Statue of St Michael - 2nd time around

After yesterday's disappointing attempt at sketching this statue I decided to have another go today. I didn't want to repeat the approach I tried before, although I did loosely measure out the figure on the paper with some light pencil lines. Instead, rather than outlining the whole drawing, I started with the head and planned to sketch outwards from there, plotting the figure using reference points around the body and the decoration behind.

I used a mechanical pencil with a 0.5mm lead and a black Bic Biro pen. The head is about 2.5cm in height.

I was just as tired as yesterday but must have been paying more attention to the pose of the figure - it was a lot more successful. I definitely need more figure drawing practice, but one thing I have been able to change immediately from yesterday is that the sketch is on a larger sketchbook and although the sketch itself isn't any bigger it does give me more room by putting the sketch further up the page, which seems to work better for me.

 

By checking and re-checking the position of the shoulder and the tip of the wing in relation to the head I'm more able to quickly sketch out the position of the wing and decoration in the background, and so the sketch grows outwards. When looking at angles of edges or lines, such as those in the wings I tend to hold the pencil upright in front of the line I'm trying to draw and tilt the pencil to match the angle. It helps my brain note the angle more clearly and seems to transfer to my hand more accurately when I sketch the line on the paper. I'll repeat this process several times if necessary to get the angle right.

Using the black pen I pick out the shadows by shading in with hatching and cross-hatching techniques and build up the darkest areas layer by layer.

 

Although the marks it makes are permanent you can use a Biro pen a lot like a pencil. With a light pressure you can put down just a little ink on the paper creating a lighter line, and by increasing the pressure or by going over the lines again you can create a darker line and so build shading, form and depth into the sketch. By practicing different mark-making techniques you can build different textures as well as shading. Although I use a Biro pen all the time for quick, notated sketches when sculpting, I'm out of practice in using the pen with more finesse and subtlety, so this is a good opportunity to practice both my figure-drawing and my control over drawing with a pen.

 

By building layers of ink to create darkness and depth there's a lot of ink on the paper and so I always put down a sheet of plain paper over the sketch where my hand sits so that I don't accidentally smudge the ink while it dries. 

When I start on the other wing I will draw light pencil lines across from one wing to the other so that the layers of feathers are the same size and will line up. I always have a problem reading layers like this; as I work down the wing I easily lose track of where I am, which layer I'm on, and can often end up putting in an extra part of the wing, but by drawing the lines across it stops me doing that. If I'm working from a photo I'll often mark up the photo in the same way and even number them to counteract this problem

 

While I'm letting the sketch develop in in outward direction I still take time to look at the overall picture and check the values of light and dark as a whole, otherwise, by focusing on small individual areas at a time, it's easy to put too much of the same dark values in parts of the drawing that aren't supposed to be that dark and then the drawing doesn't read right, the form gets distorted and the overall depth becomes too shallow. Or I'll end up having to go over the whole drawing trying to darken those already dark areas and I don't want the extra work! 

 

But time has beaten me today, so I'll leave the sketch there for now. Although I need a lot more practice I'm happy with the progress I've made since yesterday and that's a good place to stop at.

Statue of St Michael (attempted!)

One of the subjects I turn to when I'm lacking inspiration as to what to sketch is statues, whether to depict historical events, religious or notable figures in churches, commemorative or public art, there's plenty to choose from and with a multitude of realistic representational works they can be useful for practicing drawing the human figure, and I always need the practice. There is, in Salisbury Cathedral, a beautiful sculpture of St Michael, archangel and the field commander of the Army of God, resplendent with sword and shield and battle armour stood atop a defeated serpent. I wanted to focus in on the statue with some of the ironwork around it.

Well, that was my plan. I have stated that I will share my sketches, good and bad, and today's exercise didn't go so well....

 

I started by measuring up the overall figure, sketching a rough pose. Using the same mechanical pencil as before but a smaller sketchbook than previously.

I had to sketch and re-sketch the figure several times, I just couldn't seem to get the lines where I wanted them, a breakdown between my drawing hand and my brain.

The sketch doesn't look too bad on the face of it but I know the measurements are a little off, enough to make adding further detail to the sketch frustrating and not worthwhile without re-drawing the proportions more accurately. I know the raised hand is weakly drawn, but no matter how many times I re-draw it it just doesn't get any better.

At this stage my frustration has resulted in pressing too hard on the paper and so to erase the lines proves pointless. I think there were several reasons why this didn't go so well today: I'm tired, I found it irritating that I had to 'squeeze' the sketch onto the smaller paper (obviously then I'm happier working on a larger scale), I was too lazy to take the time to plot and measure the figure out properly and on reflection I think I might have ended up with the head a little big, thus throwing off all the other measuring points.

Of course the main reason could be that I need a lot more practice to improve my figure drawing skills!!