Tips for drawing HANDSDrawing the palm. There are a couple of things | think about when I draw the palm of the hand. First is the general shape of the hand. This is the shape that | imagine when I draw the palm. Its sort of a like a pentagon!Drawing the palm. The reason for this shape is because, if you look at your own hand, you can see that your fingers ae don’t sit all at the same height. There is a natural S\ SS] curve to them! And sol use the pentagon shape to accentuate that curve! _ | Often times, beginner artists will depict the hand as a perfect square, but drawing the hand that way can make it look pretty flat and unnatural. @®* XBut so let's take a closer look at this Pentagon shape and why It’s shaped this way. —— So, take look at your own _ palm. There are a few key things that you may notice Drawing the palm. © (/— This indentation at the bottom of the pentagon is there to help you upon observation. ‘separate and place the musole of the thumb, 1. The first thing 2, The second thing you may Isthat your notice is that the first line at palm, for the the top separates your middle most part,is finger, ring finger, and pinky divided by three from your index finger. it lines. Of course, sorta joins them in a group. not all hands are This is why the top line of that ereated equal, pentagon shape is longer on but for now, let's one side than the other, it's stick with the grouping those three fingers three. ‘together. 3. The third thing you may notice is the line right in the middle. In most cases you don't actually have to draw this line in. In fact you can totally just join the first two lines together, and it'll still look pretty convineing. However, keep in mind still that this line will group those three fingers in red together! —_~Drawing the palm. 4. And of course, last, but not z least, the line that depicts that /\ big ol’ section for your thumb. | find that this line is one of the most important lines to put “hig down, or at least to keep in mind when you draw the hand in most angles. It’s one of the most prominent muscles in the hand soit becomes a prominent visual cue for the placement of the thumb. —_—~”A different approach to visualizing the palm. $0 let's for a second go back to penta-palm here, I've highlighted a few lines in blue, You may recognize a couple of them from what we | -—— just went over, but there is another line there highlighted in red that wasn't there before which can break up the palm into three —_ distinct sections. You may not actually see this line on your hand when you look at your palm, but this line has been used by many artists over the years to visualize the hand when turned in profile. Generally, it's used to place the pinky, but also can help you visualize the volume of that layer of fat that sits opposite your thumb.Drawing the fingers. There's a couple way | approach drawing the fingers. The first way is The second way is very pretty simple! All similar, but one said of the Ido is I draw this shape has these ridges. shape. ) Sort of just an elongated oval? Ora skinny ellipse. The ridges represent the knuckles of the finger.Drawing the fingers. The first way is really only for Eo simplicity’s sake, and usually I'll do ee ps them this way when the fingers are GE outstretched and not bent. —_—_—N a \ = / (Drawing the fingers. The second way is sometimes harder for me to visualize, but the idea behind it is that I'm imagining the finger as this tube that's divided into three sections. However to simplify it further, ll just draw the top of the finger with two dips, the ridges essentially. The bottom of the finger is generally more curved kA than the top of the finger with the ridges. Again the idea is that the peaks in the finger represent the knuckles of the finger. we Pe ASDrawing the fingers. Now, you might be asking yourself, “Okay, but how dol know how to place the fingers next to each other in different angles?” This is the way | approach it. What I like to do first is to simply draw a curved line that more or less represents the curve that the knuckles are making. Like these for example: f\\ Simple as that!Drawing the fingers. What I like to think about next is where the back of the hand is. Let’s use this line for example. Highlighted in blue is the back of the hand. (> You can see there are many angles you can position the hand in from just one line! Here, I didn’t change \ the position of the line at all. SS %Drawing the fingers. q Now there’s one thing | want to mention before we move on / that may help you place the NN fingers, and it’s to keep in mind the webbing between the fingers. avy Try your best to keep this in mind when thinking about the space between the Q fingers. How long should you draw the webbing? Honestly it depends, you can get some SP you stylize and exaggerate the hand. Experiment! l KK = really crazy gesture when ~ ve} i\ SJ eeDrawing the fingers. One other thing I'd like to mention before we move on is a way to visualize the entire back and palm of the hand together. 2\ yd Basically, it’s to think of the base ye of the hand as a rectangle, or even like a wedge. The holes are a where the fingers are going to ©. come out of. The point of this is y of course is to indicate the different planes of the hand. To visualize it as a 3D form. flDrawing the fingers. Okay, with those things out of the way let’s move on to one last, but very important thing before we can start placing the fingers on our gesture line. Now of course, these examples here are in different angles. We aren't looking at them ina 7? straight-on view so we have to take into account what happens to the fingers when perspective and foreshortening come into play. f-Drawing the fingers. Let's take one single finger for example. pe —> CL Imagine for a Ae second that this finger is a cylinder. This cylinder below isin a pretty side~ profile view. That is to say that we're looking at it as it sits almost completely horizontally. But watch what happens to the cylinder as I turnit in space, specifically as | turn it so that the open end faces us.Drawing the fingers. This would go on and on of course until the cylinder looks just like a circle. The same thing applies to the ti finger as we turn it in space. Qe However the finger, unlike a cylinder, can bend, andit's. —~ TS SS O oO Drawing the fingers. Finally with all of this information we can place the fingers on our gesture lines. SRDrawing the fingers. Another quick tip! Drawing all the [r fingers individually can be hard enough already, so something you can do to simplify it further is by ec joining the middle and ring finger xX together! This is a very common » trick! “yet ] ~ Le és a 4 AFolding the fingers. Quick tip for folding the fingers! When you curl your fingers inward, they will curve toward the thumb due to the natural curvature of your knuckles on Ny : Tr NV Q " x) y) ee « Les 4 “TeFolding the fingers. Another quick tip for folding ‘the fingers! Fold your fingers and take a look at the creases they make. Youmay notice that as they fold ee) down they'll make a series of creases that canbe drawn and visualized like this. Almost like you're writing the letter “v"” Sometimes you may notice that the fingers will fold down enough / = that the creases may create the Ne letter “y” in them, sometimes even the letter “x” when you — make a fist! KD yy ( ' Always keep in mind XS ‘that your fingers are o ‘split in dividends of vo ‘three and toute the

wins | YY make!Drawing a fist. they draw a fist is they will draw itina way where in which the knuckles are placed all the same height, neglecting the natural curve of the knuckles. ur Often times it will look like this: —_ One thing beginner artists will do when (Y amended with a couple visualize tricks. In the end, your fist should look something a little more like this. =< This is a very common mistake, "i and one that can be easily OcDrawing a fist. So how we can we At a achieve this? There are two ways I like to think of it. 1. The first thing | like to do is to imagine the curvature of the Notice that these two lines knuckles, and where the curvature aren't perfectly centered. The of the first knuckles on our fingers will make. Think of It using these one on the bottom veers off to two lines like this: the right ever so slightly. ao aoeDrawing a fist. From here we can connect these two lines to create os CA the outer contour of the fist! From there we can add the lines in for the fingers, remember that when rAt a you fold your fingers they will cur! Cr if \. towards your thumb. $o in this case as well, these lines will seem to \h converge towards the thumb. i ‘The thumb in most cases I've \ > noticed will stop just at the middle finger.Drawing a fist. From here we're gonna add yet another curve to the gesture line % for the knuckles to further ss accentuate that curve. Like this: From there you can add in the er knuckles and any further ! \ adjustments youd like to make, %; and you have a fist!Drawing a fist. The other way | like to imagine it I'd say isn't as complicated, and maybe alot easler to remember. | start with the gesture line for the knuckles, but this time the downwards curve is alot more severe. The reason for this is so that we can skip a step of the construction and just go straight to drawing the outer contour of the fist. From there I go down to the placement of the first knuckle of the fingers. First | draw part of the index finger so that | can establish how far down | want it to go. This is where the visual trick comes in. Think of It like Mier Youse! ta Flaceran! you this, each line you draw next will be slightly below the fingers always remembering that ‘they ourve towards the thumb. previous line as well sliding a bit more towards the thumb, a SS :Drawing a fist. _~ Then you can just add in the ae knuckles. And there you \ ay \ > have a fist! SF \ This method for me is a lot more straightforward and can produce about the same results as the last method! Of course, this is only one angle of the fist. What about when we look at it from the side, or under it!? Let me show youa few visual tricks I like to use for drawing the fist in different angles.Drawing a fist. Okay solet’s talk abit “—) about how to simplify the ie: cl fist when we look at it from we a side profile. This sa™~ S Particular angle is from the side of the fist where the thumb is visible, TY Ths frat method every Ininimal, but gets the point across, ld say. What | dois | like to imagine the At the bottom of this shape, Ilike to add a base of the fist as this like simple “c” curve for the thumb, and a diagonal abevtihed equare: line to indicate the fold the thumb makes against the rest of the fist. in two nes, one horizontat ‘The second way is maybe a bit more readable as ibascencareiqa tenet a fist. What like to do first is draw almost like a that lower 91 degree angle, and ninety degree angle, the corner of a square. coe sane line teat puesto at the bottom of that first one. This isindieating ‘the thumb ast protrudes out. alsa ike ta add Themed Lethe like the totter “Y" for the folds and creases of the flat, Again, pretty minimal, but gets the job done, rout!Drawing a fist. Let’s move on to drawing the fist in a profile view on the side of the pinky. This might look a bit complicated, but we’re going to break it down using some techniques that we've already discussed!Drawing a fist. ese — Tk (Ny Hl What I like to do first is ‘From here we're gonna put in three lines for the ‘to get in the back of ‘lingers. Keep inmind the curvature of the kowekles . ‘he kan the Ge lee and how it makes It seem Uke th 2 are fanning out of the back of the han Each finger being slightly below the other. Now do you remember the technique we used for drawing the fist in a straight-on view? The one where eaoh line you draw for the fingers will be slightly below the previous? We're gonna do the same thing here as we place the knuckles for the fingers except instead of drawing each subsequent line below the previous, we're gonna do the opposite and draw each line slightly above the previous.Drawing a fist. oh oa Next we'll add in where the pinky folds 7 up into the palm, and the index finger, © —— | The index finger kinda hides behind the i middle finger. We'll add the folds of the finger _ Finally we addin the thumb and the thumb * * musole. The thumb can be drawn inmost using the "x. y,and ¥ with an oval or just a circle, and the eas technique, as well the little ‘thumb musele can be drawn using two lines. The horizontal one that comes out of Pudge of fat on the side of Your i ssn. and the diagonal one that goot hand, back into the wrist. —— 1 Ys ysPesta a fist. Add in the wrist and any other lines you'd like for a the wrinkles and such, AAS and you have a fist from (ges ee this view! “a CASES Here are a few references for the fist from different angles! Remember the curve in the knuckles!we D, eoDrawing the wrist. «> There are two things to keep Jo D in mind when you draw the as wrist. First thing is to realize “HK rs () that the actual base of the or hand doesn’t connect to the a wrist completely level, there is a slight dip there! _FO “a ¥ ‘The second thing is that there are Isa prominent bone in your wrist that tends to protrude out a bit. If you look at all the hands I've \ \\ ) drawn thus far, you can see this little bump in all of them! This Sa bump in the wrist comes outon | your pinky side, opposite the SS thumb. YT NJ ee aThat’s gonna conclude my tips and tricks for drawing hands! Allin all, a couple key things to remember are: The knuckles sit on the hand at a curve! Keep in mind the webbing between your fingers!