Architectural Sculpture - P,G & E building Part 2

Today I'm sketching the other side of the architectural sculpture on the Pacific Gas and Electric Company's building in San Francisco. Yesterday I struggled with the sketch on several different levels; drawing the human form because my knowledge of anatomy needs work, getting a better likeness on the face and getting the hands to look realistic. I had a disadvantage in that the photo was not of the best quality but still, with practice, I could do better. I also ran out of sketchbook space because I'd drawn the head too big. So today I've started by roughly sketching out the portion of the sculpture that I want to draw. to make sure I can fit it on the page.

Next I've plotted out the main shadows to help me create the form of the figure. Using a mechanical pencil with 0.5mm lead I build light layers of cross-hatching lines, trying to mimic the shapes of the shadows on the body.

The light on the sculpture is coming from many different directions; the sculpture is set back into the building but the stone is light in colour and reflects the light as well as light reflected by the buildings, cars etc in front of the sculpture. This reflected and diffused light makes it a little harder to see the shadows clearly rather than if there was only one light source but that's the challenge of sketching from a photo taken in this kind of light.

 

By roughly shading in the shapes of the shadows on the figure I start to get a better feel for the form and the sketch starts to look a bit more solid. He's by no means perfect but it's a better sketch than yesterday, so hopefully I'm making progress!

 

After adding in some sketchy detail to the surrounding building it becomes apparent that the figure is too even in tonal values and doesn't stand out enough. I'm realising more and more that the quality of the photo combined with the evident weathering on the sculpture is making it harder to distinguish detail on the figure, and with my need for more practice at figure drawing this possibly wasn't the best resource material I could have chosen!

 

After picking out the darker shadows on the figure and laying down more pencil in those areas the sculptured figure starts to look a bit more solid and fitting in with its surroundings. I'm going to leave it at this stage and focus more on anatomy than sculptured figures, I need to refresh and boost my knowledge, but on the whole I'm fairly happy with the sketch.