Hand or Machine

I have been thinking further about the importance of the hand.  As I have been hand drawing, I have looked at artists who I admire, who have used lines to create form.  I have focussed on Henry Moore, and Giorgio Morandi.  I'm not into Henry Moore's sculpture, but I LOVE his drawing.  He uses line to create form, by curving lines around limbs, as well as drawing along the limb. His lines are very freely drawn.  Sometimes scribbled to create form, as shown in his Sheep Sketchbook.  Giorgio Morandi uses straight lines to cross hatch to create form, varying the weight and intensity of the line. 

I have enjoyed drawing in black fine liner pen and have been experimenting with the different styles of the two artists above.  I have had a lovely time hand drawing, but have had to stop as my neck is giving me pain in my left arm.

Henry Moore had some lovely images of hand drawn hands on the Tate website.  This brought me back to thinking about the hand and the importance of the hand.  Given my work is about the domestic and mundane, family and objects, maybe I should ask my cousin Allison to sit and knit, and I will observe the hands in position.  Can I draw the hands?  In Henry Moore's Grey Tube Shelter, an image he created in his role as War Artist, there is a tiny person on one side, knitting while others slept.  maybe there is a family story in here.

In the meantime I need to do more print sampling.  I feel constrained by the need to use photoshop to get my hand drawn images prepped for digital printing.  This means I need to use a scanner, then the computer. Increasingly I want to use just the simple hand drawn image without digital manipulation or repeat, but quite a few of my drawings are bigger then A4, which is the biggest I can scan on  my printer at home.  Last time I looked, the A3 scanner at class was broken.  I am frustrated by using technology when I have such an interest in the hand and hand techniques, but digital print is the most efficient and effective technique at present.  At this sampling stage, when I am trying out lots of different images, it would be uneconomic to be using hand print screens (on eco-friendly, time and cost basis).  I don't want to spend a lot of time on a computer because it aggravates my neck problems which restricts how much I can work.  If I were a horse, they would shoot me - so it's a good job I am not a horse!