Stylised figure

Working at a Museum of Art and Archaeology means I’m surrounded by artistic inspiration daily. During a quiet moment in one of the galleries, I made this sketch, standing behind The Sluggard by Frederick Lord Leighton. The title suggests laziness, but to me, it doesn’t capture the spirit of the piece, which portrays an intimate, vulnerable moment of a bleary-eyed young man stretching.
We all know that feeling—the release of a stretch in the morning or after being still and focused for too long. Rather than replicating the statue’s likeness, my sketch was a response to its simplicity. I aimed to echo that still, unthinking moment when I, too, am only half-awake and stretching. 
 

Pencil on Paper, Digitally Manipulated