Silverpoint

Hôtel de Ville, Louvain

Hotel de Ville, Louvain, from Facsimiles of Sketches made in Flanders and Germany, Prout, 1833
Art Institute of Chicago

Prout, Hotel de Ville, Louvain, from Facsimiles of Sketches made in Flanders and Germany, 1833. Lithograph in black on grayish-ivory chine, laid down on ivory wove paper.

Pins mark where to look before you draw.

The Art Institute of Chicago · The Leonora Hall Gurley Memorial Collection

Master studyLine

Hôtel de Ville, Louvain

A passage of Gothic facade in the broken line

The late-Gothic town hall of Leuven, one of the most ornate facades in Europe, which Prout reduced to broken line and counted shadow. Do not copy the whole plate: choose a six-inch square of facade and learn the broken line on it.

Difficulty
Time
about 2.5 h
You draw with
H and HB graphite
The broken lineTracery from circlesCast shadows on buildingsNegative shapes

Why this one

  • The broken line on the most complex surface imaginable.
  • Teaches selection: one passage, done properly.

From your kit

The whole kit →
  1. 1Grafwood H, HB 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 →

Line weight hierarchy and when to stop, from an architect.

YouTube
Line quality: cross-hatchingLZM Studio · On the quality of each individual line inside a hatch, which is what separates Meryon from a beginner.

The plan

4 stages · ~150 min
  1. 1

    Choose a square

    10 min

    Pick a six-inch passage with a window and a canopy. Envelope it.

    Checklist0 / 1
  2. 2

    Broken line

    60 min

    Every edge broken: lift every inch, let it wander, thicken over a chip.

    The same old stone wall drawn with ruler-straight continuous lines, which looks like new concrete, and with Prout's broken wiry line, which looks like weathered stoneCONTINUOUS · READS AS NEWBROKEN · READS AS OLDLift the pencil mid-line. Let the line wobble, thicken, vanish and return. Suggesttwo stones per course, not twelve.Prout taught a generation that a broken line draws age. It is the most imitated trick in British architecturaldrawing.
    FigureContinuous reads as new; broken reads as old.
    Checklist0 / 1
  3. 3

    Shadows at one angle

    60 min

    Under every canopy and cornice, a cast shadow at the same angle. Two layers under, three in the deepest.

    Checklist0 / 1
  4. 4

    Compare

    20 min

    Side by side. Box.

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What it should look like

  • A passage of old stone with shadows that agree about the sun.

Where it goes wrong

  • Regular dashes. Pattern. Break where the stone is worn. Look, then break.

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 ~150 min

Status

How did it go?

Up nextMasonry coursing

Before this, ideally

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