Revisit Sketching Hands

Like many people, I used to be very intimidated by the sheer thought of trying to draw hands.  What helped me was first working with a thumb and finger.  Once I felt comfortable with those, I then tackled the hand.

Another thing that helped me was using the blending technique.  If I could get the contour line drawn correctly, I would then work with the form dragging and moving graphite in from the edges with a tortillon or paper stump.  Not sure why but I prefer the tortillon.

At a future Library Tuesday Meetup with our sketching group and guests, I hope to share my process hoping it might help others get past their fear of drawing hands.

These are examples of what I've been working on for practice and for sharing....using different type pencils on a couple different paper surfaces; with or without a tortillon and one example I used a paper stump.

I need to do more practice without blending by using the pencil itself to softly blend pencil strokes.  I tend to be a bit impatient and instead grab the tortillon. 

Copier Paper:

Stonehenge 90 Paper

Newsprint scanned as document instead of photo to remove the brownish color of the paper (for printing purposes).

These were done a few years ago on cartridge paper when I was first learning to work on hands.

But...I Still Want to Sketch!

After spending hours sketching on my Ipad, the battery life indicator for my Applie pencil let me know I was only 5% and needed to charge it.  As soon as I plugged the pencil into the port on the Ipad, my Ipad notified me it only had 2% battery life remaining.  Being so low, I unplugged the pencil and stuck my Ipad on the charger.

Still, very much in the mood to sketch, I decided to sketch my hand holding several pens.  It's been awhile since I've practiced hands so thought this would be a perfect time to do so. 

This is worked on cut down cartridge paper I made as a little pamphlet journal....dedicated to hands.

4B Mars Lumograph pencil

More Hands Practice

I am really enjoying this little challenge as each pose offers a unique challenge for me.

I'm using either the B carbon or the 2B carbon pencils with little to no erasures.  I'm trying to "correct" as I go leaving the marks in place.

I love the 2B but the side of my hand picks the carbon up easily and then re-transfers on the paper surface :-(  I could spray it but not sure how well this paper will handle the spray with as thin as it is.  I've seen where the spray can turn some toned papers a strange color and the sketch on the other side show through more.