Dancers

I haven't drawn people in quite a while, so I still have a lot to brush up on when it comes to the human form. Some foolish crazy impulse lead me to start drawing people again in one of the more challenging positions: dancing. What was I thinking? Not only do dancers contort their bodies making it harder to follow their anatomy, they further elongate their bodies by positioning their fingers in what I can only call ridiculous poses. Time and time again, the hands in my drawings started looking like claws.

Needless to say I'm glad this theme is over for now. I did quite a few studies of ballerinas before I illustrated a coloring book, so I know eventually the claw hands become human. Since the ballerina book took an unfortunate art direction turn (more on that in a different post), there will have be more dancers! I've always been in love with Degas' ballerinas, so I may have to take out my pastels and capture some of these elegant creatures in color. I've had enough of the Verithin pencils - too hard to get any contrast.