Silverpoint

Prout's sketchbook: Tree Study

Sketchbook: Tree Study, Prout, 1814
Cleveland Museum of Art

Prout, Sketchbook: Tree Study, 1814. graphite.

Pins mark where to look before you draw.

The Cleveland Museum of Art · Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Herbert N. Bier, London

Master studyMass

Prout's sketchbook: Tree Study

Clumps, a scribbled edge, a firm trunk

Another 1814 page: a single tree, its canopy as three or four clumps with scribbled edges, the interior left as tone, a firm trunk. The tree-mass method shown naked, by a master who was mostly an architectural draughtsman.

Difficulty
Time
about 1 h
You draw with
HB and 2B graphite
Building a tree from massesTexture lives at the edgeBranch logic

Why this one

  • The clearest tree-mass demonstration in the catalogue.
  • Quick enough to repeat.

From your kit

The whole kit →
  1. 1Grafwood HB, 2B HB for layout and line; 2B 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
  • Sketchbook
  • HB and 2B

Watch first

All videos →

Clump construction and sky holes.

YouTube
How to draw landscapes, trees, grass, foliage, water, using graphite pencilsSmoothie77 · Trees as masses in graphite, with the edge texture where it belongs.

The plan

2 stages · ~60 min
  1. 1

    Four stages

    40 min

    Silhouette, clumps, light and shadow per clump, edge texture only. Trunk last from the ground up.

    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".
    FigureFour stages.
    Checklist0 / 2
  2. 2

    Again

    20 min

    Second copy, faster. Box both.

    Checklist0 / 1

What it should look like

  • A tree with light on it, made of clumps, with leaves only at the edge.

Where it goes wrong

  • Scribble across the whole canopy. Texture is comforting. Erase the interior to tone.

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 ~60 min

Status

How did it go?

Up nextBranch logic and sky holes

Related studies