A Hand and a Prompt

There's been a lot of talk about identity in my circles in recent months. Knowing who we are, who we are made to be is important. Keeping on the theme of being like a child I decided to do a page touching on who I am. I figured if someone in one of the workshops was having an artist's block they could use this as a starting point for an idea and a place to learn new techniques. So I wrote my first name in cursive at the top of the page with a permanent pen, and then traced around my hand. You can see the first step in the second image down. The background was smudgy so I decided to paint an acrylic wash of color as part of a demo. Then I  embellished the illuminated letter and the hand with more doodles and paint. 

The "V" words below show the progression of writing/doodling the words, from the bottom up. In the second image below, I drew freehand circles, filled them with patterns and added paint. The wonderful quote by E.E. Cummings was just right:

"It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are."