Gord the Hamster

Funny thing after starting this new drawing...  I find myself, wandering into my studio at night, wanting to put in a hour or two here and there.   Every once in a while, I look up to see my hubby peeking around the doorway to see what I am to.  That hasn't happened for a long time!  He is finally getting use to the fact that my disappearance from our living room puts me back at the drawing board...  Such a once familiar occurrence that has been missing in this household! :)

I started on the left simply by choice.  As you all know, my style has always been to work on individual pieces of a drawing and not to go left to right.  The photo below is my original view point while working.  The pic is a little washed out.  Graphite is such a pain to photograph!  The thumb and palm area will have some deep cast shadows on the shirt to push the dimensional view of the hand.  The mapping went relatively quick and made me a little nervous.   But after starting the blending process, the same old feeling of solving a wonderful puzzle came over me and happiness reigned in the studio! :)

Here is a view of the drawing to date.  This is not how the drawing was positioned on the board, when starting the fingers.  I turned the paper so that the left side of the composition was the bottom.  It made it so much easier to map and blend.  Plus, the reference photo could be set closer to the work area.  My eyes go back and forth constantly between the reference and Bristol while mapping a subject.  When ever I pause my gaze will be fixed on the reference photo as my hand continues mapping on the support.  It always amazes me how many artists can glance at a subject and draw for a length of time without referring back to the subject.  That style of drawing has never been my gift.  The drawing itself will become more of my main focus during the blending process and less during the pulling of highlights.

A little crooked on the angle with this shot... I had to sit the drawing board on the floor of my studio for the last two pics just to get a descent photo. LOL   Unfortunately, it was a quick photo with me holding the camera a little wonky!  This is how the drawing is taped on the board for me to work on.  The hand will get highlighted and refined again, after the composition is turned to the correct position.  As you can see, the index and middle finger are being blended at the moment.   I am happy with how they are beginning to lift off the page.    I will finish up this hand and will most likely jump over to the other one next. :)