Project by: Peter Mamaev (12th Grade)
Project Advisor: James French
Student(s)’s Advisor(s): Peter Heinz

This project, though not particularly ambitious in its scope, was equal parts a resounding success and a somewhat unexpected turn.

I came into this feeling somewhat pessimistic. There was an insecure, shadowless pencil sketch of my face, one which I drew many times, and a couple separate sketches of hands, which I have also drawn many times. It’s combining the two that would be the difficult part.

The idea behind this concept was, primarily, to experiment with shadow using charcoal, as I found drawing regular faces (a must-have for most college portfolios) left them somewhat flat and not really popping. Hands, on the other hand, and particularly fingers, allowed due to their more complex and cylindrical shapes to have more intricate, dark and overall interesting shadow. So I decided to combine the two. Make a face made entirely out of hands was the first idea. A preliminary sketch showed that this would look more like a disoriented collection of hot dog sausages than an actual face. So I had to dial back the ambition just a bit. Instead of face composed in a surrealist fashion entirely out of fingers and hands, I instead decided to just draw a regular face with hands covering it as much as possible.

I started by taking about 12 pictures of myself, with my hands plastered over different parts of my face. After printing this serial killer-y repertoire, I started drawing separate hands onto my face every time. I initially wanted to add the connecting arm as well, but that felt like it would be too distracting. So I barreled through that process surprisingly smoothly, and was left with a pretty decent charcoal sketch.

A common thing James has emphasized throughout the process was heavier shading, which I initially purposefully avoided as I worried it would make the entire thing unevenly distributed and thoroughly distracting. I also had some difficulty distributing the shading evenly throughout the fingers across the drawing while keeping it somewhat realistic. This kind of lead to the most resounding flaw of the drawing – there isn’t a singular source of lighting across the board. If you look closely into the drawing, you will find that the shading on the fingers is actually quite uneven, as if coming from a plethora of different lights. I actually don’t mind this, however, given the drawing actually pops this way. It’s a little confusing when you get down to the small details, and I find that to be a good thing.

Now, as I was finishing up with the face itself, this left the shoulders, hair and background. My initial idea was to detail the hair and leave the background white, but through sudden French intervention these two were flipped  on their head – and all the better for it. I have drawn completely black backgrounds, and shading it out was not hard by any means, however the hair I recall having a lot of arguments over. Just leaving it blank, with nothing more but a few unintentional charcoal stains on it? The debate actually got pretty heated back then, but in the long run I’m glad the way it ended up. It looks surreal, but the stark contrast of the white and black draws the eye, first to the hair and then down all throughout the face. Leaving the eyes and glasses blank was my idea, just because eyes are generally a very important part of any drawing and shading it in would blend it in with the rest of the face.

An interesting turn was that everyone who saw the drawing found it somewhat unnerved, even completely independent parties who did not know the context. The Hand-E-Man, at its core, was just a complex exercise, but people said that they were repeatedly unnerved by it. I still don’t get why. Maybe it’s the white eyes? Maybe the idea of hands covering the face give off the impression of something more sinister going on? Though not what I intended (I mean, even the name was a corny pun), I still find the drawing went down surprisingly effectively, accomplishing what I wanted for it to accomplish and, thanks to interference from my teacher, managed to even strike an emotional response from the audience.

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PROJECT PROPOSAL

Please write a description of the project you are proposing. Why do you want to take this on, and what do you hope to learn?

This is a pretty straightforward drawing, aimed primarily at improving my artistic skills above all else. The idea is a self-portrait done with charcoal, HOWEVER after creating a geometrically sound outline, I will then proceed to recreate my entire face with hands. Literally – the entire head will be composed of hands, twisting and going in different directions to create the illusion of a face, features and maybe even hair.

Critical thinking, creativity, citizenship and courage are essential LREI learning values. Explain how you’ll draw on at least one of these values to complete your proposed project?

This project will definitely require creativity and critical thinking, as this is in my opinion a fairly novel concept for a project.

What is your proposed outcome? How will you be able to demonstrate successful completion of this Project? How do you plan to share your learnings with the larger LREI community (e.g., exhibit of work, poster of learnings, performance, etc.)?

The outcome is simple – a finished piece by the end of trimester at worst and by the end of October at best. I am perfectly content with having any way to share my project, from it being hung up in a hallway or a room to any other form.

Please provide a general outline that indicates your work plan for the trimester? What are some of the key project benchmarks (i.e., goals that will help to ensure that you finish the project)?

I will definitely try to take less than a week to create a sound outline of a face with pencil, after which I will try to spend the subsequent week on outlining the picture with hands, leaving the rest of time for careful shading, attention to detail and cleanup.

When do you plan on meeting?
Yes, at least weekly. Perhaps after school on Mondays