Hand sketechs

1. What was it like using your hand as subject matter for a drawing?

-I found it very interesting to use my hand as the matter but enjoyed it also. It was a bit weird trying to draw my own body part but at the same time it was nice because it was something I was familiar with.

2. What media did you select - pencil or charcoal? Why?

-I chose to use charcoal because I just feel as if it is a much better art utensil. It is much smoother to sketch with and shading is much easier. I will always choose charcoal over pencil when I know that there is shading involved because I find it to be much easier and look much better. Although you can still see the lines a little bit when shading with charcoal, I think it is much less noticeable than if I were to do it with pencil. When using pencil the lines are so much more distinct and it is harder to get the correct shades or to shade with different values.

3. How did it feel to create a drawing with your non-dominant hand?

-It felt very weird. I broke my fingers when I was younger and had to use my left hand in school and I forgot how difficult it was. I struggle just to even trace my hand and then when it came to trying to add the details and shading I thought it was going to be a disaster. Although it did not turn out terrible, it did take much longer. I had to be a lot more careful when trying to shade and it was just an awkward feeling.

4. Compare and contrast your final drawings. Do you think they are successful studies?

-Yes I do feel as if this was a successful study. It is clear in my pictures that my right hand is my dominate hand. The drawing of the right hand is much larger than my normal hand, the shading is not as vivid, and the details are really lacking. Although the drawing of my left hand is not perfect, it is much closer to the actual size and detail and resembles it much more. After doing this study it is clear that dominate and non-dominate hands are very different and do have the possibility of changing the looks of art.

 

5. Would you consider using your non-dominant hand to create artwork in the future?

-I would definitely not considering using my left hand to draw in the future. It is not that I do not think that it is possible; I just find it to be much harder and much more time consuming. I am sure if I practiced it would become much easier but it took me almost double the amount of time to draw my right hand and the feeling was very hard for me to get over because it was so uncomfortable and uncommon.