A Child Of Atom

Yesterday in the Everyday Matters message boards a discussion arose as to why we as artists chose certain topics to sketch, and it was suggested that the we avoid the things that we aren't comfortable sketching, or the things we feel we aren't good at. Lin said that she had drawn nearly everything in her house except her bookshelves, so I called her out and challenged her to give them a try. After her sketch she came back and asked me what I avoided in my own work, and challenged me in the same way I had challenged her.

So here you go Lin... hands. The whole of human anatomy is contained in the hand, foreshortening, joints, creases, folds, bone muscle, hair... it's all there. And I have to admit that I have trouble drawing them. Part of the problem is that I spent quite a long time doing animation, and in most animation the forward knuckle is eliminated and hands are drawn as if the fingers only had two joints. Even more than a decade later I have a tendency to want to drop that middle knuckle. I tend to elongate the fingers, and the transition from finger into the back of the hand is a trouble spot for me. If you look back at my sketches you might notice that I rarely tackle the hands of my subjects, usually sticking to faces and bust shots.

So, honoring Lin's challenge I spent the day concentrating on hands. It's tough because hands tend to move more than faces, as people read, and shift, and talk, but I was lucky enough to catch three relatively still models and complete three good sketches. Like every one of these sketches I see problems with them, but I'm proud to have risen to the challenge.