#podophobia

He's being the change he wants to see in the world 👣

me when a dude finally fucking starts singing

Podophobia: Fear of feet.

Hands and Feet drawing exercise!

I was inspired by @pirably, who has posted a couple of videos of doing drawings with both hands... and both feet!  See the cat and mouse here, and the alligator here.  I had never even THOUGHT of trying to draw with my feet!  But I wanted to find out what it would be like! 

So the above is pretty self-explanatory.  I figured I would just try to do the simplest possible thing, a 3/4 bust portrait of Ford.  First (upper left) is a drawing done (on ipad in CSP) with my right hand, which is dominant.  Second (upper right) was done entirely with my left hand (from sketch to inking).  In both cases, I DID make liberal use of the “undo” function while inking!  (But I do that normally anyway to try again on lines I don’t like; that really IS the magic of digital inking.)  

I already knew that I could draw with my left hand, although I don’t do it regularly.  We had to do off-hand sketching in art classes way back when.  And when I broke my right wrist years ago, I did some writing with my left hand (though no drawing).  I think I’d get more comfortable with it if I practiced more. (Biggest issue - I have the CSP menus all lined up on the left, and I kept hitting the buttons with the side of my hand.)

At bottom -- please excuse my toes!  I promise they are clean, even if they need a little moisturizing -- pencil drawing with my right foot (lower left), and with my left foot (lower right). 

What is it like trying to draw with my feet?  REALLY HARD.  I was already impressed by how good Pirably’s foot-drawings were, but now I have a greater appreciation for that feat! (heh heh)  After I did this, I went back and looked at the videos again, and I noticed that he wisely wrapped his pencils and pens so that they could be more easily gripped; I didn’t think of that, and yeah, holding the pencil was really difficult, I had to readjust often and my toes kept cramping up.  (The opposite foot in the photos is just holding the paper still.)  It was also really hard to get good pressure.  And I tried inking the right-foot piece, and just abandoned that, I couldn’t get a consistent line.

I’m not really sure why the left foot drawing looks “better”?  Firmer?  More confident?  It’s not just because it’s the second one I tried. I think it’s because with the right foot, I was “pushing” the lines, and with the left I was “pulling” the lines more, and somehow that gave me more control? I don’t know.  Pirably suggested it’s because when I tried to draw with my right foot, since my right hand is dominant, I tried to draw like I do with my hand; but my left was more free to “break the rules”. (I’m not sure, I think I tried to draw the way I normally draw with all of them, which is harder with the non-dominant hand. With the feet that didn’t work too well. Despite the way I’m holding the pencil with my toes in the pics, I think the best angle was actually when the pencil was nearly vertical.)

me: do skeletons make you uncomfortable?

him: no not really.

me: oh good i was worried i'd have to hide susan.

him: what