Silverpoint

Oak from Rocks

Oak from Rocks, Rousseau, 1861
Art Institute of Chicago

Rousseau, Oak from Rocks, 1861. Etching on ivory laid paper.

Pins mark where to look before you draw.

The Art Institute of Chicago · The Art Institute of Chicago

Master studyLine + Mass

Oak from Rocks

A tree portrait: every fork followed from root to twig

An 1861 etching of a Fontainebleau oak growing out of the rocks, the whole branch system traced, the foliage a dense weave of fine lines with sky holes. Rousseau gives you the tree as an engineering drawing; Corot gives it as a mass. Draw this one and the Corot masses will sit on a skeleton you understand.

In pencilAn etched line is a drawn line. Copy it with hard grades and long points: tone from the spacing and direction of lines, cross-hatching only in the darkest third, no smudging anywhere.

Difficulty
Time
about 3 h
You draw with
H, HB, 2B graphite
Branch logicSky holesBuilding a tree from massesTexture lives at the edgeValue by spacing

Why this one

  • Branch logic followed through every fork: the complete lesson.
  • Foliage as texture built from line density, not as outlined leaves.
  • Rocks and roots as part of the same structure.

From your kit

The whole kit →
  1. 1Grafwood H, HB, 2B H, HB for layout and line; 2B for the darks. 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 →

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

4 stages · ~130 min
  1. 1

    The skeleton

    30 min

    H: trunk first, then every major limb, following each fork: it leans, it forks, each branch thinner than its parent, nothing crosses without a reason. Draw the skeleton as if there were no leaves.

    Corot's branch logic: a trunk that tapers, branches that change direction at every fork in a zig-zag, and limbs that disappear into the foliage clumps instead of ending in airWRONG · LOLLIPOP, ENDS IN AIRsame width top to bottom, straight limbsRIGHT · TAPERS, ZIG-ZAGS, DIVES INchangesdirection atevery forkvanishes into the massWork from the ground UP, the way the tree grew. Each fork: thinner, and a newdirection.Corot drew the branches zig-zagging upward and disappearing into the leaves. Not one of them ends in open air.
    FigureLean, fork, thin.
    Checklist0 / 3
  2. 2

    The canopy as mass

    30 min

    HB: around the skeleton, the foliage as clumps of hatching, dense at the centre of each clump, open at its edge. Leave sky holes where the plate leaves them, mostly near the canopy's edge.

    Sky holes in a foliage mass: a few irregular gaps near the edges of the canopy, with a branch visible through the largest, compared with evenly scattered round holesWRONG · POLKA DOTSRIGHT · FEW, IRREGULAR, AT THE EDGEa branch crosses the holeHoles happen where clumps fail to meet. Shape them like the gaps between fingers ofa loose fist.Three good sky holes make a tree breathe. Twelve make it a sponge.
    FigureHoles near the edge, where the mass thins.
    Checklist0 / 2
  3. 3

    Rocks, darks, texture

    60 min

    2B: the darkest shadows in the canopy's underside and between the rocks. Rocks hatched along their surface. Leaf texture only at the edges of clumps, where leaves meet sky.

    A single foliage clump whose interior is flat tone and whose outer edge carries all the leaf texture, with a zoom showing the scribbled edge markszoom: broken, varied,pointing outwardThe eye reads texture at edges and assumes it continues inside. Give it the edge andnothing else.Interior texture flattens the form and kills the light. Trust the edge.
    FigureTexture at the edge.
    Checklist0 / 3
  4. 4

    Compare

    10 min

    Pick a branch on the plate and find it on yours. Note, date, box.

    Checklist0 / 2

What it should look like

  • A tree with a skeleton you could trace.
  • Foliage that is dense but not solid.
  • Rocks and roots that belong to each other.

Where it goes wrong

  • Leaves drawn one by one. You can see them. Leaves are texture at the edge of a mass. Inside the mass they are 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 ~180 min

Status

How did it go?

Up nextThe Two Oaks, Fontainebleau

Before this, ideally

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