OCA Foundations Drawing – Project 4.3, Hand and Feet

I began by making a few quick sketches of my hands in different media.

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The pencil I used wasn’t soft enough to capture the depth of the different tones, the fine line pen was better in this sense, but the permanence of the marks means I need to be more precise in my depiction of the shape and width of my fingers. The biro was easier to use in a more sketchy way in drawing the shapes of my fingers.

Exercise: Drawing your own hands and feet

Draw your left hand in at least four different poses, looking at the darkest tones in the negative spaces.

I tried to look at the shapes of the negative spaces between my fingers and thumbs and the darker tones in the creases and crevices of my hand. It would probably have helped, in hindsight, if I’d put some dark fabric behind my hand as I was drawing it in order to pick out the negative spaces. I found it easier to mark out the darker tones on my hand, returning again and again to make sure the darkest tones stood out from the mid-tones.

Begin by placing your two feet close together and work from the centre, draw the negative space first and then work your pencil across both feet using interesting lines and marks, lights and darks.

I enjoyed capturing the shapes made by my feet and the dark and light tones across my feet. My marks are quite messy in places but I like the effect of some, especially the freer, squiggly lines made by holding the pencil loosely and not resting my hand on the page.

Cross one foot over the other and look at the larger negative space that surrounds them. Add the smaller negative spaces between your toes when you’ve blocked out the ground around the outside of your feet, using varied pressure, thick and thin, light and dark ‘gestural and ‘fractured’ marks.

I worked quite loosely and quickly on this drawing. Again, I wonder if it’s more messy than interesting, but I felt I was taking too long to get this assignment finished and so didn’t want to keep going over it. I don’t think this is as successful as a complete drawing, although this one has background whereas the other feet drawing doesn’t because I had my feet up and I felt the background may have looked odd.