Demonstration

 I thought that I would try to show more clearly how I make a sketch by starting with a anchor point and working outwards. So - here's the image that I chose to sketch:-

It shows a London dustman about 1900. A dustman is a refuse collector. They were first called dustmen in the UK because in Victorian times much of the household refuse they collected was ash and dust from coal fires. My great great grandfather, Walter William Manning was, I discovered a 'carman in vestry'. A carman could be anyone who used a horse drawn cart in the course of their daily business. However a carman in vestry specifically meant a corporation/ council dustman. Walter William died only about 10 years before this photograph was taken. He died from pneumonia at the tragically young age of 29, leaving several children, including my great grandmother behind.

So let's begin. It was pretty much a no-brainer for me to begin with the dustman climbing up the ladder with a bin. Being it's a figure, I started with the face, ad the eye on the left in the particular. If you see that as the anchor point then you'll see that I have worked outwards in all four directions. I have not marked out where the main parts of the sketch are going to fit - I trust myself that if I take care everything will gradually slot in.

Again I've spread in each direction, but particularly put in part of the rear of the wagon. I know that if I get this detail in proportion to the dustman, then I ca easily finish the rear of the cart as and when I'm ready. Likewise I have the top edge of the side of the cart there, which means I can sketch in the buildings in the background whenever I feel like it.

I made the decision to work to the left, and the key to this was completing the dustman figure, because almost everything further to the left could be defined by its relationship to the figure. Also putting the leg in gave me a reference against which I could start to sketch the ladder. In turn, once the ladder was there it would give me a reference to sketch the bottom of the cart and the wheel, when the time came.

Well, the time came a lot quicker than I thought. As I said, I am a very undisciplined sketcher, and to once I'd sketched in a fair bit of the ladder I couldn't resist drawing the cart wheel. These always provide me with issues, but this was one of my more successful attempts. It made sense then to sketch in the side of the car above the wheel. 

I worked to the left as I had originally intended. The combination of climbing dustman and ladder gave me a reference for drawing in the other dustmen to the left, and the buildings above them. I also extended the arc of the top of the cart's rear. It took a while to get this far but it was worthwhile because the sketch was already beginning to resemble the photograph.

I completed drawing and shading the men and buildings up to the left hand edge f the drawing. To be fair it had taken quite a while to get this far and so it made sense to me to call it a day. I hadn't started the sketch until yesterday evening and I was not going to finish it yesterday. 

When I returned to the sketch this afternoon it made sense to me to draw in the rear of the wagon, which would be a very useful reference for the background buildings. However it also made sense to work on the buildings behind the middle of the cart too. So I did both. I had also started drawing the left hand basket since I couldn't finish the underside of the cart until I'd drawn in this basket, nor complete the rear of the cart.

There's many a slip twixt cup and lip, but having drawn in and shaded the rear o the cart I was already feeling pleased with the way this drawing was turning out. If you look to the bottom left you can see that at this stage I decided to give the road surface some texture with small patches of asymmetric lines. On the right you can see the outline of the left hand basket, which I have to draw in so that the cart will be completed. 

With the cart itself now finished I wanted to draw in the brickwork and apply the shading to the buildings behind the cart. The right hand edge of the rear of the cart gave me the reference I needed to draw the doorway peeping out behind the cart. I judged where I wanted the right hand edge of the picture and then drew he lies of the kerb and pavement edges. This meant I could extend the texture marks on the roadway.

Almost finished now. Almost all of the outlines were in and the large bay window to the right was shaded too. All that was left was to add the steps leading up to the front door the brickwork and shading to the right, and a little more texture on the pavement.

And here's the finished drawing. I say it although I shouldn't, but I'm really pleased with this. If you compare it to the original photo, it's a pretty faithful rendition. I've really enjoyed sharing with you how I constructed this drawing. as you can see, there's no magic to it - precious little method, come to that.