Sketching Masters Of Olympus

It’s the end of April and our high temps are still in the mid to low 40s (F).  Couple that with spring rains and I haven’t had much opportunity to sketch outdoors.  So, when the new Masters of Olympus exhibition opened at the Musee de la Civilisation I saw it as an opportunity to sketch something new.  Museum sketching is a winter thing, even if winter is at the end of April.

This exhibition is a presentation of Greek and Roman gods, mostly in the form of statues, busts, and painted pottery.  The exhibition must have been laid out by a sketcher as there are lots of little nooks and crannies in which you can stick a stool to sketch and most of the statues are viewable from multiple points of view.  In fact, following the opening ceremony the news promo for the exhibit made a point of saying that people were there sketching.  I love my sketcher-friendly museum.

I decided to start this new exhibit by putting a toe in the water.  In fact, I drew the whole foot.  This foot came from what must have been a huge statue as this broken portion of the foot is at least three feet long.

Pilot Prera, Lex Gray ink – Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook