Paper and Threads

I sketched this angel from a wonderful fabric angel, carrying a gift basket. I was given her many years ago by a special friend.  On Friday my hand surgeon told me I may still need an operation on my wrist, and he wants to see more Xrays this week.  I'm hoping for the best.

Yesterday I went to draw at a Museum for the first time since my injury.   This drawing was done of a life-size figure from the "Like Life  Sculpture, Color, and the Body."  I sketched standing, holding my sketchbook on my casted arm, and held my pencil with my non-dominant hand.  I used a pencil so I could sit down to add ink, with two different pens, and rest my sketchbook on my lap.  This was my challenge for this week - all my previous drawings since my fracture were done sitting down.

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I am still working hard to use my non-dominant right hand for drawing.  I love William Kentridge's creativity, and when I saw his messy black ink drawings of an espresso pot on the Fairfield Univ. Museum exhibit website this week, I got out my Pentel Pocket Brush Pen.  I don't have great control of this brush pen even with my left hand, so I had fun with this drawing!  I will use the brush pen again during this period of play.

I also have my "non-dominant hand" drawings for the last 3 days, and it really gives me something to look forward to each day as I finish my breakfast.  Danny Gregory wrote a book called Art Before Breakfast, but I need several mugs of coffee, and a little writing (now as a 1-2 finger typist) before I am inspired to draw. 

April 3rd:

April 4th and 5th: 

I positioned my figure model in the position I was in when I tripped going up a step in the subway and fell on my dominant hand.  A Book Weight is keeping the model from falling over.

The writing under the figure model says, falling through space on an outstretched arm = Colles Fracture.  It is actually a fracture across the distal radius in the forearm.   

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Mar 31st.  I am drawing objects in my apartment each morning after Breakfast, and it is just what I did when I restarted drawing as I was retiring and decided that my retirement project was going to be Sketchbook Art.  These are all drawn directly in ink - and the only way I can make myself draw them in my "Non-Dominant Hand" book is to do a warm up drawing first on scrap paper.  If the ninjas don't immediately attack me for failure, I open my book and "just do it."

Apr 1  Small even lines are too hard.  I am proclaiming that I won't be adding hatching for shadows.

Apr 2  Fairfield Museum in CT has a William Kentridge exhibit and I saw his online collection of drawings of his espresso pot.  So glad I got mine down to draw it.  Block printing is hard with my right hand, so I'm practicing that on each page too.

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I now have a wonderful sketchbook sent to me by my friend Maureen.  She added an outline of a left hand on the cover - my injured wrist - and added words on the spine re: drawings by my non-dominant hand.  I'll photograph it and post it here soon.  For now I am posting my 3 drawings done yesterday, in my kitchen, after breakfast.  I am starting with objects from my environment, and have no idea where it will lead me.  Hopefully I'll be out of the apartment more next week.

In the top drawing I was concentrating on shapes, and after making the lines of circles, I decided to add a profile to make it my hair, since it is my main failure as I approach life with a wrist fracture.  

These were all drawn of !/4 size sheets of copy paper because I need low stakes drawing experiences as I begin this project.  I'm not ready to draw in my new book yet.  Maybe tomorrow.... 

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I now have a cool cast for my Colles Wrist Fracture.  The white portion is a gortex liner against my skin.  The cast is black - what else for a New Yorker?  It goes with our black clothes!  My major problem is my inability to comb, curl, or twist up my hair with a clippie.  My husband is learning how to put an elastic on for a pony tail, and that is as far as we've gotten.

Thanks for all of the comments yesterday regarding my wrist fracture.  So many "art friends" recommended drawing with my non-dominant hand, and I decided it was worth a try.  My Grandson and I spent several hours looking at my Family History Binders because he wanted to know how I found the information.  Then he wanted to draw, so I joined him. 

Here are my first attempts- drawn on scrap paper with ink.  I went slowly, drawing random objects in the dining room, one photo of a model, and some letters.

I love drawing on these copy paper scraps (1/4th of a sheet) because I have no expectation.  I will enjoy looking through my bookbinding books to find a fun way to keep them together for this period of time.   

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