Tutorial: Sketching Hands And Fingers

Recently I gave you several tips on how to sketch hands. Looks like numerous of my students went through these tips and call now for more. Especially they called me to go into the details of drafting hands. So let's take a look at it.

When drafting hands, the largest obstacle are the dimensions of all the fingers and small details. In this article I'll demonstrate you the crucial details you ought to focus your attention on for perfect outcomes.

When drafting an unstrained hand, you should think of the palm as a square and so sketch the fingers accordingly. In this case the middle finger is about as long as the palm (with slight deviances depending on the particular digit's dimensions and its posture - just think of the "magic trick" in my last article on drafting hands).

As longest finger the middle finger makes a great reference for understanding the dimensions of all other fingers:

The little finger is about two thirds to three-fourths of the middle finger

The ring finger and the index finger are all of the time longer than the small finger and littler than the middle finger.

But the accurate sizings differ - some people's ring fingers and index fingers are evenly long, others have longer ring fingers, others have longer index fingers. I have even learned of people making jokes by deducing physical or mental abilities from the lengths of index finger and ring finger. Fortunately my are both equally long so I am on the safe side ;-)

Thanks to the different sizes of the fingers the fingertips form a c-shaped curve when dwelling adjacently.

Somethingwn similar is true for the fingers' roots: the index finger's and the middle finger's root are upmost, the other fingers' roots are a bit lower so the finger roots form a curve that bends downwardly, too. And the knuckles build a comparable curve, of course.

Now that we've drafted all fingers, let's look at the thumb. Contrary to the other fingers it is connected to the side of the palm. Its root fills the lower fraction of the hands side. Having only two joints it's equipped also more muscles, mass and strength.

Using these directions you're able to draft the primary structure of any hand you want to sketch. But whilst completing this first outline, please remember: although I told you about squares and lengths etc., the hand's shape actually isn't exactly geometrical.

There can't be any firm edges or straight lines in your picture. The muscles and anatomy on the hand's bones form round contours. Intensify these contours by introducing substantial shadowing. Look where shades form on your hand and add these shadows accordingly.

Significant: The skinnier a hand is, the less mass the drawing should have. So adapt the strength and shadow of shadows accordingly. Also you need to correct the shading if the hand is very muscular (e.g. hands of bodybuilders or sportsmen) and for overweight hands that have only few lines and wrinkles in the skin.

Hope these guidelines help you to draft better hands from now on.

By: R. Schmidt

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