Silverpoint

Portrait of Louis Robert, 3 years old

Portrait of Louis Robert, 3 years old, Corot, 1843/44
Art Institute of Chicago

Corot, Portrait of Louis Robert, 3 years old, 1843/44. Graphite, with stumping, on ivory laid paper, edge mounted to cream wove card.

The Art Institute of Chicago · Gift of Dorothy Braude Edinburg to the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection

Plate copyLineFigures and portraits · throughout

Portrait of Louis Robert, 3 years old

Corot, 1843/44: a plate copy from graphite

Portrait of Louis Robert, 3 years old, 1843/44: Graphite, with stumping, on ivory laid paper, edge mounted to cream wove card, 19.4 × 15.3 cm (7 11/16 × 6 1/16 in.) (The Art Institute of Chicago). A plate copy: the standard protocol for graphite applied to this one sheet at the size of your book, with Corot's own habits as the checklist. Squint first. Count the masses. If you count more than four, squint harder.

Difficulty
Time
about 2 h
You draw with
H, HB, 2B graphite
Envelope, masses, detailComparative measurementLine weightThe broken lineTone from lineLight on form

Why this one

  • The three divisions of light. Decide them before the first mark, and never let the distance borrow a dark from the foreground.
  • Trees as masses that catch light, with branches that zig-zag upward and vanish into the clumps. Not one branch ends in open air.
  • The young Corot's contour: a hard, sharp pencil, almost no shading, every edge placed exactly, acres of untouched paper.

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 the sketchbook
  • 2H and H with long points
  • HB and 2B for accents
  • Kneaded eraser
  • Precision eraser

Watch first

All videos →

Corot drew his late figures from memory of the pose. Proko shows the drill: look, close the book, draw the gesture, compare.

YouTube
Camille Corot: a collection of 489 paintings (HD)LearnFromMasters · Not a lesson: a slow slideshow to leave running while you draw, to absorb the value range of a lifetime.Ville d'Avray, Entrance to the Wood: Corot at the Scottish National GalleryNL Cultural · A single late Corot looked at slowly; watch for the three divisions of light and the lost edges.

The plan

5 stages · ~100 min
  1. 1

    Read the plate first

    5 min

    Before any mark, look at Portrait of Louis Robert, 3 years old for five minutes with the pencil down. Find the eye level or the horizon. Find the lightest light and the darkest dark and notice whether they touch. Count the big shapes: it is rarely more than four. Say what the picture is about in one sentence.

    Checklist0 / 3
  2. 2

    Envelope and masses

    15 min

    Measure the sheet's proportion and draw the envelope lightly at the size you will work. Place the horizon as a fraction of the height. Block the three or four big shapes as pale outlines, checking each against the others with the pencil held at arm's length. No detail yet; if a line is inside a shape, it is too early.

    TipBeginners rush this stage. Masters spend half the drawing here.

    Checklist0 / 3
  3. 3

    The line, once

    40 min

    With the H and then the HB, draw the contours over the envelope, each line once, from the shoulder. Follow the original's economy: where it stops drawing, you stop. Where its line breaks, break yours. Keep the sky and the lit planes as untouched paper.

    Decide the three darkest accents before you make them, and make them with the 2B last.

    Checklist0 / 3
  4. 4

    Tone from line

    30 min

    Where the original has tone, build it as the original does: parallel lines whose spacing is the value, following the plane. Squint at both sheets together and match the three values, not the detail.

    Checklist0 / 2
  5. 5

    Compare and note

    10 min

    Side by side with the original: where did you add what was not there? Where did you darken what was light? Write one sentence on the sheet about what to change next time. Date it. Box it.

    Checklist0 / 2

What it should look like

  • A pale, exact drawing with more paper than pencil.
  • Lines that can be counted, each one meaning something.
  • Three values, with the darks saved for the end.

Where it goes wrong

  • Everything the same weight. A single pressure flattens the space. Three weights: ghost for construction, firm for contour, heavy for the three accents.
  • Shading creeps in early. Tone is comforting and hides a bad contour. No tone until the line is finished and checked.

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 nextView of Marino

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