Silverpoint

Laon, France

Picturesque Architecture in Paris, Ghent, Antwerp, Rouen: Laon, France, Shotter Boys, 1839
Cleveland Museum of Art

Shotter Boys, Picturesque Architecture in Paris, Ghent, Antwerp, Rouen: Laon, France, 1839. lithograph.

The Cleveland Museum of Art · Gift of Mrs. Ralph Perkins in memory of Coburn Haskell

Plate copyLine + Mass

Laon, France

Shotter Boys, 1839: a plate copy from crayon on stone

Picturesque Architecture in Paris, Ghent, Antwerp, Rouen: Laon, France, 1839: lithograph (The Cleveland Museum of Art). A plate copy: the standard protocol for crayon on stone applied to this one sheet at the size of your book, with Shotter Boys's own habits as the checklist. Check the verticals with a pencil held plumb. They are vertical.

In pencilA lithograph is crayon on a grained stone: the grain breaks the stroke into dots, so the tone is soft and granular. Soft graphite on a medium-tooth paper does the same. Work with the side of the lead, layer rather than press, and keep the lights as paper.

Difficulty
Time
about 2 h
You draw with
2B, 4B, 6B graphite, charcoal pencil
Layering, not pressureThe pressure rampThe three divisions of lightHard, soft and lost edgesPaper and toothEye levelOne-point perspectiveMasonry coursing

Why this one

  • The facade as an elevation first: plumb verticals, true bays, then perspective applied to it.
  • Side light. The street is interesting because one side is in shadow.
  • Figures and carriages placed to lead the eye down the street.

From your kit

The whole kit →
  1. 1Grafwood 2B, 4B, 6B 2B, 4B, 6B for the darks. 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, medium tooth
  • 2B, 4B, 6B with long points
  • Kneaded eraser
  • Precision eraser
  • Slip sheet

Watch first

All videos →

A single late Corot looked at slowly; watch for the three divisions of light and the lost edges.

YouTube
Cotman in Normandy: curator's lectureDulwich Picture Gallery · Timothy Wilcox on the Normandy tours and the Architectural Antiquities etchings. The architectural half of this course, explained by its curator.Atmospheric charcoal landscape drawing tutorialMad Charcoal · Broad charcoal masses and lifted lights; the closest thing on YouTube to a late Corot being made.

The plan

5 stages · ~100 min
  1. 1

    Read the plate first

    5 min

    Before any mark, look at Laon, France 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

    Masses on the side of the lead

    35 min

    With the 4B on its side, lay every mass as a flat tone at its approximate value, lightest first. Let the paper's tooth break the stroke the way the stone breaks the crayon. No edges yet, no lines.

    Checklist0 / 3
  4. 4

    Darks, edges, the crayon's accents

    35 min

    6B for the darkest passages, layered not pressed. Sharpen the few edges the print sharpens (a trunk against sky, a roof line) and lose the ones it loses. Charcoal pencil or 6B point for the few drawn accents.

    Checklist0 / 3
  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

  • Soft, granular tone with no visible hatching.
  • Masses that read from across the room.
  • A few crisp accents in a sea of softness.

Where it goes wrong

  • Shiny, pressed darks. Pressure instead of layers. Three light layers of 4B then 6B, each at a different angle.
  • Outlines around the masses. Habit from line drawing. Lay the mass; let its edge be the edge.

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 nextWestminster Abbey from London As It Is

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