Silverpoint

Cley Church, Norfolk

Cley Church, Norfolk, Cotman, 1818
Art Institute of Chicago

Cotman, Cley Church, Norfolk, 1818. Graphite and gray wash on ivory wove paper.

Pins mark where to look before you draw.

The Art Institute of Chicago · Gift of Dorothy Braude Edinburg to the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection

Master studyLine

Cley Church, Norfolk

An architectural elevation in line and one wash

1818, graphite and grey wash: the church at Cley-next-the-Sea drawn as a near elevation, every window head a compass construction done freehand, buttresses and parapet exact, a grey wash for the shadow side and nothing else. The tracery lesson and the two-point lesson in one sheet, by the most economical architectural hand in England.

Difficulty
Time
about 3 h
You draw with
2H, H, HB graphite, 4B scumble for the wash
Tracery from circlesConstructing a pointed archTwo-point perspectiveGrouping valuesSighting angles

Why this one

  • Tracery as geometry you can rebuild.
  • One flat wash for all shadow planes: value grouping on a building.

From your kit

The whole kit →
  1. 1Grafwood 2H, H, HB, 4B 2H, H, HB for layout and line; 4B 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 →

Trefoil and quatrefoil geometry, the tracery lesson's circles.

YouTube
Gothic archesTech Drawing for Carpentry and Joinery · Equilateral, lancet and drop arches constructed properly with a compass.Cotman in Normandy at Dulwich Picture GalleryDulwich Picture Gallery · Ten minutes with the drawings on the wall. Watch how few values Cotman uses.

The plan

4 stages · ~170 min
  1. 1

    Envelope and faces

    30 min

    Eye level low. Envelope the church; sight the roof pitches; two faces receding.

    Checklist0 / 1
  2. 2

    Windows from geometry

    80 min

    Each window head: main arch, mullions, sub-arches at half span, circle in the spandrel. Cusps as dark notches only.

    A two-light Gothic window built from geometry: the main pointed arch, a central mullion, two smaller pointed heads, and a circle in the spandrel that becomes a quatrefoilTWO-LIGHT WINDOW · CIRCLES AND ARCScircle in the spandrelbecomes a quatrefoilsub-arches: half the spanmullionTracery is geometry you can reconstruct, not lace you must copy. Find the circles.Cotman's Cley Church: every window head is a compass construction drawn freehand.
    FigureArch, mullion, sub-arches, circle.
    Checklist0 / 2
  3. 3

    One wash

    40 min

    All shadow planes as one flat 4B scumble. Buttress shadows at one angle. Gravestones as small boxes.

    Checklist0 / 1
  4. 4

    Audit

    20 min

    Squint: three flat shapes? Box.

    Checklist0 / 1

What it should look like

  • A church elevation whose windows are built, not decorated, with one quiet shadow tone.

Where it goes wrong

  • Tracery drawn as decoration on the surface. Bars drawn as lines. Shade the glass shapes; the bars are what is left.

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 nextMouldings and cast shadows

Before this, ideally

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