My Hands... Cheats... Things...

My hands... Cheats... Things...

How I draw hands?

Idk?

Hope this makes sense. I generally don't see myself as being very... Good at hands, BUT I'm gonna most some drawings with my thoughts on how I draw them.

Of course, since character art is my passion, I've been forced to draw hands for over a decade. SO most of my 'skill' with hands is just muscle memory, combined with reference, combined with practice practice practice. Which nobody wants to hear because it sucks. SO LET'S SEE IF I CAN HELP ANYONE CHEAT THEIR WAY TO BETTER HANDS!!! (Also I'm so sorry for the photo quality I hope you guys can see these clearly enough)

So the basic thing about hands for me is that the palm is one shape, the fingers are another and the thumb is there too. I showed the palm in red and you can see how the thumb adds to the shape of the hand, as does the side of the hand in the second drawing.

As you can see from the sad looking hand, the anatomy looks wonky if the thumb is too high. If you clearly make the distinction of 'Here's the palm. Here's where the fingers are and here's the thumb, who is separate, but important.' it'll look way more natural, even if you're not confident. Most of my skill is just the fact that I don't make the thumb ruin everything. Wonky fingers can be ignored, but if the thumb looks like a parasite rather than an appendage, everybody notices.

As I mentioned, fingers that are kind of just stumps of flesh can be ignored in some cases, but if your thumb ain't natural... It'll look weird. When the thumb is flexed (which is how I draw it 99% of the time) it has a distinct curve to it and isn't just straight.

BUT BE CAREFUL! When perfecting the foxy curves on that gorgeous thumb of yours, you may get too into it and make it about fifteen sizes too big. Compare it to the rest of the hand and adjust appropriately.

SPEAKING OF PROPORTIONS! Please... Measure the hands against the body. One thing I see a lot in 'bad hands' is that the artist works so hard on making the fingers look good and detailed... And they end up making the hands ridiculously small or way too large. If that's your style, that's cool, but... Sometime's it's obviously not a style choice. It's just oversight. Always make sure you know how big your hands need to be.

These are just some more sketches of mine, but I want to bring to attention something in the bottom hand, the forshortened one... The two middle fingers are almost fused together. This is an epic hack and will make your hand poses super natural looking. Just like it looks weird to draw each individual hair, if you draw each finger as its own unit, you're gonna get a wacky hand. Especially when posing and thumbnailing, grouping certain fingers together into one mass is a GREAT hack for clear, readable action which, in the end, is the goal of character art.

Tbh, the less detail and anatomy you can get away with, the better. If you can make something that is an anatomical disaster look expressive and pleasing to the human eye, then the best advice I can give you is to lean into that and embrace it. Art is abstraction at the end of the day and hands are not the hill anyone wants to die on.

When drawing the palm, remember to leave room for Jesus. You know how he was pierced in the middle of his hands? Make sure that part actually exists in your drawing. A lot of people sort of forget to draw the palm and make it very small or nonexistant. Just a gateway to the fingers. Your palms deserve better rep than that. Sure, the fingers are more popular, but the palm is like that one stable friend who owns the Netflix account. You think your ring finger is financially responsible? Hah. (What am I saying at this point? Have I cracked???)

And some tips for the road:

Look at references (sorry I needed to say this again)

Try copying hands from photos

Try copying hands from drawings (yeah, you're gonna learn a few awesome shortcuts from observing some non-irl hands)

Study your own hands. How do the shapes work? Draw that.

Forshortening sucks and will always suck, don't fear it. Fake it till you make it.

If you can hide the thumb or a finger behind the rest of the hand and it doesn't look like it's been chopped off... Do it. Take shortcuts if they won't damage the expression and readability.

Continuing that last one: If you can get away with not detailing hands, do it

A scribbled, low detail hand that carries a drawing's pose and purpose is a million times better than a hand that was shoved in a pocket because you don't know how to do that pose. If you're gonna destroy your awesome pose because the hand scares you, then why draw it anyway? You've already butchered the expression and composition. What's the point? All the hacks you could have used and you pick the 'spit on my own hard work' method?

Don't sacrifice composition, expression or clarity because you're afraid of a pose is all I'm saying

Try to remember your style and how many fingers your characters are supposed to have. This seems obvious, but I forget way too often.

Hands holding things... Suck. It'll be painful to draw. Look at reference, sketch it out, use your hacks... And pray.

But don't make an object smaller or oddly shaped because it's being held. If the hand looks wonky, that's fine, but if the IMMORTAL DRAGON SWORD wobbles at the handle IT IS OVER!

On that note: learn the proper hand positions for holding things like weapons and tools. Or at least make it semi-believable. That's a bit of a make-or-break thing right there.

Don't draw the hand without figuring out where the rest of the arm is going. Believe it or not, those two things are connected and if drawn without regard for one another, they look weird.

On that same note: Wrists are a thing that exist. Remember to draw them. I forget a lot, even in some of my examples here and it looks awkward. Especially in bent-wrist poses.