The Work of His Hands process

Much research went into this painting. When I first started thinking about doing it, I figured I could get on the internet and download reference images. But that didn't give me enough to work from. I then purchased a book, DVD, a life sized doll of a 12 week old unborn baby, and a CD with images of unborn babies inside the womb...from this image. To get to this point has taken three days, which includes the research time.

I've done all my research and have a basic idea of what the drawing will look like. But being a very visual person, I need to see what I'm going to draw. For this painting, I took several photos of my hands, both with and without a balloon blown up to the actual size of the amniotic sac. I then took some pictures of the doll with different lighting to see exactly what would look the best. Using Adobe Photoshop, I'm able to build a computer construct (it's easier to change this than a drawing). I call this the computer construct and will work directly from it. 3 days so far.

For this drawing, I felt like I needed to do a sketch to get a better feel for lighting, especially since the doll still looked like it was plastic. The way I did this sketch was to cover a 12x16 piece of drawing paper with charcoal and smudge it all together with paper towel so that I had one consistent neutral gray background. Then I went in with a kneadable eraser and "drew" the light in (no white chalk or anything was used, I just erased). At the same time, I used a piece of charcoal for the dark areas. Since it was just a sketch, I didn't go into any detail. The face at the top is from a Lennart Nilsson photo, and I thought I might use it for the face of the baby.

After doing the sketch, I realized several things. 1. I didn't like the way the baby looked, and wanted to do a different angle and baby. 2. Three of the knuckles of the left hand made a flat spot on the bottom of the drawing and I wanted them to look more rounded. 3. The entire drawing wasn't very balanced. So, I did another construct. This one was much faster, and with the computer I could flip back and forth from a semi-transparent baby and an opaque one to see details better. You can also see that I added different feet, arms, and hands. The last 2 steps have taken another day (Day 4).

I've finally started the pastel. Initially, I laid out a very quick line sketch of everything. I covered the background with the base color I would use and started working in some of the details. I had finished the thumbs on day 4 and had a pretty good feeling already for the whole thing based on that (I get pleasure in small things). As you can see here, I started sketching in some of the fingers, but to be honest, "sketching in" is the most boring part for me. So, I worked on completing sections of the drawing. You can see the pinky is finished, and almost all of the ring finger. By the way, this is not really proper procedure. I should cover the entire paper first with a basic rough sketch, and then go back and do details.

I've gotten into just doing details. I've completed four more fingers and started on a fifth. I've also filled in some of the background to a more finished look to get a better feel for what the lighting will be once the piece is finished.

One thing I haven't mentioned is that on almost every drawing I leave a one inch space around the entire drawing to allow for alterations (if necessary) and added space for the mat to cover.

The fingers are pretty much done, except for a few subtle changes at the completion of the drawing. The background is also a long ways towards completion, once again, except for finishing touches. I've started sketching in a little of the umbilical cord and the head.

The head is completed (or so I thought). I also started working on the sac. My thumbs received a little more detail and I started working in a little of the baby.

Here, we really see why it is so important to sketch in the entire drawing and go back and work the details. I realized that there were a few problems. 1. The head looked like an alien's head (a 12 week fetus' head IS a little different). 2. Basically, I needed to make the baby's head more mature, and thus I needed to make the whole baby more mature, so I needed to lengthen the body. I erased the entire head and started over, essentially erasing almost an entire day's work. But the finished product was much better. I was able to get the baby's feet done, and also worked on some of the baby's leg. I defined the sac some more. I also changed the thickness of the base of my left thumb.

By the end of this day, I was really getting near completion. BUT, I also reached a frustration level that I can never remember reaching before. It felt like I was painting with a stick of mud. Everything was getting browner and browner, which is a terrible quality in a piece of art...the color needs to stay rich. I had reached a point that I needed to start making things up and I definitely prefer to respond to something that I can see. The baby's head periodically received subtle shading. If you compare days 9 and 10, you'll see that day 9 the head was too red looking. The rest of the baby received a lot of attention, too.

This was a good day for me. After a nights rest, I woke up and decided to take some pictures of my four year old's arm and hand to get the right lighting and coloring for the baby's. I continued to adjust the coloring on the baby's head, finished the baby, and added the finishing details on the sac. You can't see it in these pictures, but I also added some subtle lighting in the background. I was finished, so I thought. I even signed it.

I give a few respected people the chance to offer suggestions for changes. They both said (without conferring with each other) that the hands looked too mature and the fore arm was too long. As a result, I changed both of these, and achieved a much better finished product. How long did it take to draw? This painting took by far the longest of anything that I've done. It's 16"x20" and the actual drawing time was about 60 hours with another 20-30 hours in research, constructs, and sketch. All told, about 80-90 hours.