Silverpoint

Mass

MassCorot's move

Charcoal: the late Corot method

Side of the stick for tone, tip for accents, stump to soften, kneaded eraser to lift the lights. Keep the grain. Fix it when it is done.

Late Corot worked in charcoal, and the Cleveland Large Tree catalogue entry lists the method exactly: charcoal with stumping, erasing and wet brushwork. Translate: he laid broad tone with the side of the stick, softened passages with a stump, lifted lights with an eraser (or bread), and occasionally wet the charcoal with a brush to make a solid dark. You will do the first three.

Willow charcoal is soft, forgiving and lifts almost completely. Break a stick to about two inches and lay it on its side for the masses. Use the end for the trunk and branch zig-zag. Soften an edge with a stump or a fingertip. Lift the sky holes, the lit tops of clumps and the pale distance with a kneaded eraser. Keep the grain of the paper showing in the sky and distance; fill it only in the deepest darks.

Charcoal moves if you breathe on it. Work with a slip sheet, do not lean on the drawing, and spray it with workable fixative when it is finished. Keep charcoal sessions to the Mass unit until you are confident; it is a medium that rewards decisiveness and punishes fiddling.

From your kit

The whole kit →
  1. 1Willow charcoal when it arrives; until then Pitt Matt 12B and 14B on their sides the matt grades are the closest graphite comes to the side of a willow stick.
  2. 2Pitt Matt 14B, knife-sharpened your charcoal pencil for the trunk and the zig-zag branch.
  3. 3Kneaded eraser (warmed) and a rolled paper stump lift the lights; lose the base edge.

Visuals

Landscape (The Large Tree), Corot, c. 1865–70
Cleveland Museum of Art

Corot, Landscape (The Large Tree), c. 1865–70. charcoal with stumping, erasing, and wet brushwork on light brown wove paper.

Corot, Landscape (The Large Tree), c. 1865 to 1870. Charcoal with stumping, erasing and wet brushwork on light brown wove paper. The whole method in one sheet.

The Cleveland Museum of Art · Bequest of Muriel Butkin

Cross-section of paper showing graphite sitting on the peaks of the tooth, which is why light pressure leaves white in the valleysPAPER TOOTH (MAGNIFIED)light pressure: peaks only, grain showsmore layers or pressure: valleys fillCorot let the grain show for air and light. Fill the valleys only where you want a solid dark.
FigureCharcoal sits on the tooth even more than graphite does. The grain is the air.

Pitfalls

What

Blending the whole drawing smooth with a finger.

Why

Everything goes the same grey and the light dies.

Fix

Blend only inside the darkest masses. Lift lights instead of leaving them.

What

Compressed charcoal from the start.

Why

It does not lift and goes black immediately.

Fix

Willow only until the Mass unit's last lesson.