The Landscape SKETCH

About The Landscape Workshop

SESSION 1: October 6, 20, 4 to 6PM on ZOOM

SESSION 2: November 3, 10, 17, 22: 4 to 5PM on ZOOM + MURAL

THE LANDSCAPE SKETCH WORKSHOP with Karen Meneghin
(2019, Met Copyist, Fontainebleau: Oak Trees at Bas-Bréau*, Founder, Zane Grey Plein Air)

COROT’S LANDSCAPE SKETCHES are ideal as a skills building exercise (materials, techniques and perception) and as visual documentation of his process in the development of complex compositions found in his large studio works. For example, Corot’s Oak Trees at Bas-Bréau, oil sketch on paper, painted in 1832 or 1833, can be found in a large biblical painting from 1835, “Hagar in the Wilderness.”

Traditionally oil sketches or “studies on paper” were painted prior to large studio works, but in their own right are highly collectible and an informative resource for artists and students.

“Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (July 16, 1796 – February 22, 1875) was a French landscape and portrait painter as well as a printmaker (etching). He is a pivotal figure in landscape painting and his vast output simultaneously references the Neo-Classical tradition and anticipates the plein-air innovations of Impressionism."

PART 1: INTRODUCTION TO COROT SLIDESHOW
Survey comparison of Corot’s sketches by style, content and media

• GESTURE: LYRICAL NOTATIONS AND FIRST IMPRESSIONS

• DENSE GESTURE: COMPOSITION THROUGH LINE

• TONAL: SHAPES AND SILHOUETTES IN COMPOSITIONS

• NATURE STUDIES: INDIVIDUAL DETAILS — TREES, ROCKS, ETC. AND COMPOSITIONS

• COMPOSITIONS: VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL

• DRY MEDIA TECHNIQUES: pencil, charcoal (white/black), pastel, conté crayon

• WET MEDIA TECHNIQUES: ink, watercolor, gouache, oil

• SURFACES: TONED PAPER AND CUSTOM HAND-TONED PAPER

PART 1: STUDIO ASSIGNMENTS
BASED ON YOUR PHOTO REFERENCES: Create multiple drawings using dry media in the following styles:

1. GESTURE: LOOSE, LYRICAL NOTATIONS AND FIRST IMPRESSIONS

2. DENSE GESTURE: SHAPES and COMPOSITION THROUGH BUILDUP OF LINES

3. TONAL: SHAPES AND SILHOUETTES IN COMPOSITIONS: EXPLORE THE

4. NATURE STUDIES: OBSERVATION IN FINE DETAIL — TREES, ROCKS, ATMOSPHERE

PART 2: REVIEW ASSIGNMENTS AS A GROUP on ZOOM/MURAL
CHOOSE ONE DRAWING to fully develop as a painting in GOUACHE, WATERCOLOR OR OIL on paper, hot press watercolor paper, illustration board, gesso board or canvas
Larger formats: 9 x 12, 12 x 14 or 16 x 20

Drawing Materials List

DRY MEDIA: Suggested papers and sketchbook should be suitable for further work in mixed media. An expanded list of materials is available on: (Amazon)

• **Drawing Pencils: Blick Studio: B, 2B, 4B or another brand

• **Erasers: kneaded and pink gum

• Paper Mate Tuff Stuff eraser pen (medium tip)

• Mono Zero by Tombow eraser pen ( fine tip)

• **White Pastel or Charcoal pencil (Generals)

• **Pencil sharpener: Faber-Castell Grip Trio Sharpener Arts and Crafts, Multi;

• **Sandpaper block charcoal

• **Drawing board; masonite w/clip or masking tape; Vencer Artist Sketch Tote Board, Studio or Field Use (13"x 17")

• Paper: Stonehenge Aqua HOT PRESS (9 x 12, 140 lb, white) for all media

• **Paper: Canson Mi-Teintes, Earth colors, 9 x 12 OR Canson Mi-Teintes, Gray Tones, 9 x 12

• Sketchbook: Canson 100510927 XL Series Mix Paper Pad, Heavyweight, Fine Texture, Heavy Sizing for Wet and Dry Media, Side Wire Bound, 98 Pound, 9 x 12 Inch, 60 Sheets

**MUST HAVES

*Fontainebleau: Oak Trees at Bas-Bréau, Camille Corot,1832 or 1833
Corot painted this study in the summer of 1832 or 1833 in Bas-Bréau, a section of Fontainebleau forest that was famous for its immense oak trees. It was executed in the naturalistic style that he had previously developed in Italy. The tree reappears in Hagar in the Wilderness, the large canvas he exhibited at the 1835 Paris Salon. Improbably, in his realization of that biblical scene, Corot transplanted the oak from northern France to the Palestine desert.