Silverpoint

A Woodland Study

A Woodland Study, Palmer, c. 1856
Art Institute of Chicago

Palmer, A Woodland Study, c. 1856. Brush and black and brown washes, with white gouache and scraping, ruled in graphite, on ivory paperboard.

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 studyMass

A Woodland Study

A dark wood with one lit path, in brush and wash

A wash drawing of about 1856: tree trunks in a dense wood, a path catching light at the bottom, a gap of sky at the top. Palmer in wash is as tonal as he is linear in etching, and the lesson is a single lit path through a dark mass.

In pencilBrush and wash lay flat tones in two or three steps. Lay the wood as a 4B field with the side of the lead, deepen the trunks with 6B, and lift the path and the sky gap with the kneaded eraser.

Difficulty
Time
about 2 h
You draw with
2B, 4B, 6B graphite on their sides, kneaded eraser
Focal hierarchyBuilding a tree from massesErasers as drawing toolsHard, soft and lost edgesThe three divisions of light

Why this one

  • One lit path as the whole composition.
  • Trunks as a dark rhythm with the light behind them.
  • Wash as flat tone: translate it to graphite fields.

From your kit

The whole kit →
  1. 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.
  2. 2Pitt Matt 8B to 12B for the big tone passages: matt, so the dark mass reads as tone, not shine.
  3. 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.
  4. 4Alpha 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, medium tooth
  • 2B, 4B, 6B with long points
  • Kneaded eraser
  • Precision eraser
  • Slip sheet

Watch first

All videos →

Broad charcoal masses and lifted lights; the closest thing on YouTube to a late Corot being made.

YouTube
Subtractive drawing: symmetry and value in charcoalNathan Orosco · Laying a charcoal ground and lifting the lights out, the late-Corot method.

The plan

4 stages · ~90 min
  1. 1

    The path first

    10 min

    Thumbnail: the dark wood as one mass, the path and the sky gap as the two lights. Nothing else.

    A landscape where the focal point, a tower, has the strongest contrast, the sharpest edges and the only fine detail, while everything else is softer and closer in valuehere only: 1 beside 9,sharpest edge, onlydetaileverywhere else: softer edges,narrower value range, no detailThe eye goes where contrast, sharpness and detail coincide. Allow that to happen inexactly one place.Spend your darkest dark and your whitest white together, once, on purpose.
    FigureTwo lights, one mass.
    Checklist0 / 2
  2. 2

    Lay the wood

    30 min

    4B on its side: the wood as a middle-dark field; 6B for the trunks as vertical masses, nearer darker. Sky gap and path left pale.

    Four stages of a tree: the whole silhouette, then three to five big clumps, then a light side and shadow side on each clump, then leaf texture only along edges1 · SILHOUETTE2 · CLUMPS3 · LIGHT/SHADOW4 · EDGE MARKSEach clump is a sphere with its own light side, shadow side and cast shadow onto theclump below.Never draw a leaf. Draw masses that catch light, then let the edges say "leaves".
    FigureMass before branch.
    Checklist0 / 3
  3. 3

    Lift and lose

    40 min

    Kneaded eraser: the path lifted clean, the sky gap lifted soft, a little light between the far trunks. Lose the trunk bases into the ground. Three or four branches with a 4B point, into the mass.

    A foliage mass against sky and a distant hill, labelled where its edge is hard, soft, and lostHARDcrisp against the bright skySOFTblurred where the form turnsLOSTsame value as the ground: the edge disappearsA drawing with only hard edges is a cut-out. Lose at least one edge on every form.
    FigureLose the base.
    Checklist0 / 3
  4. 4

    Compare

    10 min

    Note, date, box.

    Checklist0 / 2

What it should look like

  • A dark wood you want to walk into because of one lit path.
  • Trunks without outlines.

Where it goes wrong

  • Light everywhere between the trees. You know there is sky behind them. Palmer let one path and one gap glow. Keep the rest dark.

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 Lonely Tower

Before this, ideally

Related studies