Hands on drawing paper

​I am going to send this question to one of preventive/paper moderators.

​Hi! You’re doing the right thing by working with a piece of paper under your hands, which will prevent smudges and accidental staining. I wouldn’t worry too much about occasional handling with bare hands, although you’ll want to make sure that they’re washed and dried before handling. You’re unlikely to cause much damage unless you’re handling it with dirty hands or touching it a great deal – this can cause the oil (and sweat, and dirt) from your hands to build up in the paper, which will result in staining over time. It sounds like you’re probably safe to continue what you’re doing with clean hands.

​There are techniques that help keep the hand from resting on the paper surface- holding the drawing instrument lightly between fingers and thumb, for example. For intensive detail where you’re really “knuckling it”, though, a drafting bridge or mahlstick all but eliminates direct contact between skin and paper. Acrylic bridges even allow the artist to see through to the work beneath.

Some papers are very sensitive to stains, and will pick up the lightest amount of grease. Unsized printmaking papers are particularly prone. I remember one paper in particular that was amazing for picking up sensitive half-tones in intaglio, but you didn’t dare touch it without paper tabs. Basically, if you looked at a can of ink on your way to the press, it was enough to fingerprint it!