Bad hands

This is the plate I did of Samuel Alito, and is one of the first I made ever. I started with the face and was pleased to capture a hint of the paradoxical combination of boredom and vigilance that often marks his expression. (Though I am not sure the drawing really looks like him...). Then I got to that hand and really struggled to find the creases.

My friend, Liz, who spent a significant portion of her teenage years drawing nothing but hands and feet, gave me advise along the way, but to no avail. That part of the drawing got completely muddy; the hand itself looks like it was recently stung by a bee. And, as I have yammered about before,with markers there is no way to make the drawing lighter. So the pictured got darker and darker as I labored to find the right lines.

I have been drawing consistently for about a year and half now; hands are still difficult. One false move and you end up with something that looks like it should be in the Simpsons. Sometimes, I will lose count on the number of folds that a given digit has.