Picturesque Views in Paris
Girtin, A Selection of Twenty of the Most Picturesque Views in Paris: On the Banks of the Marne below the Bridge at Charenton, 1802. soft-ground etching with bistre wash.
Pins mark where to look before you draw.
The Cleveland Museum of Art · Dudley P. Allen Fund
Picturesque Views in Paris
A city in four values
1802, soft-ground etching with wash: one of Girtin's twenty Paris views, a river city under a large quiet sky, buildings as a few values. Count the values: rarely more than four. A composition lesson about letting the sky be big.
- Master
- Thomas Girtin
- Difficulty
- Time
- about 1.5 h
- You draw with
- 2B, 4B graphite
Why this one
- A low horizon and a large sky carrying a city.
- Four values, maximum.
From your kit
The whole kit →- 1Grafwood 2B, 4B 2B, 4B 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
3 stages · ~75 min- 1
Horizon low
10 minThumbnail with the horizon a third up. Four values.
Checklist0 / 1 - 2
Planes
50 minSky, far city, near bank, water, as planes with the side of the pencil.
Checklist0 / 1 - 3
Audit
15 minCount your values. Box.
Checklist0 / 2
What it should look like
- A big sky over a city of four tones.
Where it goes wrong
- Windows. Habit. Planes 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?
