So Many Marble Heads, So Little Time...

Last month I went to the Yale Art Gallery.  Last month was before this month.  This month I haven't had a day off from my day job(s) PLUS I've had a logo project that had a very tight deadline.  That's my excuse for not posting anything to the blog lately. I'm definitely looking forward to Sunday where I will probably vegetate on the couch. Now that, that's done. Here is some art!

PENCILS ONLY!!! No water media is allowed in the galleries...  I scoped out this beautiful scene with sunlight cutting across the room.  Unfortunately, after I inspected all vantage points of the room and finally decided that the bench in the center offered the best place to sit and view, a young couple beat me to it by a couple of steps!  

Apparently they didn't know I was an artist and should be treated like a celebrity in museums.  (It's so vain, lol, but it's kinda true.) I wish I could bring red velvet ropes around and cordon off areas so that I could have my own little VIP room and keep all the riffraff at a safe distance.

So there went 15 minutes of precious drawing time I'll never get back.

Naturally, at the end of the day I noticed literally one hundred artist stools conveniently located at the main entrance...

I'm using water-soluble pencils from Derwent.  Check out the awesome sunlight action!

I made an escape to Jojo's for some much needed espresso.  That gave me some time to wet the paper a bit with a water brush.

I added a couple more quarters to the parking meter and then hustled back over to the gallery for another go at it with the pencils. The light was a lot less dramatic after my little break... But it still helped me to solidify some of the shapes with a better value structure.

Here's the final image after I added more value to the background to get the busts in the foreground to stand out more.

If I were to do it again, I'd remember to bring a pencil! That way the original drawing is good as possible. (I would have liked more detail in the faces.) It's hard to paint over a poorly drawn image!