Opening
Hello guys, It is another time to share tips. Have you always found drawing hands a bit tasking? well! not to worry guys because in this tutorial, I will be showing you the things to note and tricks you can use when drawing hand.
After a bit of research and observations of course using my own hands as reference.
I have put everything into one full package.
I will be touching on various parts from anatomy to proportions and so on.
So, after successfully reading this, you will find drawing hand as easy as drawing a stick.
Let get started.
Anatomy of the hand
Let talk about the anatomy briefly. I know this isn't a biology tutorial, but we just need to have a little idea of what goes on inside the hand . This enables us to make good sense of the outer appearance.
The hand consist of three rows
From the bottom to the top, we have the carpus located at the wrist which has eight joined bones
In the second row, we have the metacarpus which consist of five long metacarpal bones. we can see it reflecting at the back of our hand, that is the area between the wrist and fingers. Then in the third row, we have the fingers. Each of the finger has three phalanges and the thumb having just two phalanges.
Beneath the wrist, in the forearm, we have the ulnar on the left and radius on the right.
Proportions of the hand
Let talk about the proportions. It is important to know the basic proportions, so we will go over it step by step. Trust me guys, this is detailed but simple.
Before we start, let study the name of fingers
This are the names of the fingers in the image above.
Now, back to proportions, Let start with the tips of our fingers.
I always imagine the fingers as staircase with four steps but the third step is missing and found at the back of the tallest finger (middle finger).
I call it the missing stair rule. So I think of the first index finger as the missing third step found at the back of the tallest finger (middle finger).
Our fingers actually take that form.
No, let talk about the general shape. I imagine the general shape of the hand from the wrist to the tip of the longest finger (middle finger) as a rectangle divided into two equal squares.
The line of division occurs at the base knuckles. the bottom square is from the wrist to the base knuckles and the top square is from the base knuckles to the tip of the middle finger. A triangle links the thumb to the hand taking about 3/4 of the bottom square.
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The top square is also divided into halves. The division line gives us our next set of knuckles (middle knuckles) and we have the proximal phalanges in the lower half.
The middle phalanges takes 2/3 of the upper half shape and the line gives us the top knuckles.
Lastly, the remaining space is divided into halves and the line gives us where the nail starts from.
The division line only applies to the knuckles of the longest finger (middle finger). the knuckles of the other fingers drop below the lines according to missing step rule including the nails.
The spacing of the knuckles increases from the base knuckles to the top knuckles that is, the spacing in the base knuckles looks like they are almost on the same line while the spacing in the top knuckle is very distinct. but we still see the middle finger's base knuckle as the highest.
Let me drop some additional note in case you are drawing a hand where some part are hidden.
The top of the index finger is around the same level as where the nail of the ring finger starts.
The nail of the index finger is the same level as the knuckle of the middle finger.
The nail of the little finger is at the same level as the top knuckle of the ring finger.
The tip of the thumb is almost at the same level as the middle knuckle of the index finger.
The length of the hand from the the wrist to the tip of the longest finger (middle finger) is approximately equal to the length of the face.
The two phalanges of the thumb are almost equal, but the lower phalange is a little longer than the upper phalange, also the addition of the length of the two phalanges is equal to the metacarpal of the thumb.
Pattern of the hand
Let talk about some patterns to note when drawing hands.
When drawing a hand showing the palm we add any of the line patterns in the palm. We shouldn't make it complicated, we can add the three of we can just add two out of it according to the space.
When drawing where the back of the hand is shown, you can put a little swelling to reflect the ulnar which is the second bone beneath the wrist beside the radius.
Also, when the thumb is curled in in a clenched fist side view, it disappears round the fingers in a triangle form.
When looking at the hand from the back, we see that the finger area and the back of the palm are equal, but when we look at it from the front it seems like the palm area is longer than the finger area.
This is because of the web of the hand.
We can see it when we fan out our fingers. It is the skin that looks like web inbetween our fingers that connects each finger together.
Now, how does this affect the area of the palm looking longer than that of the fingers, that is because this web of the hand is located higher than the base knuckles at the back of the palm. It has covered about 1/3 to 1/2 of the phalange. This makes the proximal and middle phalanges look equal.
So, when we draw the hand we draw the web higher and the base knuckles lower in whichever way the hand is positioned.
There are some exceptions I will be mentioning later where the web of the hands are not higher than the base knuckles.
The metacarpal bones of the middle finger is the longest, it also sticks out more than the rest.
When drawing the side view of the hand, the metacarpal of the middle finger always form the hand because it sticks out most.
the pattern of the metacarpal of the middle finger is also mostly shown in 3/4 view.
Fingers and thumb
The thumb might seem like it is arranged on the same straight line as the fingers but that isn't the case. The most relaxed form of the thumb is when It is in a line 90° to the line of the fingers.
I imagine the metacarpal part of the thumb to be a triangle shaped door attached to the palm with an extension spring.
The movement of our thumb immitates the movement of a door that can be opened and closed.
When we draw a closed thumb let it follow the pattern below.
Like a door, a door shouldn't be sticking out when closed. Let the thumb follow that pattern. Also a fully stretched thumb is 90° to the index finger.
We talked about the thumb, so let talk about the fingers.
I like to call the fingers clingy . You ask why? Well, if you observe your fingers. you notice they like following each other when they make a movement, they pull a finger or two along when they bend (flexion) and they also follow other fingers that bend.
The index finger is the only finger that does not follow other fingers, though it pulls other fingers along, but it does not follow others just like the thumb. The thumb is a complete loner, it doesn't follow others nor does it get followed. If you ask me, I will say the personality of the thumb rubbed off on the index finger because it is the closest to the thumb, that is why it also decided not to follow anyone but there is nothing it can do about the ones following it.<(￣︶￣)>.
The reason why other fingers get pulled along when there is a movement is because of the web of the fingers linking the fingers together, well there are more, may be some muscles are also responsible for that.
The degree of movement varies across each fingers.
For the index finger, whenever it turns, there is a degree of separation that occurs before the middle finger is pulled along.
The index finger moves without pulling the middle finger along until there is a 45° angle of spacing between the index and middle finger. Once it is about 45° away from the middle, the middle finger starts getting pulled along.
As the middle finger get pulled along, the ring finger won't follow yet, but as soon as there is about 25° of separation between the middle and ring finger, the ring finger follows.
When the ring finger follows, the little finger remains still. The little finger is quite resistant. It doesn't get pulled along until there is close to 90° of separation from the ring finger.
Starting from the little finger to the index finger, when the little finger moves, it pulls the ring finger at an angle of 45°. Also, when the ring finger is moving and the middle finger is upright, it pulls the middle finger at an angle of 45°.
Note: this applies to the movement of the bottom (proximal phalanges) of the fingers which is the closest to the web of the hand.
This enables us to make good sense of the fingers when drawing hand forms that involves folding or turning some of the fingers.
Take for example the 'Okay sign'.
The other fingers are pulled along according to the angle of spacing when the index finger moves to meet the thumb.
There are also instances where we use our thumb to forcibly bend the fingers while the other fingers stay upright.
Take the 'Peace sign' as an example.
The index and middle finger can still stay upright in A, because the angle hasn't exceeded 45°, but when the ring and little finger are completely folded in B, It has exceeded 45°, hence the bending of the middle finger.
The index & middle finger can stay upright while keeping the ring and little finger folded by using the thenar eminence of the thumb or the thumb itself to hold it down.
For the fingers and thumb nails. You may have already noticed this, but in case you don't. The nails aren't drawn flat, they are drawn in a curved pattern.
The nail covers half of the topmost phalange as mentioned in the proportions section and longer nails tend to bend a bit when nearing the tip.
Turning and positioning of the hand
Let look at the movement allowed by the hand in general. The wrist joint allows the hand to make a turn 45° towards the little finger side, but there is little or no turning towards the thumb side.
The hand can also turn 90° at the wrist to the front (flexion) and about 45° to the back (extension).
Remember, we talked about proportions in the beginning, about the hand being a rectangle divided into two equal squares and the top square divided into another half and so on.
To be able to keep the proportions in mind when drawing the hand and also where the phalanges of the fingers are folded.
I introduce something I call the 1, 2, 3, 6 rule.
Note: The knuckle of the thumb closest to the nail is in line with the base knuckles of the fingers .
Studying this rule allows us to apply our proportions faster when drawing a full figure of a person and drawing a lot of hands in different positions.
Now, talking about the folding in the palm, there are just three places where the palm folds at least that am aware of.
This places develop wrinkles when the palm folds.
The first is the line in front of the knuckles. I talked about the base knuckles located lower than the web of the hand linking the fingers, Now, looking at our palm, we don't see the base knuckles, but the turning of the fingers doesn't occur at the web of the hand, it occurs at the base knuckles. So, when we fold the hand at base knuckles, we see the line appear as wrinkles directly in front of where the base knuckles are.
Note: The line of the wrinkles shouldn't come out too much to the side.
The second is the thenar eminence, this controls the movement of the thumb, it causes the small swelling at the base of the thumb, the more the thumb closes in the more it swells.
The third is the hypothenar eminence, this is responsible for the movement of the little finger, thanks to the hypothenar eminence, the little finger is able to move with it metacarpal bone not only the phalanges.
When you close in the little finger to touch the thumb, you will see a little movement of the metacarpal bone of the little finger and the palm skin covering the metacarpal develop some wrinkles.
Let talk about drawing of curved hand from different angles. But before we talk about that. Let take a look at the way we draw folded handkerchief
When we draw folded handkerchief, the folded shape is revealed in a mirror like pattern that is, the same size, the same shape but upside down.
Now, when it is not totally folded but curved, the pattern is similar.
Let see how to apply that to drawing of hands, let us liken the hand to a mitten glove.
You should apply this idea for curved hand where some the fingers are hidden and some visible.
Also, when the finger is folded completely, the middle phalange line is slanted not straight. the outside line is used to measure the proportion, just add the folding pattern line inside.
When drawing the hand the position of the hand is important irrespective of the angle you are drawing.
We already know about the palm view and back view.
To make it simpler, I have come up with basic angles we might come across or we might want to draw.
Note: The position of the palm in the image above are currently vertical (upright).
No. 1 to No. 5 are shown using right hand and No. 6 to No. 10 are left hand but you can also draw the thumb side view as left hand by just letting them face the right, likewise the little finger view can be drawn as right hand by doing the same.
We can also use it in horizontal form, diagonal form and 3D form.
For starters. The palm position in the image are in 2D to make it simple. But we can draw it in 3D when we need to. We shall talk about that as we go.
When drawing the palm where the fingers are curled in or folded. The web of the hand where the finger are bent contracts or lowers down to the level of web linking the thumb according to how bent the fingers are.
Hand grips (drawing hands holding object)
Hand grips are divided into the precision grip and the power grip.
The precision grip involves using the thumb and the fingers and the power grip involves using the whole hand.
I am going to mention some hand grips that we commonly draw when drawing hands holding object and point out some palm positioning and also some palm position in 3D forms and other things to note.
Cylindrical (power) grips
This is a grip formed when the whole hand is wrapped and curled around a cylindrical object with the thumb and fingers opposite each other.
When drawing a cylindrical grip, keep in mind the missing stair rule for the position of the tips of the fingers and also the 1, 2, 3, 6 rule for the length of the phalanges of the fingers.
Examples of cylindrical grips we draw are holding a glass cup without handle, holding a bottle, holding a candle e.t.c
The hand holding the bottle by the left is No. 5 palm position from the palm rotation image shown earlier.
But this is drawn as a left hand by making it face the right and positioning it horizontally.
The second hand holding the bottle by the right is just a horizontal palm view.
Spherical grip
This is a power grip drawn when the hand is shaped to hold a ball shaped object like tennis ball, oranges, or flat round object like lid of a jar. This is drawn by curving the fingers and using the thumb for balance at the side of the fingers.
Keep the proportions in mind when drawing.
Remember, the upper knuckle of the thumb closest to it nail is about the same level as the base knuckle of the fingers. Also the addition of the length of the two phalanges of the thumb is equal to the length of it metacarpal bone which we imagine as a triangle.
Don't get confused when drawing the cylindrical and spherical grip. When drawing the cylindrical grip, the thumb is opposite the fingers but when drawing the spherical grip the thumb and the fingers are placed side by side.
Pincer grip
This is a precision grip we draw which involves drawing the thumb together with the index or middle finger to pinch or hold an object. We draw this grip when drawing a person buttoning the shirt, threading a needle, a hand holding a bead e.t.c
The thumb and index finger are brought together with other fingers free.
When the thumb moves to meet the other fingers, it get extended to the front and the web linking the thumb widens
In this drawing, the No 2 palm position is used. The other fingers are bent in this drawing the web of hand is squeezed or lowered down.
Tripod grip
It is formed using three fingers, the thumb, index and middle fingers. This is the grip we draw when drawing a person writing using a written material (pen, pencil..) let say we want to draw a hand using a pencil.
This grip is formed when the hand holds the pencil with thumb and index finger (pincer grip) letting the bottom of the pencil rest on the middle finger while the top is supported by the web of the skin joining the thumb, hand, and index finger, keeping the ring and little finger curled in.
Talking about curled fingers, the fingers are curled in in a tripod grip. So the web of the hand get lowered according to how bent the fingers are. If the little finger curls in more than the ring finger the web in front of the little finger get squeezed down more than the web in front of the ring finger.
Key grip
This is holding an object between the tip of the thumb and the side of the index finger.
Like the name suggests it is grip we draw when drawing a hand holding a key, business card and credit card are some times held like that.
The object is placed on the side of the folding of the middle knuckle, then the thumb is placed on the object.
The palm position in this drawing is in a 3D form. We use the 3D form when the hand is pointing inwards or outward.
Hook grip
This is drawn by making the fingers curl inwards forming a hook pattern. The thumb isn't involved in this kind of grip but for balance.
This kind of grip is drawn when drawing hand carrying object with a small diameter handle like bucket, briefcase also used to hold handle of mugs, pull the handle of table drawer. The handle is balanced onto the curved fingers and rested on the middle phalange of the fingers.
The palm position used in the drawing of the hand pulling the drawer is in 3D form since the hand isn't totally facing the left, It is a little turned inwards. The hand carrying the handle of the bucket is in 2D form because the hand isn't facing or turned inward or outward. The hand carrying the mug is just a plane front (palm) view.
Lumbrical grip
We draw this grip when drawing hands holding object without wrapping the fingers around it. The fingers are kept straight while the thumb is placed opposite the fingers to balance the object.
This grip is sometimes drawn for hand holding a book.
Chuck grip
The chuck grip is drawn for hand unscrewing small lid, like the lid of a toothpaste tube.
This grip is formed mainly by the thumb, index finger and ring finger.
It is sometimes used for holding and controlling the spoon when eating.
Palmar (power) grip
When drawing hand holding objects with a long handle, we draw the palmar grip.
The handle is drawn diagonally across the palm of the hand.
We draw this grip for hands carrying a saucepan with a long handle, this grip is also used to hold the drumming stick.
We draw this grip for a hand holding a sword diagonally to the side with the tip of the sword pointing towards the ground. The thumb is placed parallel to the handle or sometimes curled.
The handle is placed diagonally across the palm, so the handle of the object rest on different part of the fingers when the hand wraps around the handle
Looking at the image above, the handle rest on the middle knuckle of the index finger, the first phalange of the middle finger, the line at the level of the web skin for the ring finger and the line directly in front of the base knuckle for the little finger, then the thumb and other area of the palm curls around to hold the hand.
This is what happens whenever a hand holds an object diagonally.
Because of this, the fingers aren't drawn in a straight line, they are drawn in a slant form.
If you look at the positioning and pattern of the fingers. It seems like the fingers are kind of arranged in a spiral staircase form.
As seen above, the index finger is positioned like an arrow pointing upwards, the middle finger is in a 90° form raised upwards, the ring finger a straight 90° and the little finger like a 90° bent downwards.
Clenched fist
The fingers not drawn in a straight line but in a slant line also applies to drawing of clenched fist. When the fist is slightly clenched without force, the fingers are drawn in a straight line but not that straight.
But when they are tightly clenched with force, the fingers are drawn in a slant line.
This happens because when the fist is clenched with force, the thenar eminence (at the swelling at the base of the thumb) raises up when the thumb closes in and the fingers are blocked in a diagonal form, especially the index and middle finger, the little finger is the least affected.
The fingers are like children on a sloppy hill, even if they are of different or equal height the one standing on the highest level of the hill seem taller than the rest. So, when drawing a tightly clenched fist maybe in a fighting scene or a person showing anger by clenching the fist. Draw the fingers in a slant form.
Drawing process of the hand
To draw the hand, think of it simply, the first thing we are to do is draw out our palm position whether a front or back view, whether 2D or 3D. It depends on the hand pose we are thinking of drawing. If you are drawing a hand pose showing just the side of the palm and front or back of the palm use 2D palm position. If the hand pose you want to draw is pointing towards you or inwards, you definitely are going to need to draw in 3D.
Let get started guys!
Start by drawing out your palm position.
The web of the hand where the fingers are bent are lowered. The base knuckle of the middle finger sticks out more than the rest.
To draw the fingers after drawing your palm position, just think of them as sticks or lines. It is easier to draw out the fingers as lines.
After drawing out the lines, we start marking out knuckles as rings or circles.
There is this water game I used to play when i was young where there are two sticks and small rubbers floating around in the water.
we try to get all the rubbers into any of the sticks. I remember getting frustrated when I try to get the last rubber left floating into the stick and everything comes floating out of the sticks.
Back to our drawing, we are going to use that idea of loading rubbers into stick and draw rings into the lines as our knuckles.
You will notice in the image above that the rubbers are facing different sides the ones facing us are full circles and the ones facing other side are contracted. If they are facing the side, they are contracted vertically and if they are facing up/down they contract horizontally, the more they face where they are facing the more contracted they are.
It will help a lot when we talk about foreshortening later.
So let draw out rings according to how the fingers bend.
You can make the circles far from you smaller for distance. Then we will link our rings together to get our finger structure.
Then we can now lower the opacity of the layer all together
Create a new layer and draw over it to create a neat outline.
You can style it and add some line patterns, make the knuckles shoot up a little so the fingers won't look too straight, let the ulnar reflect where you need to and add the finger nails.
You can now hide the draft
And here is our hand!……
You can give your self a challenge and try drawing some hand pose using this step.
Hand Foreshortening and perspective
We use foreshortening to create depth.
when drawing hand that is facing us or totally away from us. we use foreshortening while using 3D positioning.
The view we are getting from the image above is the view of someone standing tall above the object a little to the right of the object, that is why the top of the object and right sides are visible.
Let take a look at the image below.
Let say those different color guys are children assembled on a straight line. the view we are getting is coming to directly to the right of the straight line. (the black line is the straight line). Now, the purple guy is standing out of line to the right. (we are looking at them from the right line of the line that is why the purple guy is closer). The yellow guy is standing out of line to the left and the blue, green and red guy are the only ones standing on the straight line but the red guy is taller than the rest.
Now, let say we go directly to the front of the assembly, that is right in front of the blue guy at the front and then we tilt our head or move a little to the right but we are still in front of them, they will appear like the image below.
The blue guy at the front right in front of us is the only one that will be completely seen and we see a little of the right side of the rest but we will see more of the purple guy stepping out of line to the right side and the top or head of the red guy because he is the tallest so the blue guy in front of him can't block is head and we also see little of the yellow guy that stepped out of line at the left side even though we are looking a little from the right.
We can see the yellow at the left because he shifted to the left and we can only see little of it because we are looking a little from the right.
Now, what we have just done is foreshortening. Even though the length of the line they formed looking at them from the front is shorter than when we are looking at them directly from the right side of the straight line. But we are still able to draw them thinking about their position and features.
The trick is thinking about what is blocking what?, What will be visible?, What will be hidden? based on the features of what we are drawing.
Let us use a funnel as a case study. The features we will be using are the three circles of the funnel, and when I say three circles. I mean the red, purple and green color on the funnel in the image below.
Let say the funnel is white in color. Now, those three circles are of different radius. The red circle where we pour water through is the biggest, the green circle where the water pours out from is the smallest and the purple circle in the middle linking where we pour water and where the water pours from is smaller than red but bigger than green.
We can see the full length of the funnel looking at it from the side, but as it turns to face us, the length shortens and the circles start facing us and overlapping.
This is foreshortening taking place. The circle at the front overlaps with the ones at the back.
Let simply apply that to a pointing finger for example.
Let say small rubber bands of blue color are worn on the finger. The first band is shifted to the web of the finger, second is worn on the middle knuckle and the third is worn on the top knuckle. So, the finger is wearing three blue rubber bands. Normally, you can just think of each knuckle as rings or circles but I'm using the color to make it explicit.
We are looking at the full length in the side view but when it rotates or turns 45° towards us, it will get shortened like it is seen below.
You already know we can draw the rings first, then link them. The more it faces us the more the rings overlaps.
Let take a look at the image below of a hand put out collecting rain drops.
We are looking at it from the back a little to the right side, don't be surprised that what we see most of the hand is the back end of the palm and the forearm, Of course, we see the tips of the fingers peeping because they are raised up a little and we see more of the little finger, foreshortened of course because we aren't exactly looking at it directly from the right side view, so we can't see the full length.
Sometimes, foreshortening can look weird when we try to draw it and we will be like what is this?! Shading can give it more definition.
Foreshortening the hand can be a little complicated, so we need to draw in perspective when we need to.
Using perspective drawing can make foreshortening easier.
Take a look at the image below of a hand trying to shake your hands.
The area at the front is exaggerated making it look larger compared to the areas at the back. It gives it the illusion of depth.
Talking more about perspective drawing of hand.
You know how the two halves of a tennis court is equal in a bird eye view. But when looking at it from one of the players side, it looks like the distant player has a shorter area than the player near and the area near will appear larger or even longer.
We will be applying the same idea when drawing the hand. we imagine the hand as cuboids and think of it perspectively.
Imagining the hand and finger separately as shapes makes it easier to apply perspective. It is about making the area infront bigger than the area at the back. You can exaggerate it and make it longer if you like.
For fingers, you can also imagine every finger phalanges separately as cubes for foreshortening using perspective ignoring the joint or knuckles, you can link and adjust that after.
The truth is different people understand things differently. Some are able to make sense of it faster in cubes while some understands better using circles. But I personally think we can make use of the cubes or cuboids for large areas like the palm and use circles for areas of short radius like fingers. Whichever way works for you.
3D model perspective
You can also use clip studio paint 3D model for drawing hand pose. Perspective drawing option is also available if you want to draw your hand in perspective.
It is quite handy when you are making manga.
To do this, start by dragging your hand model to the canvas.
Then select the wrench icon.
Click the drop down arrow and select manga perspective.
Check the manga perspective box to activate.
You can increase the value to increase perspective appearance of hand model.
Closing
I hope you guys have learnt a thing or two from this tutorial, above all, practice is key to gain more experience. As the saying goes, ‘Practice makes perfect’
That it guys!
Thank you guys for reading and until next time. It's bye for now.
Lot of love guys!
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