Portraits are so often a way of the wealthy and powerful showing off their wealth and power and so they usually show the entire face of the person paying, hopefully, a great big wad of cash to the artist. Egon Schiele did a lot of drawings and paintings of hands covering faces and I like the way that the presence of a hand alters the whole image, from one of confidence in a full facial portrait to an image that is far less confident and assured. The hand gives an impression of guardedness and uncertainty. I also like the way that the digits sink into the flesh and distort it. This sketch took me 25 minutes in Faber Castell Pitt pens into a spiral bound sketchbook. The hand took loads of time – they always do, but also the way the thumb sinks into the cheek is unfamiliar and took a lot of cross-checking.
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