portrait

click for larger version


portraits are supposed to capture the essence of a person in an image. or at least, that's how i've always thought of them. i think of hands as capturing this 'essence' for many reasons... the most basic is that looking at a person's hands seems to make the person more 'real' to me. watching all the workings inside a hand as it moves (the way skin moves over the bones, etc), and seeing the veins up close to the surface, and knarled up bits of skin around fingernails, reminds me that we're all animals who work in the same way. so sometimes i like to look at someone's hands if i feel intimidated by them... it brings the person 'down' to my level ;)

i guess this is a self portrait then. when i drew this i was looking for all those little patterns you have on your hand in the skin, the sort of things i like to look at in people's hands to make them 'real'.