Silverpoint

In the Forest of Fontainebleau

In the Forest of Fontainbleau, Rousseau, c. 1850
Art Institute of Chicago

Rousseau, In the Forest of Fontainbleau, c. 1850. Charcoal, with stumping and black pastel, heightened with touches of white chalk, on dark tan wove paper, laid down on tan wood pulp board.

Pins mark where to look before you draw.

The Art Institute of Chicago · Harold Joachim Purchase Fund

Master studyMass

In the Forest of Fontainebleau

A screen of trunks in charcoal, with the light coming through

A charcoal drawing of about 1850: the forest floor light, a screen of trunks, the canopy a dark roof. Rousseau's charcoal is the opposite of his etching: here the tree is pure mass and the lesson is the lit ground under a dark ceiling.

Difficulty
Time
about 2 h
You draw with
willow charcoal or 4B and 6B graphite, kneaded eraser, stump
The three divisions of lightCharcoal: the late Corot methodBuilding a tree from massesHard, soft and lost edgesAerial perspective

Why this one

  • Three divisions of light in a forest: ground lightest, trunks middle, canopy darkest.
  • Trunks as a rhythm across the sheet.
  • Charcoal lifted for the light between the trees.

From your kit

The whole kit →
  1. 1Grafwood 4B, 6B 4B, 6B for the darks, on their sides for mass. Long points from the Blackwing on everything up to B.
  2. 2Willow charcoal, or until it arrives Pitt Matt 12B and 14B on their sides the matt grades are the closest graphite gets to willow. Slip sheet under the hand.
  3. 3Pitt Matt 14B, knife-sharpened stands in for the charcoal pencil: trunk, branch zig-zag, the one accent.
  4. 4Kneaded eraser (warm it) and the clean Mono Zero lift the lights out of the mass; the Mono Zero for sky holes and lit edges.
  5. 5Alpha 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 cheap newsprint
  • Willow charcoal, medium
  • Charcoal pencil
  • Kneaded eraser
  • Stump
  • Workable fixative

Watch first

All videos →

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

YouTube
Landscape drawing with charcoalThe Virtual Instructor · Three recorded lessons condensed; methodical and slow.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 · ~100 min
  1. 1

    Three zones

    15 min

    Name the three zones aloud: ground (light), trunks (middle), canopy (dark). Thumbnail them as three bands.

    Corot's three divisions of light: a landscape divided into foreground with the darkest darks and strongest contrast, a midground of halftones, and a background of pale, close valuesSKY · 1FAR · 2 to 3MID · 4 to 6NEAR · 6 to 9FAR: narrow, pale, softMID: medium rangeNEAR: full range, sharpestEach zone has its own quality of light. The far zone never borrows a dark from the near zone.
    FigureThree ranges that never overlap.
    Checklist0 / 2
  2. 2

    Masses on the side of the stick

    35 min

    Side of the stick: canopy as one dark band, soft-edged. Trunks as vertical strokes, near ones darker and wider. Ground as the palest tone, or left as paper.

    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 light between the far trunks, the sky holes in the canopy. Stump: lose the trunks' bases into the ground. Charcoal pencil: three or four branches diving into the canopy.

    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, keep the trunk.
    Checklist0 / 3
  4. 4

    Compare

    10 min

    Note, date, box.

    Checklist0 / 2

What it should look like

  • A dark roof, a rhythm of trunks, a lit floor.
  • No outlines anywhere.
  • Light you can feel coming through.

Where it goes wrong

  • Trunks all the same dark. They are all trees. Nearer darker, farther paler: aerial perspective inside a forest.

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 nextLandscape (The Large Tree)

Before this, ideally

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