Hands

“The art of life is to show your hand.” – E.V. Lucas

July was all about drawing hands – mostly with graphite. This is the fourth year that I chose to spend a month drawing hands. I want to say that I have clearly improved since those drawings back in 2017, but I really like those first images. I do have a few favourites from this past month though. I quite like July 17 with the bizarre angle and the energetic, sketchy look. I also really like the 30 second blind contour drawing from July 8. That was one of those days when I just had no time and no patience and just wanted to get it done. Beyond the hand drawings, as much as I am missing my favourite Starbucks cup, I like the way my painting of it’s remains turned out on the first of the month. 

For the sake of comparison, here are links to the previous months of hand drawings. 

Hand drawings from June 2019

Hand drawings from November 2018

Hand drawings from August 2017

“The whole culture is telling you to hurry, while the art tells you to take your time. Always listen to the art.” – Junot Diaz

August 6, 2019

My June daily drawings:

Jun 1, 2019
Jun 2, 2019
Jun 3, 2019
Jun 4, 2019
Jun 5, 2019
Jun 6, 2019
Jun 7, 2019
Jun 8, 2019
Jun 9, 2019
Jun 10, 2019
Jun 11, 2019
Jun 12, 2019
Jun 13, 2019
Jun 14, 2019
Jun 15, 2019
Jun 16, 2019
Jun 17, 2019
Jun 18, 2019
Jun 19, 2019
Jun 20, 2019
Jun 21, 2019
Jun 22, 2019
Jun 23, 2019
Jun 24, 2019
Jun 25, 2019
Jun 26, 2019
Jun 27, 2019
Jun 28, 2019
Jun 29, 2019
Jun 30, 2019

This is the third time in the last three years that I’ve spent a month drawing hands and this time around I decided to make sure my hands were always holding something. I chose five different media to use for six consecutive days each, starting with a black pigment pen and then moved to graphite. In these first drawings I was playing around with leaving some parts of the drawing less developed than other parts. Third up was Copic pigment liner with Koi Watercolour Brush Pens. For the last twelve days I worked with India ink and a brush – first on white paper, then on a grey ground for the last six drawings. I like to use the ink mixed with water, creating a series of washes that get darker as I proceed. I added a bit of white to a few of these as well.
Overall, I think the drawings went well and I really enjoyed creating them – even if some are kind of weird (like those odd fingers and the tiny pear on the 19th and the weird boneless hand on the 21st). For a little walk down memory lane, here are my 2018 hand drawings and my 2017 hand drawings. Next year I’ll have to come up with some new variation, but I will definitely return to this subject.

“Canada is the only country in the world that knows how to live without an identity.” – Marshall McLuhan

January 28, 2019

 

Aug 27, 2018
Aug 27, 2018
Sep 6, 2018
Sep 25, 2018
Sep 29, 2018
Oct 2, 2018
Oct 14, 2018
Oct 26, 2018
Oct 27, 2018
Oct 28, 2018
Oct 29, 2018
Oct 30, 2018
Nov 8, 2018
Nov 9, 2018

These are a few drawings from my daily sketchbook from August through November. Somehow I’m able to play a little more when I’m drawing in my sketchbook and sometimes wonder if maybe I should just dispense with using the cut paper and just draw here – I may prefer the results. But I don’t want to be restricted to the same paper every day. It’s the looseness and the textures that I like the most in these particular drawings – I am still working on accomplishing that more frequently. And so I continue on.

“Art is a guarantee of sanity.” – Louise Bourgeois

November 6, 2018

And here are my October drawings of hands:

 

Oct 1, 2018
Oct 2, 2018
Oct 3, 2018
Oct 4, 2018
Oct 5, 2018
Oct 6, 2018
Oct 7, 2018
Oct 8, 2018
Oct 9, 2018
Oct 10, 2018
Oct 11, 2018
Oct 12, 2018
Oct 13, 2018
Oct 14, 2018
Oct 15, 2018
Oct 16, 2018
Oct 17, 2018
Oct 18, 2018
Oct 19, 2018
Oct 20, 2018
Oct 21, 2018
Oct 22, 2018
Oct 23, 2018
Oct 24, 2018
Oct 25, 2018
Oct 26, 2018
Oct 27, 2018
Oct 28, 2018
Oct 29, 2018
Oct 30, 2018
Oct 31, 2018

Inktober was my inspiration to use ink in all of my drawings this month. This included markers here and there, but as I enjoy working with a brush and ink, that was what I chose most often. Regardless of the ink I use, I generally start with three different shades with the addition of black at times. India ink is my favourite ink and I would create three different dilutions of greys to work with. I like the way that India ink lightens as it dries as I often overestimate how dark I want to work at first. For this same reason, I avoid using undiluted India ink as it is far too black for my taste. I like that India ink is waterproof as it allows me to layer and build up my darker areas as I go. I experimented in a lot of these drawings with other inks – mostly J.Herbin inks and a few other odd bottles I’ve accumulated. Some days I would mix a drop or two of one of my coloured inks in just to see what would happen (thus Shrek hand on the 27th).

Diluting India ink to the different greys I want is tedious at times, so when I found the Ecoline inks in grey, I thought that would be a huge improvement. They are beautiful inks, but not waterproof, so my layering technique resulted in a fair bit of muddiness. Clearly, I need to develop another approach to use with watercolour inks.

Overall, I think this month’s drawings went well. One of my goals this year has been to work with different media and different papers and I played a lot and learned a few things in the process.