It might have happened to you, you are at a life drawing class and feel relief because for the next pose you won’t see the model’s hands or feet, and even better not his face. Then start to wonder what is the point of avoiding difficulty and what would be the best way to improve that particular skill.
Hands and feet to yourself : drawing hands and feet
Hands in particular are one of the most expressive part of the body, essential to body language, so very important in life drawing. One of the best advice I read in a drawing book was to draw hands and feet as much as you can until you feel comfortable with it. Draw them everyday, and do so for a long time.
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As I believe sometimes the best way to overcome a difficulty is just to practice, I started trying to draw at least a few hands and a few feet watching television in the evening, either mine or my kids and I think I am starting to see improvement just after 2 weeks, at least I draw them with more confidence at the life drawing classes. Here is a selection of those hands and feet (click on the pictures to see a larger version) :
Originally from France, I have been living in North Vancouver, Canada for the past 20 years.
My work has been collected and exhibited extensively in Canada and internationally. I am also part of the Art Rentals and sales program of the Vancouver Art Gallery.
Many of my paintings have been published in Art books and magazines (Artist Magazine, Watercolor Artist Magazine, Acrylic Magazine, International Artist Magazine). I wrote 2 art instruction books with North Light/F+W Books.
I have been writing for the last 5 years for my blog: paintingdemos.com, that has a mailing list of about 10 000 subscribers and about 20 000 visitors per month.
I am an active member in the community, as a co-founder of the North Shore Art crawl, a co-founder of a weekly life drawing group, a board member of the North Vancouver Arts Council, and have been invited as a juror for public art, art grants and juried exhibitions. You can read more about my collaborations here.
As students,we were told to draw our body parts as much as we can, models being very expensive. Once in a while, we were having 15 minutes sketches competitions to see who improved their skills.We were also having a lot of fun.
Beautiful drawings of hands and feet, Sandrine. I remember practicing and practicing, too. The biggest step, for me, was learning where to take my pencil line into the foot or hand to describe a cross contour, often where the hand bends or the foot takes a turn around the ball or heel of it.
Comments (6)
Monica
As students,we were told to draw our body parts as much as we can, models being very expensive. Once in a while, we were having 15 minutes sketches competitions to see who improved their skills.We were also having a lot of fun.
Sandrine Pelissier
Thanks Monica, I think that is a great exercise , plus you get quite a bit of foreshortening when drawing yourself 🙂
Yevgenia Watts
I think we were reading the same life drawing book…:) “The Natural Way to Draw” by any chance?
Awesome sketches, by the way.
Sandrine Pelissier
Hello Yevgenia,
I was reading ” Drawing from within” Nick Meglin with Diane Meglin :
http://www.drawingamerica.org/2010/07/drawing-from-within.html
, but will check out ” The Natural Way to Draw” too.
Thanks for your comment 🙂
lesliepaints
Beautiful drawings of hands and feet, Sandrine. I remember practicing and practicing, too. The biggest step, for me, was learning where to take my pencil line into the foot or hand to describe a cross contour, often where the hand bends or the foot takes a turn around the ball or heel of it.
thereseljoseph
great post – lovely to see all the different positions hands and feet come in… I am sure there are a thousand more.