On the ?
Prout, Sketchbook: On the ?, 1814. graphite with gray wash.
The Cleveland Museum of Art · Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Herbert N. Bier, London
On the ?
Prout, 1814: a plate copy from pencil and wash
Sketchbook: On the ?, 1814: graphite with gray wash, Each page: 13.5 x 23.4 cm (5 5/16 x 9 3/16 in.) (The Cleveland Museum of Art). A plate copy: the standard protocol for pencil and wash applied to this one sheet at the size of your book, with Prout's own habits as the checklist. Find a long straight edge in a Prout and notice it is not a single line. Count the breaks.
In pencilA wash drawing is a line drawing with a few flat tones laid over it, usually two or three. Draw the line with the hard grades, then lay each wash as a flat, even field of graphite with the side of the lead, edges exactly where the brush stopped.
- Master
- Samuel Prout
- Difficulty
- Time
- about 2 h
- You draw with
- H, HB, 2B, 4B graphite
Why this one
- The broken line. Lift the pencil mid-stroke and let it wander; suggest two stones per course, not twelve.
- Figures as rulers. Two or three small figures, heads on the eye level, and the building has a size.
- A sketchbook habit: pencil first, a light wash of tone, and the courage to leave it unfinished.
From your kit
The whole kit →- 1Grafwood H, HB, 2B, 4B H, HB for layout and line; 2B, 4B for the darks. Long points from the Blackwing on everything up to B.
- 2Kneaded eraser and the Mono Zero press-and-lift corrections only; the Mono Zero for a single sharp light.
- 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, medium tooth
- 2B, 4B, 6B with long points
- Kneaded eraser
- Precision eraser
- Slip sheet
Watch first
All videos →Timothy Wilcox on the Normandy tours and the Architectural Antiquities etchings. The architectural half of this course, explained by its curator.
YouTube
Cotman in Normandy at Dulwich Picture GalleryDulwich Picture Gallery · Ten minutes with the drawings on the wall. Watch how few values Cotman uses.
Giovanni Battista Piranesi etchings: the Views (Vedute di Roma)Busy Baçi · The whole Vedute series paged through. Note how small the figures are and how large Rome becomes.The plan
5 stages · ~95 min- 1
Read the plate first
5 minBefore any mark, look at On the ? 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
Envelope and masses
15 minMeasure 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
The line
30 minH and HB: the drawing underneath the washes, as the original has it. Light, exact, once.
Checklist0 / 2 - 4
The washes as flat fields
35 minCount the wash values in the original (usually two or three). Lay each as an even field of graphite with the side of the 2B or 4B, lightest first, with hard edges where the brush stopped and soft where it bled. A slip sheet under the hand.
Checklist0 / 3 - 5
Compare and note
10 minSide 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 clear line drawing with two or three flat tones over it.
- Fields with no hatching visible.
Where it goes wrong
- Streaky fields. Pressure and tip instead of side and layers. Side of the lead, three light passes, each at a new angle.
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?
