Bits and pieces.

In keeping with the Roman tombstone blog of a couple of weeks ago I'd like to share some work I did a while back concerning a reconstruction of a Roman auxiliary cavalry helmet.  It wasn't done for anything in particular, except that I find such things interesting and like to study them.

In the UK we have a rich historical past and that means plenty of archaeology that needs intricate study in the labs of museums up and down the country, and plenty more still in the ground just waiting to be discovered.  Recently a couple of Roman cavalry helmets have come to light in Britain and I have concentrated on a helmet found in a place called Hallaton in Leicestershire.

A cavalry sports helmet found at Ribchester in Lancashire in 1796.  It would originally have been silvered.  Wikipedia commons.

It was found in 2000 through the efforts of Ken Wallace, a member of the Hallaton field walking group, and the pieces were dug out of the ground still in blocks of earth and spent the next nine years at the British Museum where they were conserved.  The helmet is now on permanent display at the Harborough museum in Market Harborough.

The Hallaton helmet in Harborough museum.  Wikipedia commons

It's of a type called a 'cavalry sports helmet' quite a number of which have been discovered around the Roman world, and would have been used in ceremonial events and in certain kinds of military sports displays.  Probably manufactured in the early 1st century AD it is made of sheets of iron, and would have originally been given a silvered surface, and  been covered with extensive embossed decoration.  Some of this detail has survived, but a lot was badly damaged so part of the game here is to closely scrutinise photographs taken when the helmet was still covered in dirt and see if something can be made of them.

Hallaton helmet cheek guard showing detail of mounted officer with a winged victory.  Wikipedia commons/the author

One of the cheek guards, the left one, was in a reasonable state of preservation and a figure of a general or possibly an emperor can be seen in the typical formulaic Roman manner, riding a horse over the prone body of a barbarian.  This was fairly easy to visualise as most of it was still there, but the front of the crown of the helmet was a sad ruin.  Something of a female head and shoulders portrait can be made out just above the face of the wearer, but most of the top of the head and face of this portrait is missing.

The female portrait at the front of the helmet.  Probably a Roman goddess or local deity.  Wikipedia commons.

As this is very badly eroded only the general sense of the original can be gleaned from study of photographs. So a certain amount of speculation has to be indulged in, and a certain amount of  - yes invention.  The portrait is probably of a Roman goddess possibly Victory, or a local deity.  We all know more or less what a Roman/Greek goddess looks like where statues are concerned.  I'm sure the ancient Romans/Greeks could tell the difference pretty easily, and professors of Roman/Greek history can properly lecture on the ways and means of telling them apart, but to most of us they are fairly similar in look.

And of course all we have to work with here is a head and shoulders. On very close examination you can just make out that she has some plaits of hair hanging at each side of the head, and is wearing some kind of tunic, the creases of which are still just visible.  On either side of the portrait are two lions with prey, in the above image you can just make out the head of a ram on the left of the picture.  These things are heavily eroded and again much imagination was needed to realise these figures, but my own scrutiny of the photographs lead me to believe that the lion is lying down and not on it's haunches as I've seen in other reconstructions.  However they are the experts and have actual access to the real helmet so I'm happy to concede that I am probably wrong. 

So here is my two penn'uth, and it's about as close as I can get without actually seeing the real helmet.  Why did I bother?  As an exercise in drawing and understanding, all part of an artist/illustrators work. 

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The Party Line

We used to have a book knocking about the house, its subject British early to mid twentieth century newspaper cartoons.  In the book were illustrated several cartoons by Sir Bernard Partridge.

Partridge was an arch conservative, whose natural political stance was reactionary, and who seemed to be against everything.  He didn't want unions, or votes for women, was all for the British Empire and if workers went on strike for tuppence ha'penny more in wages, then they were obviously inspired by the devil.  He worked in cliches, drawing all socialists and trade unionists as Lenin look-alikes who carried suspicious attache cases, the workers were always good souls led astray (you could tell they had integrity by the way they always smoked a pipe) and the businessmen were always shown as tough and uncompromising but misunderstood.  Whatever they did wrong - they were still right.

Bernard Partridge

And his cartoons were also very traditional in approach; they were drawn pretty much in the same way from the 1880's right up to the Second World War, only the costumes changed.  But by god could he draw.  At its best Partridge's style has the same kind of sinewy 'engraved' line  you see in the work of that great Edwardian illustrator Arthur Rackham.  I first saw his cartoons at about the age of thirteen or fourteen and they were probably the first such work I ever studied.  There were two I especially remember.  

I knew a little about the First World War and the politics that led up to it so I came to these cartoons with some understanding, but the thing I really appreciated because it could be seen instantly, was the quality.

The first cartoon showed the Kaiser sitting at a table in full Germanic regalia, cloak, sword and helmet with a spike.  He has before him an hourglass and he is watching it with rapt attention.  On the hourglass is inscribed the word 'Militarism' and the caption is 'The Sands Run Out'.

Partridge really knew his huns!

I told you he was traditional!  But the image has immence visual impact, it is dramatic, dark, threatening, brooding - in short, all the things the press constantly stated the Kaiser to be.  All summed up in one vital drawing.  I don't remember copying this cartoon, but I spent long periods studying it.

The second image, I think dating from just before the First World War is a beautiful drawing showing Germania the Goddess of Germany (Partridge always depicted countries as Grecian, Nordic or Roman Goddesses!  He inherited the idea from Tenniel,) leaning on the ramparts of her coastal defences looking out to sea.

She is looking out at a distant British Dreadnought, a type of early ironclad battleship, and she's saying something like 'I wish I had one of those eagles!'  The quick confident deftness used to draw her figure, the way she gracefully leans against the ramparts shows an expert hand.

I bet Angela Merkel's got a winged helmet, long robe and a fish scale corsalet in her wardrobe.

But Partridge's own opinion of his work was quite low; he thought that his work was 'second rate' and that he was 'little more than a hack draughtsman.'  This only shows the high level of expectation that he had set himself and the high quality that artists tried to attain generally at that time.

Politically I can't stomach the party line he followed, but in all other respects his line was excellent.


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A head turner

Continuing the saga of the Ba bird, and I know that I promised arms last week, but a second thought is never a bad one.  Although I was quite happy with the colouring last week, I am still disappointed with the fairly dull manner with which the subject is presented.  Why didn't I do something with the wings?  Why is it so static?  But these are pretty familiar questions any artist will ask themselves, even when the work is actually better than they think.

However, I fear that this is worse than I think!  How to pep it up a bit?  What options might there be?  Well, changing the direction of the head is a good start.  We find it more pleasing when a figure is shown in full, if the head is turned in the opposite direction to that of the body.  This will apply even with a head to waist image.  It gives the body the illusion of motion and therefore life, and so adds more interest to a drawing or painting.  But we've got this far, is it worth turning back.  I think so, because you start a piece of work with a vision in your head of what you'd like it to be, and you have to struggle towards that.  If it means starting again or getting rid of a portion of the work then do it, because you almost certainly will do it better next time.  You've already gone through it once - look at the practice you've had!

The terrible deed is done - I sliced off her head and stuck it back on - brutal!

But I'll concede, starting again can be tricky, especially if you're painting on paper of canvas.  With this digital image there are certain things that make it easier.  She's floating on a layer, so I can cut her head off and flip it over.  Obviously there are some instances where this doesn't work, if the head is in an awkward position  for a reversal, but if its possible it's an easy thing to do.  Then you have the work of joining it all together again - that's what's putting you off isn't it?

In this case it's just a matter of hard slog, restructuring the neck to take account of the great tendon that shows when someone turns their neck (especially skinny people), the windpipe and the slight dip in the neck just above the collar bones.  Getting rid of the hair is easy enough, digitally sample the flesh colours near the gaps and begin to repaint. 

It looks a mess, but its all under control - no really - it is.

Then begin again on the feathers of the breast, so that they gradually blend into the skin.  Those pesky arms have got to fit onto the main torso as well, so whatever I do has to keep them in mind.  The fall of hair now on the left of the picture no longer has to move forward to go over the shoulder, and can hang straight, so this has to be corrected.

The neck now re-painted, with a few minor readjustments to the hair.

Now I'm forced to give some serious thought about the arms, because a. I need to know where I'm going to attach them to a structure pretty alien to human anatomy and b. because I'm a little worried about them, as my experiments along those lines haven't worked out very well.  The shoulders are the important starting points, where they are will dictate how the rest of the arms will look, so placing them in a convincing position is the next stage.

Just started to place the shoulders.

With this last picture you can see how I've approached that, and now hope to slowly build the arms up from this.  I originally said I would have her holding a manuscript - that's changed to a box.  So next week some arms, and maybe some eyes.

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Drawing the Lions of Nectanebo

This business of drawing, I've pretty much done it all my life, and can scarcely remember a time when I wasn't doodling something, or trying to draw something I knew I couldn't really draw well but doing it anyway.

 I forget in this age of the image, when we're perpetually bombarded with photographs and moving film and computerized images that simple drawing still interests people.  I've found myself mildly surprised when drawing something for my own amusement, to find that someone is looking over my shoulder. It's an ancient form of entertainment.

People like to draw for relaxation, which is scarcly the way I've seen it - it was just what I did. So a little practice anyone? Drawing an Egyptian sculpture? Ok... 

For this project I have chosen an Egyptian sculpture known as the Lion of Nectanebo, which currently is under the curatorship of the Vatican Museum in Rome.  The original photo can be found here.

I think that sculptures in reality or in photographs are a good source of practice for a beginner artist, and in the past students drew from plaster casts of famous sculptures as a matter of course. Some people think that tracing from a drawing or photograph is okay, but it is always better to draw something freehand. You will learn more about controlling the pencil, about judging placement of lines and it will help you better understand what you are drawing.

Firstly I want to define the structures of the sculpture.

The original sculpture, with construction lines.


The original photograph can be found hereNote how the sculptor has brilliantly captured the important shapes that make up the lion face. At first they might seem complicated, but if you study the shapes singly they are quite simple and clean, good solid monumental forms that are easy to understand.  I am going to make a fairly large drawing on board, beginning with the basic outline of the head, an oval shape, slightly pointed at top.


The basic shape of the head.

So now we begin to place in the important lines, using the above photograph as a guide, paying attention to the red guidelines. These are the supporting structure of the image. Study the image below in red showing the three basic shapes. Note that the lines of the mouth in the original photo show a strange structure just under the mouth. This is actually a hole placed into the sculpture to receive a water pipe, either by the classical or medieval Romans, so that it could be used as part of a garden fountain. For the purposes of our drawing we'll ignore it.

The facial structures

The three basic shapes of the face.

 Part of drawing is learning the accurate positioning of structural lines, these are the lines that make a 2D drawing hold together.  When drawing the lines try to be aware of the points where the lines start and end – this will help with positioning.  For example the lines of the mouth start below the nose, but must end almost at the edge of the original oval shape.  If you’re trying to draw something accurately every line in a drawing must be scrutinised for correct positioning. Do things line up?  Are they on the correct level?  If a line is curved, what exactly is that arc doing?   How close is it to other lines?  Use straight lines to make sure elements line up with each other correctly.



The shapes of the face placed on to the original oval. Ears included.
Some adjustments are always necessary so use a light hand and have a clean eraser near by. There’s nothing wrong with mistakes.  When I was a kid I was sometimes told never to use erasers – you were miraculously supposed to always get it right first time!  This is impossible. Do what you have to do to get a decent image.  Imagine a centre line running from the point at the top of the head straight down through the chin. This can be used to help position marks on the paper; it’s a kind of anchoring line that helps in judging distances between elements. Some artists prefer to use a grid, which they place over a photograph and this helps in the same way. The fact that the lions face is very symmetrical also helps.  I include the main features of the face with a grid applied to emphasise levels and the 'blocks' that the forms make.



The features within a grid.  

The outline of the image is finished with the inclusion of the mane.

Lines of the head, including ears and mane. Compare with photograph above.

To make the forms seem more real and rounded they need to be shaded. I shall use crosshatching, an effective way of applying shading and texture to an image. Depending on the style, different effects can be obtained and the direction of the lines used, help to delineate the form.


Hatching on the left, cross-hatching on the right

Crosshatching should be accomplished without very much movement of the arm; you should be able to rapidly line a section of an image using just small rapid movements of the fingers and thumb.   Do it with confidence.  Shading with lines is also about using visible or dark lines and fainter lines, which are made with a light touch.  When making an area of dark shadow, the lines made must be dark and heavy; the lines in lighter areas should be made with fainter lines to achieve a graduation of shadowing.  So after erasing and cleaning up the centre line and any other construction lines, I will start to delineate shapes with short straight lines like this.


Hatching applied to the lion face.

All of these lines start from the lower left hand corner moving upwards and to the right.   This is to simulate a light source hitting the face from the upper right.  Note how denser patches of darkness can be achieved by closer together strokes – as in the shadow in the ears.   Facility and confidence in this can only be achieved through constant practice.  But this is just hatching. Single lines going in one direction. Crosshatching as the name suggests is when lines cross over each other, and has been used by artists to give form to drawn images practically since art began. To shade with just hatching lines can make the image seem ‘samey’ and flat, to get more depth in the shadow and a feeling of texture, roundness and complexity to the surface then cross hatching is needed.  We proceed to place more hatching lines as shading on to the drawing.



More hatching starts to bring out the forms.

This is where we begin to use the method of cross-hatching, placing lines crossing over those already in place, these lines starting in the lower right and moving to the upper left. This cross-hatching will darken the areas where it is placed, giving more depth and texture, for example, the shadow under the chin, and the ears.  The lines can curve slightly to suggest form.   However they don’t need to be curved, a good sense of roundness can be achieved entirely with straight lines applied in the correct way.

A little cross-hatching is introduced, in the ears and under the chin.

Now we begin to apply cross-hatching on the cheeks and forehead to give the image increased depth and roundness.   It’s a matter of building up the level of shading until the image begins to ‘come forward’ and the forms we originally outlined in red are as well defined as we can manage.

Cross-hatching is used extensively, to darken and give roundness and texture.

In the last stage we finish the shading, applying lines to almost all the head, leaving areas free where the most light would be seen, on the forms that project out the most like the nose, snout and cheekbones.  Note how some of the darker shadowed areas under the nose and ridges over the eyes are made with very short very heavy lines, to emphasise the shadow.  The lines making the grooves on the snout where the whiskers are are all made from many short lines applied in a curve.


The finished lion with extended mane.

That's about it.  Next time, we'll look at colouring it.



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