Golden Gate Bridge

I am thrilled to type this as my 99th post. For the special 100th I shall have something equally special. In the meantime, I finished another sketch. Here it is -

This is Point Isabel regional Shoreline, Richmond. A former railway trestle bridges the slough feeding Hoffman marsh (foreground), one of the best saltmarsh remnants on the Central Bay, that I reproduced from the book San Francisco Bay Portrait of an Estuary.


Golden Gate Bridge
9" x 12"
Charcoal pencil on paper

Supplies:
General brand HB pencils #2, #4, and #6
Canson brand Premium Cream Medium Tooth paper
Prismacolor brand fixative


Side by side comparison

It caught my eye for its subtlety. I had been meaning to draw golden gate bridge for some time. When I saw this picture I thought its perfect giving quite unique perspective of the bridge. I was intrigued enough to draw it.

I cropped the reference picture to fit it to a satisfactory level of composition. Making sure the foreground leads to the railway trestle bridge, the focal point, I tried to induce the depth. To accentuate the warmth of the morning sun, made the shadows pitch dark. The golden gate appears in the far off background. So it was necessary to have the feel of distance & three dimensionality. Barring some (in)conspicuous omissions overall essence of the picture is recreated.

It was a fun exercise. I, however, spent little more time than I should. But I think, with practice, I will improve on that. Considering it was my first in terms of reproduction of a charcoal sketch from a colored picture it definitely gave me a few ponderworthy moments. We live for that, don't we?

Last words

I have changed the clouds since the posting of this entry to just a slight hint and that gives a better outlook. I will post pics when I can and you can judge it yourself.