Here is a recent drawing I did from one of the many reference photos of busts and sculptures I shot on trips to the National Gallery in Washington D.C. This is Lorenzo De Medici (Magnifico).
I Used Generals 2B charcoal pencil on this crazy paper that looks like canvas, but feels like plastic. I got the paper at the ad agency I used to work for. It was on a pile of sample pieces of paper that a sales rep had dropped off years before. It was going to be thrown in the trash, so I salvaged it. Really tough to get a wide variety of values with it, but sometimes that can be good since all you need is three values for an effective drawing.
Sometime I will draw directly from sculptures while in a museum, but I always shoot reference anyway. When shooting reference like this in a museum, never get up close, and preferably don’t use your phone. The image gets skewed too much I feel. The right way to shoot sculpture busts is by doing what good portrait photographers do— stand back as far as you can and use a long zoom lens to bring your subject in close.
The lens I use is 210mm, but you don't need to be that far away. Another tip is to try to include something in the frame that you know to be true, like the edge of a wall or doorway to the next gallery. That way you have a plumb line of sorts to guide you when processing and straightening the image as needed before drawing it.
Lorenzo De Medici was loved by some, hated by many, and ruled late 14th century Florence like a mafioso at time when the city was losing influence to Rome. But dammit he kept bread prices low for the working class! His family home is now a police station, which is probably why our tour guide wouldn’t take us inside.
