Sketching European Armoury at the Wallace Collection

 Ian couldn't quite believe it when I said I was going  drawing armour at the Wallace Collection  on latest 'Sketching  Tuesday' with Margaret Cooter and co - he usually only gets me to go to military museums on special occasions - like his 50th birthday.    While all the ornate  furniture and old masters there don't appeal, it was a  quiet location for a museum in school holidays and  there was a lot to enjoy in the  incredible craftsmanship  of the rapiers ( and the interesting patterns of their shadows)

I started off with a blind drawing ( not looking at the paper ) , then  observing the negative shapes, before attempting to draw in greater detail in pen and graphite. It took a while to work out what was going on. As relief from all those curves, I tried to capture the qualities of the different blades ( though I think from reading the detailed book describing the case contents, they were for ceremonial rather than practical use). Some of the terminology was rather interesting too, 'quillons' was my new word of the day.