Street in Bologna
Ruskin, Street in Bologna, 1845. Pen and brown ink, with brush and gray and brown wash and white gouache, over graphite, on gray wove paper.
Pins mark where to look before you draw.
The Art Institute of Chicago · Gift of Charles Deering McCormick, Brooks McCormick, and the Estate of Roger McCormick
Street in Bologna
An arcade drawn from inside it, with the eye level in your hand
An 1845 pen and wash drawing made standing in a Bologna arcade: arches receding, a balcony, the street beyond. Ruskin finishes the near arch and lets the far ones go, and the eye level is exactly where a standing man's eyes are.
- Master
- John Ruskin
- Difficulty
- Time
- about 2.5 h
- You draw with
- H, HB, 2B graphite, fine pen optional
Why this one
- An arcade in one-point from inside it.
- Finish that falls away with distance.
- A pen line laid over a pencil construction: the decision method.
From your kit
The whole kit →- 1Grafwood H, HB, 2B H, HB for layout and line; 2B for the darks. Long points from the Blackwing on everything up to B.
- 2Grafwood H for the lay-in; a fine pen if you have bought one, else a needle-pointed Grafwood F the pen studies are about the broken line, not the ink.
- 3Kneaded eraser and the Mono Zero press-and-lift corrections only; the Mono Zero for a single sharp light.
- 4Alpha 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
- H graphite for the lay-in
- A fine fibre-tip (0.1 to 0.3) or a dip pen and ink
- Kneaded eraser
Watch first
All videos →A street in one point from a blank page. The Old College Wynd set-up.
YouTube
The plan
4 stages · ~115 min- 1
Construction in H
25 minEye level, vanishing point down the arcade, piers as plumb verticals shrinking by diagonals, each arch as a half-ellipse on its springing line.
FigureHalf-ellipses on converging springing lines. Checklist0 / 3 - 2
The pen's decisions
50 minHB held lightly (or the fine pen): over the construction, draw the near arch completely, each line once. Then each farther arch with fewer lines than the last, until the far end is three strokes.
FigureHeavy near, light far. Checklist0 / 3 - 3
Wash as flat tone
30 min2B on its side: the shadow under the near arch and along the arcade's ceiling as a flat field; the street beyond left pale.
FigureAn even field. Checklist0 / 2 - 4
Compare
10 minNote, date, box.
Checklist0 / 2
What it should look like
- An arcade you are standing in.
- One arch finished and the rest implied.
- A pen line that never hesitates.
Where it goes wrong
- Every arch equally drawn. They are all there. The near one is the subject. Count the lines in each and halve them as you go back.
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?
Before this, ideally
