Blue Crash Kit

How to draw a hand

// October 25th, 2011 // Drawing Animals, Cartoon Drawings, Lessons

Usually I use ovals to indicate the position of the hands and feet. No matter how detailed a picture or how it is realistic. I always draw an oval on the future site of an arm or leg. This is only a base design to help identify the location of the limbs.

Palm

In this lesson we will study the drawing basics of hands. I’m not going too deep to go into details, but just go over some basic techniques. You still have to train hard to learn how to draw hands. Let’s start with the palm image – an example which we have always at hand. The main part of the arm can be represented as a rectangle. While we consider it a 2-dimensional, to avoid unnecessary complications. Draw a rectangle on the paper of two or three centimeters.

If you look at your hand, you’ll see that its lower part is a rectangle. The lower part of the palm a little narrower and a future tutorial we’ll use that to give a more expressive in certain angles. But more on that later. Thus, the rectangle. Look back on your hand and bring your fingers together. Four fingers form a rectangle about the same size as the lower part of the palm. Your hand without a thumb is 1:2, ie, its length is twice the width. Therefore, we draw a second rectangle directly above the first. We have identified a zone boundary for which the fingers can not get out.

To turn the thumb. I drew my left hand (turning her hand to him), so that the thumb was on the left side of the figure. Add left of the figure is something like “wedge”, a length slightly less than the lower rectangle and not very strongly in the direction of the waste.

Again, look at his hand and carefully consider how the thumb connects to the palm, especially the area between the last joint and the place where the palm joins the wrist. The finger is not attached to the palm at a right angle, it is connected with it through the “wedge”, which we discussed above. Add to this the “wedge” something resembling a finger. Note the angle at which the finger joins the hand.

Now, add the wrist. Your hand is a little narrower than the palm, and it almost is thinning to a connection point with a brush. Draw it.

So, the basic construction is complete, and we will draw our details below. Look again at hand and move your thumb back and forth as if trying to get to the little finger. You will notice a small crease in the center of the palm, where the ends of the thumb muscle. Most artists paint in this place a thin line to highlight this fold.

Now for the top of the rectangle to make it look like fingers. Divide it into 4 parts – one for each finger. The little finger, of course, be a little thinner. Do not forget to pay attention to the length of the fingers. Typically, the middle finger is the longest and the shortest little finger. Cut off the top of the rectangle to match the length of fingers.

Now you can round the edges and add a few details on the folds.

And finally – the big toe. I will describe a technique that uses most of the artists and that pleases me most. Absolute similarity to the real finger is not necessary. All well and will look quite decent. More, I’ll describe it in later lessons, but the basis is what it is. It is necessary to use curves like the letter S. In those places where the skin is tight to the bone (no muscle), the curves should be concave inward. See how I drew this finger and notice how the curve curves.

Convexity of the curves (the parts that are bent outward) are thickenings thumb. Concave – where the skin fits the bone. It turns out quite a plausible image of the finger. Later find out that so draws everything from hair to foot.

Moving on. We already have a rough image of the hand. If you want you can clean image and add details. Use your hand as a visual aid. Do not think that it’s easy. As we can see their hands constantly, it appears that paint them for nothing. However, the slightest error will be visible from a mile away. Let’s try to draw the brush from another angle.

Front view

Now we have to draw a hand, looking directly at us as if we point the finger directly at the person. In this position very clearly seen as the fingers grow out of hand. Above, we have drawn a hand plane, but under the point of view it looks flat. But now we see that the hand has a rather complicated form. Fortunately, even in this case we can simplify things. That’s what we’re looking at.

Let’s start with the palm (first rectangle from the previous section). From this perspective, the rectangle appears to be more narrow, like a box on a recumbent. However, it is slightly curved, because the bones in his hand positioned so that it was easier to hold things.

Now depict the thumb (wedge from the previous section). Again, it starts at the side of the palm, but now it is directed inward.

Try a little shake his hand and take a look at its shape and the visible parts. On the far side of the palm near the wrist can be seen thickening. This part is visible only from a few angles. In addition, another thickening occurs at the point where the fingers are connected to the palm. Read and understand all that you see and sketch it in the circuits.

From this perspective, the fingers seem deceptively simple, but before you paint them, let’s learn how to design a thumb. If you look from the side, we see that the finger is divided into 3 parts, each of which is thinning a bit at the end. The compounds of the bones are visible if you look at your finger from the top (where the nail). The lower side is fuller and more rounded. The last section of the finger (tip) ends with something of a sharp edge.

Each section of the finger actually consists of a cylinder, so that if you rotate your finger, you can see how they overlap.

Finally, when the finger is bent, slightly thicker at the bottom area is squeezed out (becomes more convex), and the joints above become more pronounced.

Returning to our illustration. We drew a finger pointing straight at us, so that you can see how they overlap. If you prefer, you can add a nail. How to draw them – below. Nails at each person is slightly different. Try to picture your own. I’m not going to focus on the nails, because almost all animated characters (including humans) are represented without them. So taken, in addition, it saves time.

Finally, draw a thumb. It is similar to the others, but one section has a smaller (though in fact it is, with the help of a finger is attached to the palm). In addition, the thumb is thicker and shorter than others.

Side view

Now, side view. Again, start with the palm of your hand (base rectangle). Then add the fingers and hand. Use your knowledge to draw a wedge for the thumb and look like (from this point of view) it is located towards the palm. Note that the wedge looks right into the palm of your hand.

Draw the fingers. You can add details.

A few useful tips. If you compress hand into a fist and look at it sideways, you’ll see that the angle between your fingers and the wrist is almost straight (90 degrees). When designing a fist hand knowledge of it helps a lot. Enough to draw (or imagine) the cube on the spot fist. In addition, you can use it when you draw a hand holding something or pointing at something with your finger.

Examine the skeleton of a brush. Look at the bones of the fingers and mentally break them into smaller pieces that can be used in the design. There are so many books on anatomy, one can learn valuable information about the structure of the skeleton.

Sometimes it is useful simply to portray the bones on which hand will be drawn.

In order to give greater credence to his hand, I recommend to change the position of the fingers. When all fingers extended straight arm looks unnatural. This robot arm, and not man. Relax your hand and look at it. Fingers slightly bent inwards, the index can stand alone, the thumb can be bent, etc.. .. Such details enliven the picture and animators constantly use them. You can draw a very simple image of the hands, which, however, is very similar to the present. Try to show the different positions of fingers and their interaction with each other.

The main thing with drawing hands – it’s always remember that hand (our initial rectangle) is flat and slightly curved, and the thumb side and start looking forward and slightly to the side of the palm. These are the basics to which you add details. Look at the bottom picture and note as constructed by hand.

Now, I recommend getting a blank sheet of paper, put the left (or right – just not the one that draws a) hand on the table and try to construct a brush. Do not forget that this is just a set of rectangles and cylinders, overlapping each other. Do not worry if at first it does not work. Drawing hand – something quite complicated and many animators (and myself included) Tough. But by drawing a base, you can not hurry, adding details, until you have a really good picture.

Cartoon hand

So, we’ve learned enough to try to draw a cartoon version of his hands. Below I have given some examples of my own drawings.

As can be seen, the basis of all the pictures of the rectangle (palm) and wedge (fingers), which added a thumb. I prefer to draw the fingertips slightly thickened. This is a common technique in animation. I also helped a lot of hands with redraws by other artists, which I then added structural elements to the drawing of figures right in the picture. In general, carefully study how other artists draw hands. You’ve probably noticed that all the figures of 4 fingers (including large). I think it helps to save time for animation (even an extra finger requires a lot of time in the animation). In addition, the remaining fingers at the same time get more attention. Finally, I like to draw your fingers thick. That’s what I like.

For myself, I found a few tricks to help draw some of the hands. Look at the diagram below. When they draw observed the same rules. You see how easy it is. In these sketches, I used the circle, but you better work with rectangles, until you training so that you can draw a circle of hand.

So, we finished the lesson. I’ll be back periodically to draw hands on as we delve into the character design. In the meantime, train and exercise.