Module 5 Chapter 2

Hands and Eyes

I took the hand exercise on holiday with me and sat on the plane out drawing hands and on the way back I did section 3 creating patterns.

This first one I did before I went as I wanted to make sure I could do it whilst travelling.

I have put too much detail in I think.  The knuckles are two circular and I had trouble highlighting the large veins.  Looking at my hand now while I am typing this, I do have prominent folds of skin on my knuckles but I have omitted the bones showing down from my fingers.

This is better.  I don't take my rings on holiday as my fingers swell in the heat and I can't get them on and off.  I much prefer this drawing.

I haven't quite got the curve of the fingers right here and the hand is a bit thin.

This one is better.  The fingers could be a little bit longer but I have got the creases in my palm a bit better.

This one looks as though I only have four fingers but my little finger is curved round the back and is out of sight.  Again, I haven't got the curve of the two upright fingers correct.

Quite a difficult exercise this one.  I think I need to keep practicing, taking time out to do other things means you have to go back to the beginning again.

Activity 5.2.3

I cut out two hand shapes, one open one closed, to draw round and make my patterns.

This is the first one I did to show my shapes.  This first three were drawn on the plane and then coloured afterwards when I got home.

Here I coloured the background in squares of colour using a straight line in one direction and a wavy one in the other.  I then outlined my shapes in black felt tip.

Again, I coloured the background first, this time in stripes of three colours.  I then filled in the hands in black and white acrylic paint.  I went over the white with a gouche but it still doesn't cover completely.

This one has coloured patterns over drawn ones in the background.  The overlaps in the centre make some interesting patterns.

I like this one. I just sat in front of the TV cutting out shapes from a travel magazine.  The bright colours all mix well and create a lovely sunburst design.

Eyes

I have a copy of The Art Book as well as a number of back copies of National Geographic, so I sat and thumbed through them looking for interesting pictures.  Art Book first.

I love this picture, everyone is watching everyone else and you can tell they are suspicious of each other each one knows that one of them is a cheat if not all of them. I think it shows how expressive eyes can be.

This old man has a lifetime in his eyes.  He looks tired but there is still life in him.

I much prefer this lady to the Mona Lisa.  I think she is much more enigmatic, more watchful.

What happens when you can't see a persons eyes.  They seem to loose character and this figure looks quite menacing.  The different medium makes him look much harder, there is no soft light or edges to make him look more human.

Children can have such expressive eyes.  This little group were looking towards where there food was coming from, their hunger shows clearly in their faces.

This little Indian girl has such beautiful, soulful eyes. 

I'm afraid there isn't much soul in my attempts at drawing my own eyes.

Activity 5.2.4

This first attempt was done with pencil the second one is while wearing my glasses.  I'm not sure either of them look like me but one thing I can certainly say, is my left eyebrow is definately higher and slightly different shape to my right and my glasses do not sit straight across both my eyes.  We do have a 'good' side for photographing and I can clearly see the differences in my face.

I was a bit nervous about doing these two but I actually think they are much better than the two done in pencil.  They are freer because I could not rub them out and had to just go with what I did.  The top one is charcoal and the bottom one is Koh-i-noor paint.  I prefer the charcoal as I was able to smudge the shadows and painting straight onto paper is quite hard to manage.  Still not sure they look like me though.

The drawing is becoming harder now and I need to keep practicing.  I intend to try and draw something every day before starting on the next chapter.