This sketch is some of the work around my picture I want to do of Saint Francis of Assisi...the same guy as San Francisco (part of the Syracuse University MA challenge: "Do a picture of San Francisco") You got it.... The plan for my San Francisco is that he will have california birds around him (as St. Francis is often shown with the birds and animals that he would tame them by his presence). A second Saint Francis might suggest that he is shown with a skull (dig!). Another Saint Francis of Assisi story talks about the "Floating Palace". Story goes that he once gave his clothes to a poor soldier whom he met on the road, and that night dreamed of a palace floating in the air, adorned with military banners. At first he took this to be God's command to follow a soldier's career, but a voice told him that his vision signified "that which shall be spiritually wrought"...Maybe downtown or the skyline or the golden gate bridge in place of the floating palace? Under consideration as well.
After looking at all those fabulously dour byzantine saints, I started with this drawing. Not even close to where we need to go...but entertaining insofar as the long, attenuated faces that the byzantine style demands. No long faces here though. This guy just needs to have a little lunch and look forward to the daffodils. It can't be this bad all the time....SPRING FORWARD. Brilliant light today.

Book referenced: "Hall's Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art",©James Hall, 1974, Introduction © Kenneth Clark, published by John Murray, London, England.