Prout's sketchbook: Norham
Prout, Sketchbook: Norham, 1814. graphite with gray and brown wash.
Pins mark where to look before you draw.
The Cleveland Museum of Art · Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Herbert N. Bier, London
Prout's sketchbook: Norham
What a real field page looks like
A page from Prout's 1814 sketchbook of the Scottish Borders: Norham Castle on its mound, pencil with a little grey and brown wash, unfinished edges, nothing precious. This is the same country Forrest etched a century later, and it is the best model in the catalogue for how a working sketch should look.
- Master
- Samuel Prout
- Difficulty
- Time
- about 1 h
- You draw with
- HB graphite, a grey wash or a 4B scumble
Why this one
- Permission to leave a sketch unfinished.
- Pencil first, a little wash of tone, stop.
From your kit
The whole kit →- 1Grafwood HB, 4B HB for layout and line; 4B for the darks. Long points from the Blackwing on everything up to B.
- 2Kneaded eraser and the Mono Zero press-and-lift corrections only; the Mono Zero for a single sharp light.
- 3Alpha sketchbook 9 x 6 draw at the book's size and keep the proportions; date the page.
In general, this study asks for
- Sketchbook or copier paper
- HB
- 4B for a scumble, or a water brush and a touch of grey ink
Watch first
All videos →The short version for a complete beginner.
YouTube
The plan
3 stages · ~30 min- 1
Pencil in ten minutes
10 minEnvelope and masses. Stop at ten minutes by the clock.
Checklist0 / 1 - 2
One tone
15 minOne flat tone over the shadow planes and the mound, scumbled or washed. Nothing else.
Checklist0 / 1 - 3
Leave it
5 minDo not finish it. Date it. Box it.
Checklist0 / 2
What it should look like
- A page that looks like it was made outdoors in twenty minutes, because it was.
Where it goes wrong
- Finishing it. Habit. The lesson is stopping.
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?
