Because I don’t think the fist shapes of the hands of the first attendant on the right are particularly graceful, I’m altering them to a more delicate, mannered position that I think is more appropriate to the painting. I want the Empress to appear weightless, so the hands that are visible are going to be long-fingered and like those of a ballet dancer.
Getting the hand right was interesting. I asked my student Rachel to hold a plastic bottle for me while I matched it to the angle of the leg she was supposed to hold, matched the scale of the hand by referring to the distance from the knuckle to the break of the wrist, then elongated the fingers slightly.
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