Hands
Artists & Illustrators|March 2022
LAURA SMITH continues her new four-part series, which encourages you to draw elements of old master paintings, and this month’s focus is on capturing hands
LAURA SMITH
Hands
One wailing cry or categorical statement meets my ears time and time again from students: “I can’t do hands”. Many of us get so frustrated by what we consider to be our own inadequacy at drawing hands that we resort to the vaguest mitten-like suggestions in our pictures – or we specifically choose a head-and-shoulders composition to avoid them altogether. I know how it feels, I’ve been there.

Hands really are far more complex than we give them credit for. We are so familiar with hands, especially our own, that we forget how miraculously multifunctional they are. Imagine you were drawing in a life room and there were two models who both had four legs and one arm each. Not only that, but they kept running up to each other and entangling their many legs or falling back with their feet in the air. Sounds impossible, doesn’t it? However, this is exactly the kind of challenge we are dealing with when we try to depict someone’s hands.

Hands are small, intricate, complex body parts and they really do demand a degree of concentration and subtlety beyond almost any other part of a human being. An ordinary human hand includes 27 bones, 27 joints, 34 muscles and more than 100 ligaments and tendons, as well as myriad blood vessels and nerves. It’s no wonder we all struggle.

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Still life IN 3 HOURS
Artists & Illustrators

Still life IN 3 HOURS

Former BP Portrait Award runner-up FELICIA FORTE guides you through a simple, structured approach to painting alla prima that tackles dark, average and light colours in turn

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5 mins  |
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Movement in composition
Artists & Illustrators

Movement in composition

Through an analysis of three masterworks, landscape painter and noted author MITCHELL ALBALA shows how you can animate landscape composition with movement

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6 mins  |
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Shane Berkery
Artists & Illustrators

Shane Berkery

The Irish-Japanese artist talks to REBECCA BRADBURY about the innovative concepts and original colour combinations he brings to his figurative oil paintings from his Dublin garden studio

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7 mins  |
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The Working Artist
Artists & Illustrators

The Working Artist

Something old, something new... Our columnist LAURA BOSWELL has expert advice for balancing fresh ideas with completing half-finished work

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2 mins  |
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Washes AND GLAZES
Artists & Illustrators

Washes AND GLAZES

Art Academy’s ROB PEPPER introduces an in-depth guide to incorporating various techniques into your next masterpiece. Artwork by STAN MILLER, CHRIS ROBINSON and MICHELE ILLING

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7 mins  |
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Hands
Artists & Illustrators

Hands

LAURA SMITH continues her new four-part series, which encourages you to draw elements of old master paintings, and this month’s focus is on capturing hands

time-read
7 mins  |
March 2022
Vincent van Gogh
Artists & Illustrators

Vincent van Gogh

To celebrate The Courtauld’s forthcoming landmark display of the troubled Dutch master’s self-portraits, STEVE PILL looks at the stories behind 10 of the most dramatic works on display

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6 mins  |
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BRING THE drama
Artists & Illustrators

BRING THE drama

Join international watercolour maestro ALVARO CASTAGNET in London’s West End to paint a dramatic street scene

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7 mins  |
March 2022
Serena Rowe
Artists & Illustrators

Serena Rowe

The Scottish painter tells STEVE PILL why time is precious, why emotional responses to colour are useful, and how she finds focus every day with the help of her studio wall

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8 mins  |
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Bill Jacklin
Artists & Illustrators

Bill Jacklin

Chatting over Zoom as he recovers from appendicitis, the Royal Academician tells STEVE PILL about classic scrapes in New York and his recent experiments with illustration

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8 mins  |
March 2022