Wednesday Evening Sketching At The Museum

Took another visit to the  Museum of Fine Arts on Wednesday for Drawing in the Galleries. I always find my visits exciting and challenging. It was the third Wednesday of the month and this means no model but sketching any objects within the different galleries. I decided to visit the  Roman gallery section and try my hand at drawing Roman busts. This can be very challenging since I have not sketched in a few weeks. My first thoughts begin by comparing positive and negative spaces that define the shape of each Roman head. How does the nose, with the Augustus(Roman) bust compare to the eyes or for that matter the mouth. Are the eyes situated to the right just above the ears correctly? All of the individual parts of the head must be placed just right otherwise the head does not look what it should like. I am continuously comparing areas of each part of the head before I place my pencil marks. I believe it took me about and hour and fifteen minutes before I started to warm up to the sketching process. Take a look at the sketches above to view my results. Sketching is a great way to train the mind and eye to see, observe and draw. This reminds me of a thought by Walt Stanchfield (well know Disney artist) said "Sketching is a way of awakening and sharpening our awareness. If our awareness is sluggish, some of the impressions we receive through our senses, which are so important to drawing, will be overlooked. My next visit to the Wednesday sketching session will involve the figure. When I have some samples to show I will post them .