This was one of the last drawings I did from life in my old studio before getting married. Like the drawing in the previous post, I drew it from life, then shot the still life in various lighting set ups to use as reference for development into an oil painting.
Two things about this drawing:
One - I took great care to get the lettering on the towel correct. As I stated two posts ago concerning tracing reference images, I’ve done that as a time-saver, but since I was under no deadline on this piece I enjoyed working totally from life and nailing the thing really right. Always good to work from life at least some of the time.
Two - I havent taken this piece any further because I couldn’t come to grips with the cheesy hand-held Steeler “fan” thingy I used in the still life. I may just remove that totally if I do this up in oils.
I initially considered sticking a football in that spot and just throwing it (pun intended) into shadow. But then I was concerned about visual size issues. The helmet is a miniature replica and if I put a regulation-sized football next to it, the helmet may look really out of whack. By the same token, if I put a small football next to the helmet, the size relationship may be true, but may still make the overall piece look really strange. Right now I think that removing the fan, and cropping real tight on the helmet and towel (as shown below) may be the way to go.
If you've any better ideas please e-mail me.
In any case, I’m way too nervous about the AFC championship game next Sunday to do anything about this composition now, so this piece will sit in the “to do” vault in my head along with a bunch of other subject ideas for a while.
joe@joewinklerart.com
JoeWinklerArt.com
