Hand with Fir Cone 1921

M.C. Escher made this drawing of a hand holding a fir cone, maybe with ink, and look at all those lines! Escher wasn't messing around. See how he uses the direction of the lines to sculpt the forms? The hand, the cone, they’re practically built from these tiny marks. It’s a reminder that artmaking is a process, a layering of decisions, a slow reveal. Check out the wrist—how the lines curve and tighten to give it form, a sort of topographic map of the body. The cone, with its geometric scales, contrasts with the soft, organic lines of the hand. It’s like Escher's showing us two different ways of seeing the world, the natural and the constructed. It reminds me a bit of Dürer, that old-school precision, but with Escher's own twist of spatial play. It's this ongoing conversation artists have across time, always riffing, always questioning.