Nicola Osborne
100 DAYS OF NIC’S HANDS
I signed up for my first 100 Days project in the midst of lockdown, wanting to focus on something every day to give me space to think and focus and support good mental health at a really taxing time. I wanted to choose an accessible and focused subject and I had also been doing life drawing (with the lovely Reconfigure at Summerhall) before lockdown for a wee while, becoming more aware of areas of the body I wanted to be able to draw better (having never had a chance to do lifedrawing at school). I love drawing the detail of hands and feet, and have always loved Escher's hand drawings, but I could never draw them as well as I hoped, and focusing on that detail in a quick set of poses of a life drawing session doesn't always make sense (and there were no in-person life drawing sessions running after March 2020 for some time).
So, for 100 days, I drew a hand every day - usually my own - immensely improving my understanding of the structure of the hand, and of my own rather cracked and quirky hands in particular. As someone whose work and pleasure is all centred around my hands - typing, making, cooking, creating, touch - I loved the opportunity to explore my hands in huge detail, different media and different shapes and poses in my small (15cm square) sketchpad every day. It was also fascinating to occasionally draw a guest hand and explore how different my partner or young daughter's hands were.
Ever since this project my hands have been my go-to when I want a calming sketch out and about, and my sketching of hands in life drawings have improved hugely but how I express the shape and movement of hands and wrists has vastly opened up.
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