Prague Sketchbook - The Swordsman Who Looks Vaguely Familiar

This page had more figures on it, as you can see. I was a bit taken back by the illustrative quality, especially of the figure on the right. Usually I have a tendency to leave figures unfinished but something made me put some effort onto the figure on the right. On the left hand side of the page there are a variety of things happening but I keyed in on the two profiles that I thought were the most significant areas from this page. 

I liked this punk portrait. I don't remember seeing any punks in Prague but here it is. I have come across a few punks in my life, and almost all of them I have seen them while I was in the States. There is an edgy quality that they advertise and I have always respected the alternative quality that they offer to our society. I suppose this thought just sort of had to come out onto paper while I was in Prague.

This profile leaves me looking and thinking. I keep looking at the area where you should see his eyes. The way the shadows were drawn keeps the eyes engaged on the darker areas of the image, and the grey shade on the chin and neck area of the face somehow balances the overall structure of the face. I stare because I imagine and anticipate the sort of eyes that this person has, but an indefinite source of light drops a very dark shadow over the face so it is hard to define. The profile looks like it could be of  a young european man in his mid 20's. 

The overall vibe that I get from this drawing is not very strong but what does grab my attention is the focus of detail on the figures face. This drawing was done without any references so I remember struggling to get the anatomy to look right, at least to my liking. I had to put some thought onto the characters knees, face and hands.

This figures face reminds me of a friends face from when I was in Chicago. He was a very close friend of mine and I think somehow his face just sort of got transfered onto this character.

I quite liked the way the hands were rendered. I liked the comfortable, loose looking hands and wrist resting on the hilt of the sword. I especially like the thumb resting on the hilt. The majority of the thumb is covered but you can get the basic idea and imagine the overall look of the thumb.