Weekly Mind Sketch

Here are the hands our current country leader, President Obama.  I think it's interesting to draw hands of famous people because hands tell a story all their own.  He has long fingers and his hands look sleek, intelligent, kind, and somewhat introspective/reflective. This folding of his hands seems a nice way to illustrate how I perceive his character.  In the meantime, I will be drawing other famous hands throughout this #100DaysOfHands!

Here's my 54th hand, working in black illustrator pen again.  The long shadows look very dramatic and I will probably do a few more hands with interesting shadows like this...maybe in pencil next time.

Here is my 53rd hand of #100DaysOfHands.  I wanted to capture the look of fingers pulling on hair, I think this came out pretty cool.  I used black illustrator pen again and find I really like how raw and honest black pen looks.  I still struggle with using pen rather than pencil, but hopefully by my 100th hand I'll feel much more confident with it!

Here is another strong looking hand drawing in black pen. It is a strange angle with fingers pressed toward you, making the fingers look huge compared to the rest of the hand. I will continue working on my pen hatching skills in future hands, it's a difficult skill but gets easier with practice...

Here is day 51 of #100DaysOfHands.  I was asked to create a piece of artwork that symbolizes HOPE and came up with this idea.  I saw a similar image online but changed it up a bit.   I outlined the artwork in black pen first, then watercolored in the color. I like the feeling this portrays of a scared girl being protected by the mighty hand of God.  I "Hope" this can be an inspiration for others as well. I will do another pen hand drawing next...

Well I've made it to the half-way mark, hand 50 of #100DaysOfHands!  I feel I have learned to see the curves and shadows of hands a little better by now.  I am still using a sketchy line style rather than shading - here I've used black pen. I feel I've learned to use line more expressively and like how you can scratch dark lines to form shaded areas.  Line drawing is very expressive and bold. Hope to have another drawing tomorrow!

Here's day 49 of my #100DaysOfHands.  I wanted to go back to outlining the hand, this is still a hard skill for me but getting a bit easier.  It seems very simple to do, but actually is hard to work with just lines (no shading).  It's a helpful thing for artists to practice, as it seems to improve my technical side. Hope to have another hand tomorrow!

I have taken a hiatus from drawing this past few months due to multiple family needs. I am happy to have come back to drawing on this Day 48 of drawing hands.  This was a special drawing done in honor of Veterans Day 2016.  As always I thank every single one of you who serve our country in any way to help keep our country safe. This year I especially pray for peace and kindness in a world filled with anger, hatred, discord.  Our kids are our future and I hope for a better day ahead when they will be our leaders.  I surely hope they can learn from our mistakes and be better than what is happening right now in our world. I found this image online and was touched by the tenderness and sweet love it portrays of a young boy hugging his father. His hands are grasping tight and he looks like he doesn't ever want to let go.  I can only imagine how many kids feel this way every time they have to say goodbye to their parents who are leaving to serve. I drew this in...

I finally got myself back into this hand drawing, and will hope I keep my daily drawing more consistent now!  This was my hand again in colored pencil (actually just 2 colors)...

Here's my day 46 drawing of my #100DaysOf Hands as well as my day 3 drawing of #5DayDraw (a 5 day drawing challenge on Lynda.com).  The 5-day draw challenge was to draw something on cardboard or brown paper using a black pen to outline the drawing, add highlights using white, and add shadows using grey. This was really fun, I liked the feeling and look of drawing on cardboard. Again I surprised myself because the style has a comic book feel to it. I have never thought of myself as a comic book artist, but it's something I may pursue sometime later. - it makes me appreciate comic book artists, the style is very artistic!

I am doing a #5daydraw challenge from Lynda.com and this was my day 1 drawing!  We were asked to do a white pencil or white pen drawing on black or dark paper. At first I wasn't sure this was going to turn out very exciting, but as I kept drawing, form started developing from the black paper underneath. And as the white got bolder the drawing started looking like an x-ray, and also looked more like white pastel rather than pencil.  I was very surprised how much depth & form white can give a drawing!  Now I am curious what other ways I can draw hands in interesting ways. We'll see what tomorrow brings!

Here's my hand again in colored pencil...this was a tough hand position to draw with all the lines and the thumb pinching the 2nd finger.  I wish I could say hands are easy to draw by now, but still they are not!  We'll see where tomorrow will lead me.

Here's my hand on day 43 or #100DaysOfHands in watercolor!  I began by outlining this in a thin black illustrator pen, then filling in with watercolor.  I've always started watercolor in pencil, not black pen, but I like the look of watercolor outlined in the dark pen, it brings in a sharper bold edge. I will keep working on watercolor when I can!

Here is my hand again, with crossed fingers (hopefully this means good luck for my future drawings!) This is a combination of pencil, illustrator pen and colored pencil - it was fun to draw and layer with these three mediums.  I may do watercolor tomorrow...

This was an interesting hand position I drew today...it is in colored pencil and a touch of black illustrator pen. It shows lots of shadow and form and makes a strong bold impression. I think tomorrow I'll try another medium other than pencil or pen...

So here is my hand on day 40 of #100DaysOfHands...I am again working with a black illustrator pen. I am enjoying its scratchy and expressive quality it gives the lines. I think I am becoming more and more confident with pen. And I really like that it has an honest bold look to it.

Here is an interesting hand pose, a clinched fist..I went back to straight pencil again and it feels nice to get away from the pen / outlined hand style!  This has a lot of form and shading going on, it took a lot longer than I expected, but I like the final outcome of it.

This is a special drawing I did in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. (I found a photo of him on the internet and here is the outcome of that).  I wanted to draw Martin Luther King Jr.'s hands and ended up drawing his whole face too - it just felt right since the hands and face worked well together to give the drawing so much emotion.  I am still drawing out of my comfort zone using black pen (no color or pencil).  I think I may be getting a little better in this style, we'll see.  In the end I really wanted to capture this man's strength, courage and kindness. I think I achieved this outcome!

Well here is my hand 37, it's my hand in an illustration pen and colored pencil. I am continuing working on outlining my drawings and still don't feel really confident with this. I may go away from this style for awhile and come back to it later. Maybe watercolor tomorrow?

Here is a first, 2 hand drawings in 1 day!  I decided to draw my own hand curled up and in the same style as the post 2 days ago.  I don't know what it is, but I find it intriguing to draw the lines that are the edge of the shadows.  I am really just experimenting here and hope to keep surprising myself with the outcome of the hands...

Here's a new angle on my own hand, looking down from above.  This is a hard angle to draw, but I think this looks about right with perspective...I am still working on my outlined drawing style (and still having a hard time with it), but find I am looking at my subjects in a new way because now the lines need to look expressive and show form.  I'll probably continue with this style next time.

Well here I am at day 34 of #100DaysOfHands!  I was kind of surprised at the outcome of this drawing because it started out as a simple outlined pen drawing and as I kept working, it began to look like something out of a villain comic strip!  I started adding layers of color which started out lighter and then became darker and almost bronze-like.  This was a fun experiment and I like how the colors and black outline make it bold, dark and somewhat eerie.  We'll see where I take this tomorrow!

Continuing on with outlined drawings, here is one I did with a thin Sharpie pen. The Sharpie pen is much more fine detailed than a ball-point pen so it's an interesting outcome.  I may continue doing outlined drawings for a few more days to get more practice in, definitely need it...

Continuing with the outlined hand drawings, here is the same female hand holding play dough again. I am learning to have more and more control with the technical aspect of line drawing, but still need a lot of work I know...maybe I'll do another outlined drawing tomorrow, as hard as it is for me, it's becoming more and more interesting to do line art!

Here is another pen-outlined hand drawing of the same male hand grasping over a thin wall. It has been interesting that when I have drawn just the outline of hands I find myself wanting to outline everything (shadows in addition to the outside of the hand).  Looking at it now the hand has more of an anatomical look even without shading.  Hmmm...we'll see where this style takes me later on.

Well finally made it to hand 30 - this has been an interesting experience - drawing hands over and over each day!  I took a few days off after the holidays to catch up with everything but I'm back into this... a hand holding a pencil!  I was really working on the shadows of the hand but finding this is really hard to show more of the form of the hand.  I'm still working on the same female hand I've drawn in the previous posts... I'm finding it's good to keep drawing the same hand over and over in different positions because I see something new each time.