Drawing in the Dark

Dark driech days call for Urban Sketching indoors and last Sunday I headed of to the Museum for Franconia in Würzburg. I'd been there during the summer with guests so I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to sketch before I arrived. I probably would have needed ages before I decided on a motif so quick decisions, sit down and get on! What I chose was armour, and here is my sketch!I had to work on the photos with filters because it was basically drawing in the dark. My eyes are dodgy at the best of times but in winter and dimmed lighting well is pretty much like drawing with a black hood pulled over your head. 

Armour itself is fascinating, many of the most beautiful and amazing pieces were made in Augsburg and can be found in museums all over the world, including the Tower of London! Made in Germany was even a thing with knights. 

I like the fact that museums offer seating, here we had lovely, designy black folding stools but great but I find keeping control of my equipment tricky. Two stools would have been easier and at least when you sit on the floor you have everything within easy reach but getting up from the floor after sitting for 11/2 hours is tricky. My sketch completed (how do I know? When I start to fouter around then I know, finito!). I moved my stool closer to the suits of armour. 

After the sketchiness of my showcases, I decided to do details with pencil as a contrast, this is around about the codpiece, straps, buckles and metal knobs (how appropriate), then it was time to focus on a shoulder detail. 

Interestingly, last week I watched a documentary about armour and yes, they were heavy and looked cumbersome but one ''knight'' demonstrated actually how flexible they could be in hand to hand combat. The knight was able to duck to the ground, roll over and dodge blows. The construction with leather straps, flexible joints and movable, adjustable panels made for interesting motifs and thoughts of life at that time when you had to fight so arrayed. One thing is for certain, no way you were up for dressing yourself in this kit, or taking oit off quickly to follow a call of nature.

Now that is one of the advantages of sketching in a museum! Loos, if you can find them in the dark.