point, found by diagonals.

    Dividing a receding wall into equal bays with the diagonal method: a centre line is drawn to the vanishing point, and each new bay is found where a diagonal through the previous bay's midpoint crosses the far edgeDraw bay 1 by eye. Find its centre with an X. Run a line from the top of bay 1through the centre of its far edge: where it hits the base is bay 2's far edge.Equal in the world means shrinking on the page. Never measure receding bays with a ruler.
    FigureSpacing that shrinks correctly.
    Checklist0 / 2
  2. 2

    Arches in perspective

    60 min

    For each arch: the springing line converging to the point, the crown found at the bay's centre, then the half-ellipse through them. The farther the arch, the flatter the ellipse. Build the nearest row fully, then let the rows behind be lighter and shorter.

    A round arch seen head-on as a semicircle, then seen obliquely as half an ellipse inside a foreshortened square, with the keystone staying at the top of the centre lineHEAD ONcentre on the springing lineOBLIQUE · SAME ARCHapex moves toward the near sidefar half is narrowerDraw the perspective square first, then fit the curve inside it. Never draw thecurve freehand from memory.Cotman's Rievaulx arches and Meryon's bridge are ellipses that know which square they live in.
    FigureAn arch in perspective is a half-ellipse.
    Checklist0 / 3
  3. 3

    Tone, figures, compare

    40 min

    HB: the shadow sides of the columns and the dark under the arches as flat tone, deeper toward the far end. 2B: the two figures. Compare, note, date, box.

    Checklist0 / 3

What it should look like

  • Arches that recede convincingly as a forest.
  • Columns that stay plumb and shrink.
  • Two small people under big arches.

Where it goes wrong

  • Pointed-looking arches. The ellipse was drawn as two curves meeting. Draw the whole ellipse lightly, then keep the top half.

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 ~180 min

Status

How did it go?

Up nextConstantinople

Before this, ideally

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