Handiwork

I thought I would post some of my hand studies from a class I took several years ago with Jeff Watts. We didn't focus on anatomy so much as just jumping right in doing studies from photos and the old masters' before ending the semester by working from a live hand model. Hands can be difficult, but they don't have to be if you take the right approach and keep focused. I learned two basic approaches to painting hands: The classic/Rockwell style which used a more detailed line drawing to begin the painting, or the alla prima method favored by Sargent and Fechin, which was more of a tonal block-in approach where you paint colors and shapes and refine them as you go. I ended up preferring the second alla prima method. It was more enjoyable and I liked the results of those types of paintings better.

As I focus more on portrait painting, I need to remember the foundation lessons from my early training, like these studies below.

After Sargent and Bridgman

 

 

From photos

Quick paintings from a live model