#117 6/6/19 Sign Language

I tried out something new tonight....the upside-down method of turning off the know-it-all part of your brain.  I had a pre-painted (reddish) longish thinnish canvas (9x3 inches), a question from a farmer's market patron asking whether I had any paintings of hands, and a photo from Pexels of 4 hands spelling out LOVE in sign language that was longish and thinnish.  It was meant to be.  So I traced the hands, but because the canvas was reddish, I could barely see my tracings.  So I decided to paint the background first, leaving openings for the hands, thinking that would make it easier to find the fingers and whatnot.  I painted with cerulean blue...it darkened the background around the hands barely, but enough that I could find the fingers (and whatnot).  I started with white, burnt umber, burnt sienna and cadmium red....made all my fleshtones with that....decided to start with the lights and move through the mediums to the darks.  After finishing the lights and starting the mediums, decided doing the darks next would be better, nothing was looking "believable"...then, all at once it hit!  Just like the drawing exercises I did while in Key West, turn it upside down, then look, then draw what you see, when you turn it right side up, you'll be amazed.  Well, it worked!  Shadows here, not there, a tiny highlight over there, this part is small but at a 30 degree angle, etc.  It didn't seem to look like much, but when I turned it around - there were 4 hands looking back at me!