A while back when I was on vacation in San Francisco I photographed a lot of the architectural sculpture that adorns the city's buildings and in particular the Pacific Gas and Electric Company's building. So when I was browsing back through my holiday snaps I came across these figures which caught my eye, although I'm not sure the photo does them justice, and chose the one on the left for today's sketch. I've already noted previously that I need more practice drawing figures and heads from different angles and as the angle is from below I thought this would make a good exercise.
The photo I used was not the best reference material but I thought the subject was worth using a little artistic license to achieve a reasonable sketch. I started with the head which I drew too small and had to re-sketch it a little bigger. Unfortunately I ended up with the head being too big but I'll get to that later.
The shadows were the most visible detail on the photo so I decided to plot out the features using the shadow shapes first; basically I focus on the outline of the shapes the shadows make and draw these instead of the outline for, say, the eyes.
I continued that process until I had a rough plan of the features.
I sketched using just a mechanical pencil at this point. The effect this had was to limit the range of tonal values I could achieve from light to dark which can make the drawing appear a little flat with not much depth. But often when I have a sketchbook to hand I don't have a range of drawing materials, usually just the mechanical pencil or a Biro pen, so it's worth practicing with these tools to improve my skills, enabling me to capture what I see realistically or however I intend to represent it..
There's a fair bit of weathering and discolouration on the sculpture which makes it hard to see the detail, but my skills are lacking when it comes to sketching stone-carved hair.
Rather than just sketching the figure on its own I decided to work outwards and fill in the surrounding detail. Using reference points around the head I was able to outline the arm, which was foreshortened so I had to take care to get the length, thickness and angle right. Often, to help myself see if it is right, I'll draw a line around the limb as if I'm cutting a cross-section out and that enables me to see more easily the direction the limb is following.
I built up the darker shades by using hatching and cross-hatching lines and then blending more lines into the darkest parts to create the form. The neck is not quite right and I think it's because of the twist of the neck, I just couldn't adequately represent the muscle as it twisted. I need more practice with anatomy!
The arm is bunched up as the right hand rests on top of the left, and the view from underneath the sculpture makes the elbow look bigger in surface than it would normally look. I have a tendency to let my brain rule my eyesight and reduce what I see to match what I think I expect to see and so I have to look and look again to remind myself that the arm at that point is thicker than normal. I also struggle to draw hands with any great skill, it's always been my weak point and even though these took a long time and I'm still not happy with them.
Next I concentrated on the stonework around the sculpture and, laying a sheet of clean paper over the sketch so as not to smudge it, I turned the sketchbook almost upside down to draw the curves of the stone blocks. I did this because, for me, it is easier to draw a curve rising upwards away from me than trying to get my hand to curve downwards and turn in on itself. I'll often turn the sketchbook to make it easier to draw a curve; there's no point making things harder than they have to be!
I used the pencil in light sweeping motions to sketch the lines that create the shading of the stonework. Although the stonework is light in comparison to parts of the sculpture I needed to eradicate the white from the paper and find the right tone to make the stonework look as it it's behind the sculpture.
I added a little pen to darken around the eyes and face as it looked a little flat, but I'm not sure that I've improved it at all. Because I initially sketched the head a little larger it resulted in my not being able to fit much if the sculpture on the sketchpad, so I've only sketched a tiny portion of the overall image. Doh! The likeness of the face to the sculpture isn't as good as I would have liked and I need more practice with anatomy, and in particular hands. Having said all that I'm happy with the form and detail I've achieved with the mechanical pencil in what was a fairly quick sketch.
