A lot of artists struggle with hands, but I find them to be fun and expressive. I can admit though, a lot of my school time I spent struggling with them. One wrong line and, just like a person’s face, you could have a drawing of something lumpy, unexpressive, and uncanny. Several things ultimately improved my drawings. At some point towards the end of my second year of school, I committed to practicing portraiture. I took two semesters of just portrait painting from life. This got me recording 3-D to 2-D forcing me to really think about the forms I was drawing. We also did a lot of timed drills in class, which encourages a bold, confident, line. Another turning point would be receiving Claire Wendling’s sketchbook “Iguana Bay 2.0” Before seeing Claire’s work I had not clicked with a particular artist’s style. Seeing this artist’s sketchbook and her expressive, contour lines inspired me. She was very good at showing 3-D form with an exaggerated, expressive, style. I was in love with handling of the female form, hips, wrinkles, dreadlocks, lips... The French artist’s know their stuff 🥰 And finally, once I had a style in mind and a little experience from school I set out to practice. Three nights a week I’d spend hours at the open model sessions drawing nudes from life and evolving my style. Even a year out of school I still practiced at sessions, and it became the most peaceful part of my life in a time where I didn’t know what I was going to do next. . . . . . . . #sarahvanrose #drawing #figuredrawing #drawingfromlife #brooklynartist #newyorkartist #digitalpainting #portraitdrawing (at Savannah Historic District) https://www.instagram.com/p/B0EGwEJgxma/?igshid=1u8uflct8xgb2
