I found myself chuckling at myself as I struggled to use pencil to draw this plaster head of what may or may not be one of the Greek gods of old.  Besides an uncertainty about the subject, the placard said that it was created in 50AD and was once part of a full statue.  I thought it nice and besides, there was a seat available.

I was chuckling because I couldn’t help but think of how people talk about moving from pencil to pen.  It’s said to be “scary” or “really hard.”  I’ve done almost all my sketching with fountain pens and I find sketching with pencil to be “really hard.”  I’m unsure of the marks I make with pencil and certainly skills like graded tones elude me.  But it sure is fun, as is every kind of sketching I’ve done.  Maybe I’m kidding myself but I think the more lines I put on paper the better I will get so that’s my goal.  As I make those marks, I just hope that some of them resemble what I’m trying to draw.  Occasionally they do.

Anyways, this drawing was done on Strathmore Series 300 vellum bristol paper.  I like it for this sort of drawing because it’s stiff enough to stand on its own and seems to like pencil.  I used Mars Lumograph pencils this time.

Asclepius???
50AD