OCTOBER 31, 2016

In this project, the objective was to create a piece that featured at least two hands, and which contained some sort of zentangle. This was also supposed to represent, in some way, what we wanted out of our future.

To begin with, I sketched out the hands. This was probably the most difficult part. For one, I didn't really know what I wanted this piece to be of, although I had sketched out some ideas. Second of all, I'm very bad at drawing hands—for some reason, the proportions and such just don't click with me, and I tent to end up with a very wonky, not-human hand. However, this time, I took my time with it. Keeping in mind that this was to be a pure contour hand, I sketched out the hands, basing them off of my own. While it was difficult to keep the positions for an extended amount of time, I managed. Once that sketch was out of the way, and once I was pleased with how they looked, I went over the lines using a pen. The sections of the hand that were close had thicker lines, and those which were further away were thinner. Then, after also outlining the thread and needle, I began with the background. I first went over it with black watercolor, but when that dried, I realized that I didn't really like the look of it—it didn't fit what I had pictured. So I went over the background again, this time using acrylic (which I watered down a bit), and it looked much better than it had before. Finally, after that was done drying, I finished the rest of the details: painting the thread red, adding the designs in the background, and adding some finer details to the hands.

This was a fun project for me, despite how difficult it normally is for me to draw hands. Once I got the first sketch of them done, it was easy for me to see where I had messed up, as well as how to fix it. As for the hand aspect, I am relatively pleased with the outcome: the hands seem proportionate, I feel like I did a good job with the line weight, and overall they just look pretty okay. As for the rest of it, I'm not sure how to feel. While I do appreciate the contrast of the (mostly) black background with the white hands and designs, I don't know if I've made a proper use of the space on the paper. Furthermore, I feel like if I had left the thread white instead of coloring it red, the elements of the picture would tie together more—it would seem like the hands had stitched the designs, perhaps, as opposed to the hands just sitting there, holding a needle and thread. Other than that, though, I do think that I created a good balance of dark and light, and while the red thread isn't ideal, it does serve as a pop of color in an otherwise monochrome picture. Overall, I think that I did a good job with this piece, even if it's not perfect.