Speak No Evil

(C) 2017 Dale DiMauro

I have done a lot of drawing lately. Recently, I rediscovered a large sketchbook that I had with many unused pages. I like the large size (12" x 16.5") and the soft surface, which seems to absorb pencil marks without the scratchy quality of other sketchbooks. 

Since the New Year I have been searching for subjects to draw that include interesting faces and expressive hands in the same composition. Artists often say that hands are the hardest thing to get right, but they can convey so much in a picture. Hands say a great deal about an individual, whether you work outside and have weathered skin or have pale, smooth characteristics. They also suggest something about your posture and place in society.

Last year when I was at the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., many of the presidential portraits excluded the subject's hands, downplayed them, or left them incomplete.

My depiction of hands is progressing, but I am not yet proficient. I have a tendency to draw hands that are undersized, perhaps inspired by the current president. It is one thing to draw a pair of hands on their own, but when you add a face with them, the scale of the drawing becomes critical.