COLLABORATIVE PROJECT
Independent Project
MAIN IDEA:
With photography becoming a much more prominent way of saving memories in our society, I believe it is important to take the time to draw a detailed image. Doing a drawing takes much more time and requires you to pay more attention to detail and the small aspects of a photo. This is appreciated by many people. I wanted to, through hyperrealism, capture the less noticeable and sometimes forgotten parts of hands. Our hands play such an important role in everyday life and can tell you a lot about what and where someone has been. Hands can communicate in so many different ways. For some people, it is sign language and others by gestures and small movements. All of the lines on someone's hands convey their own story.
​
INFLUENCE:
​
I was influenced by Tim Booth. He believes that hands can tell you more about a person than their face. From someone's hands you are able to see all of the marks, lines, and calluses that they have collected over the years.
Tim Booth decided, after visiting his grandmother weekly and noticing her hands, that he would take pictures of lots of different peoples hands and then hear their individual stories. All of his pictures are of great quality and show all of the little details of each person's hand.
​
STEPS TO COMPLETION:
​
-
Find a photo of hands (make it black and white if it is not already)
-
Grid the black and white photo
-
Grid the white and the black paper
-
Practice shading (also get used to controlling the colour of the white charcoal on the black piece of paper)
-
Sketch out hands both pieces of paper
-
Shade in the hands on both pieces of paper
-
Fill in the background
​
ARTIST STATEMENT:
The main idea for my independent project was to do a study on drawing hands. In some of my past art pieces, I have tried to draw detailed and proportionate hands without success. I also wanted to practice different styles of drawing, so I did a charcoal drawing on white paper and, with the same photo, a charcoal value reversal on black paper. I chose a picture that has more than one age of hands to study the different textures.
The initial idea behind my artwork was to take pictures of hands myself and then draw only one charcoal drawing. I decided to change my idea so it could be more challenged.
In the beginning, I was not sure if I wanted to draw one or more charcoal drawings. Then I realized wanted to learn how to work with white charcoal on black paper. Originally I was not sure If I was going to do a value reversal or use the white charcoal on the black paper as if it was black charcoal on white paper. I decided to go with the value reversal because it was unlike anything I have ever done.
I think that I could have focused more on getting the exact shades of the lowlights and highlights of the hands. I also think I need to spend a bit more time practicing value reversals. Finally, I think I need to pay closer attention to the exact shape of the hand and fingers.
I believe my next step is to continue to work on my hand drawing abilities. I would like to see if I can draw multiple hands in more complicated positions. I would also like to work more on value reversals and using white charcoal on black paper.
HAND PHOTOGRAPHY: