If you're drawing a flat hand with the
fingers tight together, you can enclose it in a
egg shaped oval to help you see the correct
finger lengths. Hands vary greatly, so we really
can't lay down too many universally common
measurements. This may be why so many people
don't like drawing hands.
 One
thing we can say is about the finger lengths is
what we
talked about
on the previous page.
Another
fairly common measurement is that the palm area
is most of the time longer than the middle (the
longest) finger.
The
width of the palm is also usually wider than
it's height.
On
the palm, the large thumb muscle extends to the
mid-point of the palm.
As with most drawing, the best thing to do
when drawing hands is to start simple and build
it up into it's more complex shapes. And
remember, draw what you see, don't listen to
your logical mind telling you that "you're doing
it wrong!" Keep going with your hand drawings
and if you draw accurately what you see, they will
look right - even to your logical mind!
 Start
by doing simple sketches of your own hands. It
may be easiest to take photos of your hands so
you can look at the photos while drawing rather
than hold your hand in place while you draw with
the other hand. Do quick 5 minute or less
sketches. Don't bother measuring, just eyeball
the measurements as best you can. When you've
finished the sketch and you feel like a
measurement looks off, go ahead and erase that
part and redraw it. Hold your hand in simple
poses, ones where your fingers are close
together so you don't have to draw all of the
fingers. Don't draw each finger but draw the
contour of the grouping of the fingers. We'll
work on drawing individual fingers as we make
the drawings more complex. Do several sketches
like this so you can get comfortable drawing the
hand and seeing the various shapes, ridges,
angles and curves in the hand. Remember: draw
what you see in front of you, don't listen to
your logical mind if it tells you that the
sketch doesn't look like a hand. Just keep
sketching. The more you draw, the more
comfortable you'll become with drawing hands and
your logical mind will shut up. Click below for
some examples of positions you can put your hand
in to draw it. |
