How to Draw: A GUIDE TO DRAWING HANDS!
How to Draw: A GUIDE TO DRAWING HANDS!
Tips for Nailing Proportions!
So your first step is to grab some photos of hands in different poses whether your getting them online from google, having your friend or family member be a hand model or feel free to just take some pictures of your own hand. I would definitely suggest grabbing poses in various different positions so you can really experiment with every angle of the hand. The issue with human anatomy especially hands and even feet are how organic and intricate they are. The sheer amount of gestures and positions that hands are capable of is really incredible. This is why doing anatomy studies like this and even having reference photos when drawing are so important!
So getting into this. When your starting you really want to just make basic shapes that roughly outline the shape of the hand so you can rough out your proportions. In my opinion starting out with a closed fist tends to be the easiest when learning how to draw a form as complex as the hand.
Now one point I'd like to make is to figure out your drawing style. Just because I'm working in a more realistic style doesn't mean you have too. Maybe you are a cartoon artist and like to focus on simplistic line work and shapes. If that's what you enjoy doing then be sure to draw and practice in the style that your most comfortable with. It might actually be helpful to draw with simpler forms to build up your drawing skills before jumping in and tackling photo realistic illustrations.
Now as your working, once your happy with your basic shapes as construction lines you can start drawing more detail. Such as Knuckles, wrist bones, and even fingers. Of course for those of you who have seen my other art tutorials, l've talked about using silhouettes, and while I didn't use them on this study they still are a fantastic way to go about outlining the object that your drawing. Another suggestion that I'd really like to make is to flip/rotate your canvas while you work to make it easier on yourself. Something that is taught when you draw traditionally is to spin your paper accordingly to you, don't rotate around yourself around your paper. Now even though this is a traditional tactic the same thing can be achieved digitally and in photoshop you can just use the esc. key to re-center your page. This makes it much easier to achieve the curves and straight lines when your drawing.
One of my last tips for outlining is to really focus on how the fingers are positioned in each gesture. One thing to notice is that when the hand is fully extended the fingers don't all extend straight up as you'll sometimes see in cartoons. Additionally, fingers are never perfectly straight in their silhouettes. There are always a bunch of different bumps and ridges that make up each finger.
So when you jump into shading you want to make sure your following the contours of the hand to really sell the idea that these hands are 3-D. When working in black and white or even in color make sure to have the color swatches on hand so you're not constantly playing with your color picker trying to acquire the correct value. Make sure as well to start out light when shading, as it's always easier to add contrast rather than trying to erase when shading.
Like my content? Subscribe for more videos like this!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1rk...
My Main Set Up!
MacBook Pro 2012
Wacom Cintiq Companion Hybrid
Photoshop CS6
Follow me on Social Media to see My Projects First!
Instagram: / cliffordsstudio
Twitter: / cliffordsstudio
Facebook: / cliffordsstudio