Drawing with a broken arm
On July 22nd I broke my arm after falling out of a car, just as I arrived to Boulder, CO for a planetarium conference. Yikes! First time breaking a bone, first time going to the hospital in another country…
(yes, I had travel insurance. NEVER EVER EVER travel without insurance! this could have gone very badly!!)
Despite this being a serious fracture, I got pretty lucky—I didn’t need to go through surgery, and it was my non-dominant arm. Silver linings, right?
After getting back home I found myself with a lot of time and not much to do, so I naturally gravitated towards my sketchbook…it felt relatively easy to do with one hand (except for the part where I can’t use a ruler), and it just felt good to draw for fun, you know? it’s like “oh yeah, I LIKE doing this!”, who knew!!
The bones painting was done in acrylic gouache, using a 3D model of my CT scan as a reference—you can see it’s horribly broken, but all the pieces are in place! I went into this painting with absolutely no expectations, and then it turned out surprisingly good… am I a bones person now??? (probably not)
Anyway, I still have MONTHS of rest and physical therapy before I make a full recovery, but I’m making good progress! It’s all time and patience now… 😌💦
