This time of year is always tough for me on the sketching front. Besides it being a busy time of year, I always get lethargic while getting used to living in the dark (we’ve only got about 9 hours of daylight these days). To top it off, this year I’ve had the flu and now seem to be have some intestinal thing. This has been very disappointing because our weather has been very atypical (ie low 40s F) and I should be out walking/sketching.
Whatever the reasons, the bottom line is that while I continue to draw (scribble?) at home, I haven’t gotten out sketching much. Here’s a sketch I did the last time I was at the museum. The model for it is a leg from a ‘bier’, the low table upon which a sarcophagus was placed.
This guy is Bes, a dwarf god. He must be popular as there are several versions of him in the museum’s Egyptian exhibit. He was hard to draw because it’s so darn dark in the exhibit that it’s hard to see the shapes. On several occasions I had to swing my booklight around and shine it on him so I could see the statue.
Stillman & Birn Beta, Namiki Falcon, DeAtramentis Document Black
The green background really makes him (and his substantial belly) pop! I hear ya about the lack of daylight hours. The weatherman just said that Monday was our darkest day all year, due to the thick cloud cover as well as short day. Sigh.
Tina
I can so relate to this, except I have been lucky to not get the flu (it can take months to recover fully, so take good care). Today, the sun rises at 09:36 and goes to bed at 13:11. Thank god it turns on the 22th! I know I would be happier going out for as little as a half hour in the evening to sketch (I have a black sketchbook with white crayons, but haven´t used it yet this year), but I just snuggle up in the sofa with an old episode of Time Team or a crime novel. Now, after reading your post and seeing your sketch, I have made a date with a friend to go to the regional museum on Saturday, to do some sketching! Thank you for the inspiration! 🙂
I sometimes deal with our shortened days by telling myself it could be much worse and think of those of you in even more northerly countries 🙂
I would go nuts without museum sketching. For the most part I see it as practice as I’m really a street sketcher. But there’s so much variation in the objects in museums that it can really stretch your abilities to capture them, at least for me. Besides, it’s warm 🙂 — Larry