My husband can worry like nobody’s business. I took this pic of him last Fall when everything was going wrong with our building permit and my right hand was chronically respraining itself. There’s something strangely beautiful (to me, at least) in his worried face. (He thinks I am weird.) And then I drew it… with my left hand. I have never been able to do that before. So then I painted it. I put the painting aside at some point at the end of last winter and recently got it out again to finish it. We decided, for some reason, to name it after the Bob Dylan song.
Detail in the painting proved to be pretty difficult with my non-dominant hand so picking it back up again using my right hand to finish went a whole hellava lot faster. But, this was an interesting learning experience so I plan to do more drawings and paintings with both hands when I feel like I have more patience for it. Or maybe when I feel like I need to force myself to have more patience with myself.
I still can’t believe you drew that with your left hand! It painting turned out so well! I keep zooming into parts to study the colors you used. All the gorgeous colors and blends in the trees, shirt, hat, everywhere It’s really well done! You inspire me to want to try painting people but that’s mildly terrifying lol.
Drawing or painting people I know is totally freakin terrifying. I avoided it for decades. The first family member I drew was my grandfather, who was always this stern, mildly disapproving character in my life. That was such a bizarre experience. Then I started drawing my kids. Way less intimidating after that. I have been drawing silly cartoons of my husband for years now (he’s quite a character) and this is the first realistic drawing I’ve done of him. I don’t even know how I pulled that off with my left hand except for stubborn determination. I draw as a coping mechanism for life so having my dominant hand out of commission was making me crazy.
The absolute best way to start drawing people is to sit in a highly populated place (the farmer’s market is preferable to a mall for me) and just make quick gesture drawings of everyone there. Get the mood and movement more than the details. And THEN study the anatomy and proportions and do longer studies. I love life drawing groups for all this too. You usually just need to pitch in for model fees to attend them.
Also, colors… I started painting this entirely with earth pigment paints a friend of mine made completely out of New Mexico rocks. After a while I realized the colors were disappearing into each other and washing out in odd places. They don’t behave like normal watercolors and I wasn’t sure how to bring them back to life. I usually just use that palette sparingly or on very small pieces. But I found that adding other colors from my usual watercolor palette really brought out the original colors. The dark browns got both Prussian Blue and an orangey Sienna and that really made the trees pop more.
Wow! His face is so expressive. Really beautiful work. I recall reading or hearing that doing things with your non-dominant hand helps you tap into different parts of your brain, including maybe parts that are more subconscious/unconscious. Thanks for sharing the whole process. Also hope your right hand is well and healed.
I have significantly increased use of my right wrist now but, unfortunately, it has also turned into a chronic injury. But I am grateful that the experience has brought out left handed drawing and I think I will end up doing more and more of that as time goes on.
It’s really well done! You inspire me to want to try painting people but that’s mildly terrifying lol.