As I was browsing around a few days ago, I came across this article about how to approach handshakes at work when someone (client, business associate, etc.) is sick. Sometimes when I come across random articles like this, I’ll just read a couple lines and skip to something else. But this is something most people come across occasionally, myself included, so I gave the entire thing a read.
The advice is pretty decent I think, and overlaps mostly (but not completely) with what I’d do. If it’s me who is sick, I will immediately nullify the obligation from others by telling them I’m sick, and I don’t want to shake hands and spread anything. If it’s the client/colleague who’s sick, and I know them already, I’ll broach the subject. The trickiest situation is if we’re talking about someone who is important and I don’t know them; this could be a big shot boss who I’m meeting for the first time, or something along those lines. In a situation like that, I might just bite the bullet and shake their hand. I’d like to think most people would have the self-awareness to not put others in that situation, but I know from experience that’s not always the case.
Anyway, in the article there was a photo of a lady sneezing. As usual, I’m on the lookout for stuff to draw, so on a whim I decided to try this one. I don’t think I’ve ever drawn someone sneezing, so that seemed like good practice. Here’s how this one turned out:
Not too bad overall, in terms of shading, proportion, and “does-it-look-like-a-realistic-person.” There is a glaring issue though…you really can’t tell if she’s sneezing, crying, or yawning. Since I’ve never drawn someone sneezing, I really don’t know what the keys to portraying that action effectively are. Maybe I should have tried to get some hair in motion or something? I did a decent job getting the furrow in her eyebrows and the right creases around the eyes and nose…but again, those could be from crying rather than a sneeze.
I made a point to get a few progression shots this time. I wanted to make sure this time, because a few recent posts I’ve done haven’t really had them. So, here you can see how it progressed:
ACHOO!