Liber Studiorum: Harlech Castle
Cotman, Liber Studiorum: Plate 29, Harlech Castle, N. Wales, 1838. softground etching, from a bound volume containing 48 plates.
Pins mark where to look before you draw.
The Cleveland Museum of Art · Bequest of John Bonebrake
Liber Studiorum: Harlech Castle
Three grouped shapes
1838, soft-ground etching: Harlech Castle on its rock above the estuary. Squint and it is three shapes: castle and rock and their shadow as one dark, sky and water as one light, a halftone shore between. The value-grouping lesson in a castle.
- Master
- John Sell Cotman
- Difficulty
- Time
- about 1 h
- You draw with
- 2B, 4B, 6B graphite
Why this one
- Value grouping demonstrated on architecture.
- Short, and a good warm-up before the bigger Cotmans.
From your kit
The whole kit →- 1Grafwood 2B, 4B, 6B 2B, 4B, 6B for the darks, on their sides for mass. Long points from the Blackwing on everything up to B.
- 2Pitt Matt 8B to 12B for the big tone passages: matt, so the dark mass reads as tone, not shine.
- 3Kneaded eraser (warm it) and the clean Mono Zero lift the lights out of the mass; the Mono Zero for sky holes and lit edges.
- 4Alpha sketchbook 9 x 6 draw at the book's size and keep the proportions; date the page.
In general, this study asks for
- Copier paper and drawing pad
- 2B, 4B, 6B on their sides
- Kneaded eraser
- Viewfinder cards
- Phone set to greyscale
Watch first
All videos →Two- and three-value notan, the exact exercise the Mass studies start with.
YouTube
The plan
2 stages · ~40 min- 1
Three shapes
30 minThumbnail then half sheet: three flat shapes with the side of the pencil. No lines.
FigureConfetti versus three shapes. Checklist0 / 1 - 2
Audit
10 minSquint. Box.
Checklist0 / 1
What it should look like
- A castle you recognise from three tones.
Where it goes wrong
- Battlements drawn. Detail. Side of the pencil only.
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.
Status
How did it go?
