I meant to get this up on the blog several weeks ago but the weather has been so bad I couldn't take a proper photo. These drawings were done at Christmas, we visited the National Museum in Edinburgh for a day and whilst I did take my sketchbook, in reality I spent most of the time chasing after my son who was having a wail of a time running off everywhere :)
But I ended up going back by myself for two more days and it was bliss. Not that it wasn't without it's difficulties, the first day was tough, lots of people filing past/ blocking the light and I also couldn't figure out what type of drawing I wanted to do. In the end I actually got a decent page of pencil drawings from day one but then I ruined them by trying to go over them in ink and wash afterwards. This is the hard thing about learning, you have to accept that quite often you will balls it up. I'd love to be good with pen and ink but I find it the hardest thing to master.
Which brings me to day two. Less busy and the museum has quite a nice Egyptology section. Looking at the statues really reminded me of the amazing pencil drawings by Disney artist Paul Felix on Emperor' s New Groove. They were drawn in blended graphite and although I decided to try out carbon pencil instead, essentially I was thinking that instead of drawing in line I would be drawing in tone. Similar idea.
And it turns out I really like carbon pencil. It feels like a cross between pencil and charcoal but best of all it blends very nicely but doesn't cause a mess like charcoal. And drawing tonally works very well in an environment like a museum because trying to build your drawing up in line takes way too long.
The drawing on the top right is my least favorite I think I really lost the idea of concentrating on the simple shapes first, on the other drawings I managed this better and I think it shows.
I've been busy in work for a long time now and the tiredness is affecting my ability to get out and draw. I haven't lost my enthusiasm for it but I am physically done at the weekends. But for those two days at Christmas it was really nice to feel rested, de-stressed and get out there with the sketch pad. I hope that there are more days like that this year. I think about that Neil Gaiman speech a lot and right now that mountain seems mighty far away.....
