Silverpoint

Ruins of a Monastery

Ruins of a Monastery, Legros, c. 1857–1911
Cleveland Museum of Art

Legros, Ruins of a Monastery, c. 1857–1911. etching.

Pins mark where to look before you draw.

The Cleveland Museum of Art · Gift of Ralph King

Master studyLine

Ruins of a Monastery

A ruined wall, an arch of pure paper, and trees drawn in long lines

An etching of a monastery wall gone to ruin, trees against it, and at the right a doorway or breach through which the sky shows as a white shape. Legros draws with the metalpoint habit even on copper: long, even, unhurried lines, nearly all the same weight, and depth that comes from where they stop.

In pencilAn etched line is a drawn line. Copy it with hard grades and long points: tone from the spacing and direction of lines, cross-hatching only in the darkest third, no smudging anywhere.

Difficulty
Time
about 2 h
You draw with
2H, H, HB graphite
Negative shapesThe ruin's silhouetteLine weightBranch logicThe broken line

Why this one

  • Depth from line placement, not line weight: the Legros problem.
  • A void of pure paper used as the brightest shape.
  • Trees as long directional lines with the leaf mass implied.

From your kit

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

The negative-shape habit, which places Prout's pinnacles and Corot's branches.

YouTube
How to shade with lines: hatching, cross-hatching, scribble and stipplingArt Pencil Drawing · All six mark families in one sitting.How to sketch buildings and architecture: Greek ruinsPhil Davies Artist · A ruin blocked in from the envelope. Ink and wash, but the construction is identical in pencil.

The plan

4 stages · ~100 min
  1. 1

    The void first

    10 min

    Before the wall, draw the shape of the breach as a negative shape: its outline only, measured against the sheet. Everything else is arranged around this paper.

    Negative shapes: the sky gaps between branches are drawn as shapes, which places the branches more accurately than drawing the branches themselvesTHE BRANCHES (POSITIVE)THE SKY BETWEEN (NEGATIVE)Your brain has a symbol for "branch" and it will draw the symbol. It has no symbolfor the gap. So it looks.Prout and Cotman placed every pinnacle by the shape of sky beside it. Draw the holes.
    FigureDraw the hole, get the wall.
    Checklist0 / 2
  2. 2

    Wall and silhouette

    30 min

    H: the wall as one mass with its broken top edge; a few course lines, breaking. The tree's trunk and main limbs as long single lines following their growth.

    A ruined abbey wall read as silhouette: one big stable mass, an irregular broken skyline, dark window voids, and vegetation softening the lower edgebrokenskylinegrowthsky behindwall behindA ruin is one mass with its top bitten off. Some voids show sky, some show darkwall. Never all the same.Cotman's Normandy castle, Prout's Norham, Forrest's Dryburgh: the skyline does the storytelling.
    FigureA stable mass with a broken top.
    Checklist0 / 3
  3. 3

    Even line, no weight changes

    50 min

    HB, the same light pressure throughout: hatch the wall's shadow side, the ground, the foliage between the branches, all with lines of one weight. Depth must come from spacing and from where you stop. Keep the breach untouched.

    Four swatches of identical line weight whose spacing closes from wide to tight, producing four steps of valueSAME PENCIL AND PRESSURE · ONLY SPACING CHANGESvalue 2value 4value 6value 8Value by spacing is how an etcher thinks. Half-close your eyes: the lines disappear and only the tone remains.
    FigureValue by spacing alone.
    Checklist0 / 3
  4. 4

    Compare

    10 min

    Note, date, box.

    Checklist0 / 2

What it should look like

  • A drawing of one line weight that still has depth.
  • A white breach you see first.
  • Trees you read by their direction.

Where it goes wrong

  • Pressing for the darks. You want contrast. Legros could not press. Close the spacing instead.

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 nextThe Palace Doorway, Venice

Before this, ideally

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