My starting point for this exercise was to make a series of drawings working on a table and going from small to large.
The first drawing, shown below, was made in an A5 sketch book. For this drawing I used graphite and charcoal pencils. The only movement I allowed myself to make was with my fingers.
I made notes on the Drawing after completing it, they read:
“Marks made using only fingers. Extending the pencil, charcoal pencil to the end of my fingers enabled me to expand the range and size of marks, dots and lines. Strokes were limited. It was difficult to make expressive, gestural marks.
The extent of reach was confined to the length of the pencil or drawing tool. The control and extended reach was vert limited. I also tried holding the drawing tool differently. The normal method of holding a pencil is similar to that used when writing. By resting the side of my hand on the table I could expend the range but control was poor. would this improve with practice? I shall move onto the wrist, larger paper needed.”
For this drawing I used A3+ size paper and started making small marks using only my fingers and gradually introduced wrist movements, elbow movements and finally the shoulder. When I got to the shoulder the paper size was not large enough.
Wrist and fingers only used in four positions. Movements limited to lines, arcs, small circles and squiggles.
Elbow, Wrist and fingers (seated position). Extended range but limited movement away from confines of arc of elbow.
Similar technique used as that for Drawing 4. For this one I limited myself to lines only.
For this Drawing I limited myself to using wrist and fingers only. This was a timed Drawing of 5 minutes. I noted that I became bored about halfway through.
I used my full arm, including shoulder, in a seated position and made this Drawing with a single continual line.
For this drawing I undertook a standing position and made a repeated sweeping figure of eight movement for 5 minutes. The 5 minutes seemed long.
Mark Taylor 'Studio Practice' 