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Home / How to Draw Hand Against Body

How to Draw Hand Against Body

Of all parts of the trunk, the hand is by many considered to be the hardest to draw. We all take stories of how, early on, we would keep our characters' hands behind their backs or in their pockets, avoiding as much as possible the task of tackling hands. Yet paradoxically, they are our most readily available reference, existence in our field of vision every moment of our lives. With just ane extra accessory, a pocket-sized mirror, we tin reference hands from all angles. The but real challenge, then, is the complexity of this remarkably articulated organ: information technology'southward almost like drawing a minor effigy onto a larger 1, i doesn't know where to start.

In this tutorial we will deconstruct the hand'due south own beefcake and indeed demystify it, so that when y'all look at a hand for reference, you can make sense of information technology every bit a group of simple forms, easy to put together.

I use the following abbreviations for the fingers:

  • Th = pollex
  • FF = forefinger
  • MF = middle finger
  • RF = band finger
  • LF = pinkie

Nuts of the Hand

Here's a quick await at the bone construction of the mitt (left). In blue, the eight carpal basic, in imperial, the five metacarpal bones, and in pink, the fourteen phalanges.

As many of these bones cannot move at all, we can simplify the basic structure of the manus: the diagram on the right is all yous really need to think.

Note that the actual base of the fingers, the joint that corresponds to the knuckles, is much lower than the credible base formed by flaps of pare. This will be important to draw bending fingers every bit we will run into later.

Based on the to a higher place, a simple mode of sketching the hand is to start with the bones form of the palm, a flat shape (very much similar a steak, but roundish, squarish, or trapezoidal) with rounded angles, then adhere the fingers :

If you have a difficult fourth dimension drawing fingers, it'due south very helpful to think of them, and draw them, as stacks of iii cylinders. Cylinders are easy to draw nether any angle, taking abroad much of the headache of cartoon fingers in perspective. Observe how the bases of the cylinders are exactly the folds y'all need to draw when the finger bends.

This is important: The joints of the fingers are not aligned on straight lines, but fall onto concentric arches:

In addition, fingers are not straight, merely bend slightly towards the space betwixt MF and RF. Showing this even subtly gives life to a drawing:

Let us not forget the fingernails. There is no need to always draw them, indeed they are a degree of item that but looks right when the easily are seen sufficiently close upward, but we are non commonly taught how they should look, and because of this, I for i couldn't make them look right for a long time. Here are some notes on the fingernail:

  1. The fingernail starts halfway upward the top joint of the finger.
  2. The indicate where fingernail detaches from mankind varies: some people have information technology all the way at the edge of the finger, others have it very low (dotted line), so in their case the fingernails are wider than they are long.
  3. Fingernails are not flat, only shaped much similar roof tiles, with a curvature ranging from extreme to very slight. Discover your hand and you may detect that this curvature is unlike for each finger – but this level of realism is unnecessary in cartoon, fortunately.

Proportions

Now, taking the (apparent) length of FF every bit our base unit, we tin can roughly put down the following proportions:

  1.  The maximum opening betwixt Thursday and FF opening = 1.five
  2. The maximum opening between FF and RF = 1. The MF can be closer to either without affecting the total distance.
  3. The maximum opening between RF and LF opening = 1
  4. The maximum bending between Th and LF is 90º, taken from the very base of the Thursday'south articulation: the fully extended LF is aligned with it.

I said "roughly" considering these exercise vary with people, sometimes a lot, but remember that deviating from the norm on newspaper can look wrong. If in doubt, these measurements volition e'er look right.

Details

The basic shape is but one challenging aspect of the hand; the other may be the detailing of folds and lines. Who hasn't been frustrated past drawing a hand and not being able to get all these lines to look right? Let'south await at fold lines and some measurement details:


  1. The virtual extension of the inner line of the wrist separates the thumb from the fingers. A small-scale tendon line may mark the junction of wrist and hand.
  2. When fingers are close together equally above, the pollex tucks a chip nether the palm and is partially hidden.
  3. The FF or RF as sometimes about as long as the MF.
  4. The folds that mark the knuckles are elliptical or similar parenthesis, but when the hand is flat equally above they are not pronounced (unless someone has protruding duke, which happens on much-labored hands) and tin be drawn as mere dimples.
  5. The folds of the finger joints show elliptically on the back side, merely they fade when the fingers are bent. They show as parallel lines on the palm side, just they are more pronounced at the lower articulation – typically you wouldn't use 2 lines for the upper joints.
  6. From the back, the lines of the fingers extend down to the limit of the palm, which makes the fingers look longer from the back.
    From the inside, the lines are shorter because the acme of the palm is padded, then the fingers await shorter on the palm side.
  7. The lines of the fingers stop in are drag lines (these curt horizontal dashes) on both sides, and on both sides these drag lines all point away from the MF.

Note as well, in the diagram to a higher place, how the fingernails are not drawn fully but indicated in a subtle way appropriate to the overall level of detailing (which is rather higher than necessary, for purposes of showing all the lines). The smaller the hand you're drawing, the less particular you want in information technology, unless you lot want information technology to await old.

I didn't mention the lines of the hand higher up, so let's take a look at them closely hither:

  1. The nigh visible lines in the palm: the so-chosen heart, head and life lines, are where the skin folds when the palm is cupped. Unless your style is very realistic, at that place's no need to draw others, it will look excessive.
  2. Don't confuse the life line with the contour of the thumb, which becomes visible under certain angles such as the i on the right. The life line is most concentric with the contour of the thumb, only see how much higher on the palm it originates – the (true) base of operations of the FF, in fact.
  3. From the side, the padding at the base of operations of each finger appears equally a serial of curved, parallel bulges.
  4. These fold lines wrap halfway around the fingers. They are accentuated every bit the finger bends.
  5. There is a pocket-sized bump here on the extended finger due to skin bunching up. The bump disappears when the finger bends.

Now, what do nosotros see when the hand is extended and seen sideways?

  1. Outside, the wrist line curves out into palm base, so the transition between the two is marked by a gentle bump.
  2. The lesser of the hand looks flatter from the outside than it does from the inside, although the thumb base may still exist visible.
  3. From the outside, the RF's last joint is fully exposed considering the LF is set well back.
  4. From the inside, a little or none of the MF can be visible, depending on the FF's length.
  5. Inside, the wrist line is covered by thumb base of operations, so the transition is more than abrupt and the crash-land more important.

Note as well that when seen from the outside, the palms shows some other, new contour line. It starts at the wrist and, as the hand turns more than, joins upwards with  the LF line, until it covers up the Th base:

Range of Move

Detailed joint implies movement, and the hands movement constantly. Not merely for functional uses (property a mug, typing) just as well expressively, accompanying our words or reacting to our emotions. It's therefore no surprise that cartoon hands well requires understanding how the fingers move.

The Thumb and Fingers

Let's start with the thumb, which works alone. Its existent base of operations, and centre of motility, is very low on the hand, where information technology meets the wrist.

  1. The natural relaxed position leaves a infinite between the Th and the rest of the hand.
  2. The Thursday can fold in as far every bit touching the root of LF, only this requires much tension and quickly becomes painful.
  3. The Thursday can extend as far every bit the width of the palm, simply this also implies tension and gets painful.

The other iv fingers take little sideways movement and mainly bend forwards, parallel to each other. They can exercise this with a certain degree of autonomy, merely never without some outcome on the nearest fingers; try for instance to curve your MF alone, and encounter what happens to the residuum. The Th alone is completely independent.

When the hand closes into a fist and the fingers all curl together, the whole of the hand maintains a cupped shape, equally if it was placed against a large ball. It's but that the ball (here in red) gets smaller and the curvature stronger:

When the hand is fully extended (on the right), the fingers are either straight or curve slightly backwards, depending on flexibility. Some people's fingers can bend back 90º if pressure is practical against them.

The fully closed fist is worth a detailed look:

  1. The 1st and 3rd fold of the fully aptitude finger meet, creating a cross.
  2. The 2d fold appears to be an extension of the line of the finger.
  3. Part of the finger is covered by the flap of skin and the thumb, a reminder that the whole thumb structure is outermost. You tin brand your FF slip exterior and cover the flap of skin, it's anatomically possible, but it is non a natural way to form a fist.
  4. The MF's knuckle protrudes well-nigh and the other knuckles fall away from it, and so that from the angle shown hither, the parallel fingers are visible from the outer side, not from the inner side.
  5. The 1st and 3rd fold meet and create a cantankerous again.
  6. The thumb bends and so that its final section is foreshortened.
  7. The skin fold here sticks out.
  8. When the hand makes a fist, the knuckles beetle and the "parenthesis" are visible.

The Manus equally a Whole

When the hand is relaxed, the fingers whorl slightly – more than and then when the hand is pointing upwardly and gravity forces them bent. In both cases, the FF remains straightest and the rest fall away gradually, with the LF being the nigh bent. From the side, The gradation in the fingers makes the outer 2 or 3 peek out between FF and Thursday.

LF oftentimes "runs abroad" and stands isolated from the other fingers – some other mode of making hands look more natural. On the other manus, the FF and MF, or MF and RF, will ofttimes pair up, "sticking" together while the other 2 remain loose. This makes the hand look more than lively. RF-LF pairings also occur, when the fingers are loosely bent.

Since the fingers are not the same length, they always nowadays a gradation. When grasping something, like the cup below, the MF (1) wraps the nearly visibly around the object while the LF (two) barely shows.

When belongings a pen or the similar, MF, RF and LF curl back towards the palm if the object is held merely between Th and FF (pick upward a pencil lightly and observe this). If more pressure level is practical, MF participates and straightens upwardly every bit it presses against the object. Full pressure level results in all the fingers pointing away equally shown hither.

As we have seen, the hand and wrist are remarkably articulated, each finger nigh having a life of its own, which is why hands tend to stump the get-go illustrator. Yet when the mitt starts to make sense, nosotros tend to fall into the opposite trap, which is to draw hands also rationally – fingers carefully taking their places, parallel lines, careful alignments. The result is stiff and simply too tame for a part of the body that can speak every bit expressively every bit the eyes. It can work for sure types of characters (such every bit those whose personality shows stiffness or insensitivity) but more ofttimes than not, you'll want to draw lively, expressive hands. For this you can go one of two ways: add attitude (i.e. add drama to the gesture, resulting in a dynamic paw position that would probably never exist used in real life) or  add natural-ness (observe the hands of people who aren't thinking about them to see the casualness I'm referring to). I can't possibly show every mitt position there is, but I give beneath examples of constrained vs. natural/dynamic manus:

*Note in this particular case – trained fighters will e'er concur their fingers parallel while punching (as in the forced position), otherwise they may suspension their knuckles.

Diversity

Hands vary individually just as much every bit facial features. Males'due south hands differ from female's, young from sometime, and and so on. Below are some existing classifications, but they don't cover the whole range of characters a mitt tin can have. Character is a good word because it's most useful to draw hands as if they were characters with their ain personality: delicate, soft, dry, callous, uncouth and so on. (See Practice Time)

Mitt Shapes

This is really almost the proportion of fingers to mitt:

Finger Shapes

Even fingernails are not all the same! Well, Mother Nature gives u.s.a. flat or round nail bases, actually, and the different means of styling the blast are man-made.

Practise time

  • Observe people'due south hands. First, for anatomy: how the fingers expect in various positions, how lines show and modify, how certain details are dependent on tension, etc. 2d, for multifariousness: how do male easily differ from female person hands? How do they change with age? With body weight? Could you recognize someone by their hands?
  • Make quick energy sketches of hands, from any source – yours, other people'south, photos. You lot can find some stock photos of hands on Envato Market. Don't worry about your sketches having correct proportions or even looking similar much; this is most capturing expression.
  • Describe your ain hands in various positions and, using a mirror, from various angles, making certain to deconstruct them into the simplest possible forms (the equivalent of drawing a stick effigy and then fleshing it out). You lot can as well start with the free energy sketch and build on that (as we have done with the full effigy) before finally refining the details. In the sketches below the under-sketch is very light only in some you tin just see the broad simple shapes used.

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Source: https://design.tutsplus.com/tutorials/human-anatomy-fundamentals-how-to-draw-hands--cms-21440