DAY 12: YOUR HAND

Welcome to Day 12.

Today I offer a word prompt to tap into your imagination: Your Hand. Our hands are amazing and today we’re going to honor them by painting them.

When I was a teenager, I saw Michelangelo’s painting “The Creation of Adam” in the Sistine Chapel (Rome, Italy) and it left a big impression on me. I left Vatican’s gift shop with a letter paper pad showing a detailed view of the two hands nearly touching. I wrote a lot of letters on that pad. The depiction is full of magic and I found the two hands deeply inspiring.

My own hands mean a great deal to me as they are so connected to my profession as a painter. My art flows through my heart, down my arm and out my hand onto the brush. I also using my hands to write these words, tend to my garden and gently brush hair out of my children’s eyes.

HERE ARE SOME IDEAS:

You can do this challenge in many different ways, but you can’t do the challenge wrong. Here are a few ideas how to have fun today.

  • Trace your hand: My children loves to trace their hand on the paper, and then color it. Simply place your hand on your canvas pad, spread the fingers and trace the outline. I often color the nails and add elaborate rings on my fingers, maybe a colorful bracelet on my wrist. This is the original idea for this challenge. It demonstrates how easy it is to tap into our creativity when we stay outside our ego.
  • Color in the whole outline: Instead of limiting the coloring to the nails and fun jewelry, paint the whole hand. Maybe add a few hands and overlap the fingers.
  • Make a hand print: Paint your hand first and then make a handprint onto your canvas paper. Create a heart with two hand prints, or a tulip and add the stem and leaves. This works with tracing first and then coloring as well. This adds fun texture to the paper.
  • Body paint: Instead of using the canvas pad as your paper, use your hand. Use a soft brush for some sensory play. What do you see when you view your hand, beyond the roadmap of life and the valleys and hills? Clouds and moonlight? A dancer? a heart?
  • Hand painting study: Use your hand as your subject. Shape your hand in a different shape and sketch it onto the canvas. Then either paint it realistically or just use the darker and lighter tones.

The Painting Practice

Remember to turn off your phone notifications before you start.

  1. Create an outline if you would like.
  2. While looking at your hand, think about how you’d like to honor your hand today.
  3. Choose your colors, they can be whatever colors you’d like.
  4. Grab some water and your brushes, and don’t forget a towel to clean off your wet brush. If you paint on your skin, be mindful that some paint has chemicals and can be hard to remove.
  5. Now, set a gentle timer and paint for 20 minutes for some meditative joy and playful painting. We’re going for fun and not perfection.
  6. Claim your creativity and honor your journey of showing up for yourself by signing your art work.

SHARE YOUR CREATION:

Take a photo of your finished challenge – either of your finished canvas or photograph your painted hand – and share it on social media (tag #studioeriksdotter so I can see it), and tell me: How did this word prompt feel different from other challenges so far?