Hello!

 

Hands are one of the most universal and necessary themes, they can tell us a lot about our characters, their actions, attitudes and emotions. The hands are just as important if we make a cartoon, illustration or animation.

 

But sometimes hand drawing is often intimidating.

In this tutorial I want to share with you a set of techniques that I have been customizing to facilitate the understanding of the hands, you can apply these techniques to various styles.

 

Try to design the tutorial as complete with the main topics but also covering each topic as summarized and clear as possible so that it is easy for you to follow the exercises and explanations in order of appearance and also as a consultation tutorial to which you can return times that you need it in the specific topic that you want.

We will see from the structure of the hands, simplified anatomy, the main natural movements, you will learn to pose the hands, draw them from different views, as well as common examples, then we will move on to the notions of color and lighting.

 

Note: All the drawings were made in Clip Studio Paint EX on Ipad, I hope you like them and they are useful for you.

Structure

Structures make it easy for us to build anything.

 

When we draw organic elements, there will be many small variables on the same principles of construction.

 

Learning the structure will make it easier for you to practice with real references and then draw hands from scratch in the style you choose.

 

Palm and back

It is very common to start drawing a square to mark the space that the palm of the hand occupies, I propose a small variable that will help us a lot to give it more naturalness, structure and position.

 

We create a square but a little thinner at the top, that is, we convert it into a trapezoid, then we incline it slightly, lifting the base where we will later put our thumb.

 

We "cut" the corners.

 

For the fingers we add a second trapezoid with a slightly lower height to the palm, and with a thinner top.

 

we add the thickness of the arm.

We divide this shape into four vertical parts and the second finger we divide it into three horizontal parts.

We draw three curved lines starting from the base of the fingers and with the same shape in the divisions of the finger.

 

We use these curves to find where the following fingers are divided.

 

Note: The divisions are drawn horizontally in the direction of the finger, only at the union with the palm do these lines follow the curve.

The height of the little finger will be obtained by deleting the last section, then we add a division in the section below,

 

the height of the ring finger will be slightly less than that of the middle finger and that of the index finger will be slightly less than that of the ring finger, we erase the excess.

Now we add the structure of the thumb, we draw a protruding line in the middle of the palm and we continue a little the inclined line that rises from the base, we close this shape.

The height of the thumb is obtained by drawing a curve from the middle of the first section of the index.

 

At the base of the thumb we add a trapezoid and then a slightly sloping oval.

 

 

This same structure is used to draw the palm and the back, if you are following the steps add these final drawings to your practice, do not forget to do it more than once, (we will return to this drawing later).

The first time with this or any structure can be confusing.

 

After drawing it the first time, the following ones will be very easy and when you memorize it they will see a great improvement in your hand drawing.

The fingers have several principles of mobility, in summary let's say that the closed fingers are shaped like a flat and elongated tool similar to a spatula and the open fingers work like a fan.

When closing the hand the fingers move in an orderly manner starting with the little finger, when opening it starts with the index finger and the thumb.

 

The little fingers from the little finger to the index curl when closing and the tips are "buried" in the palm, the thumb turns in a perpendicular direction, commonly it is on the other fingers, but in some cases it can be on the palm.

The expressive capacity of the hands starts from the most basic poses, for example here, you can see how the thumb and index finger direct the hand in a very natural and relaxed way.

A pair of hands with a simple pose can tell us a story and with a small movement of those hands the story changes completely.

 

In the following example we see how the first pair of hands prepare to receive, and the second pair is releasing or offering something to the viewer.

Profile- thumb view

This structure helps us to have an approach to proportions and shape,

taking into account the view of the profile, from the thumb and from the little finger.

We divide the height into four and take the lowest section as the height of the middle finger.

 

We modified the angle between the palm and the arm to give it a more relaxed feeling.

 

In these examples we can see the structure with different angles on the wrist.

Thumb movement

Wrist movement.

Let's imagine the stories of the hands again, in the following example it could be a king or queen ordering their knights to go on their next mission, the gesture is very different and tells us about the character and what his mood may be.

 

The first example mixes bent fingers with an open one to point hard and the second groups fingers with a more relaxed gesture.

Profile-pinky view

Relaxed pose and tension pose.

One of the most classic situations in which you will need to draw the profile of the hand from the pinky view is when you draw a character from the back, but of course this view can change a lot in a fully supported pose, in the following example we can see both cases .

Fingers

Here we see how the fingers join the palm, notice how they enter at an angle.

This we can easily confirm in our hands, if we see the back and open our fingers we can see how the space between them is tilted.

This form of union makes the birth of the fingers appear at a different height if we are looking at the palm or the back. Let's take advantage of the following example to notice how the drawing of the joint changes in the different views.

 

Other annotations that we will take into account are the thickness of the fingers in the area of the knuckles, this is due to the thickness of the bones in that area and the way the tendons surround that area, we will see it in more detail in the section on anatomy.

The thumb has a characteristic shape, in this series of examples and its synthesis we can see several views to understand its general structure.

The fingers are a very interesting combination of softness and firmness, in addition to their expressiveness and practical agility.

 

In these examples I show you how soft areas form small "holes". Where the pads meet.

 

In turn, the folds move the skin around them, the pads soften creating small protrusions and wrinkles.

Speaking of the rigid parts, let's see how the knuckles work as an axis on which the fingers rotate, This example shows how a part of the palm goes from being in front to being hidden thanks to this twist.

Let's begin to notice how the sections of the fingers, and the upper part of the palm, are arranged.

When the index fingers to the little finger are closed and fit on the palm they form slightly curved paths, we notice how the index is supported a little higher, than the others and protrudes from the formation. You will almost always see this detail in the representation of hands.

Fist

The basic structure of the fist could be similar to a cube, but we see that the behavior of the organic figures makes everything much more interesting.

 

In the following examples we see some super simple structures to understand the base that form the fingers. An important detail when drawing the fist is the thumb.

As we saw in the expression examples above, a simple movement of the hand gives meaning to the entire expression. In this case we see two different positions of the wrist, both with the hand in a fist.

Holding a cylindrical element is a very recurring position, whether the character is holding himself or holding a tool, a sword, or a baseball bat.

Anatomy

Let's see a small introduction to anatomy, the fingers are made up of bones called phalanges. the four fingers on the palm have three phalanges, which form its three classic sections, the thumb has two phalanges and complements its mobility with a set of bones called the metacarpus.

 

 

1-Phalanges-fingers.

a) Distal phalanx.

b) Medial phalanx.

c) Proximal phalanx.

 

2-Carpus and metacarpus-palm.

3-Radius and ulna-arm bones.

1- Tendon of the extensor digitorum.

2- Tendon sheath.

3-Extender long of the thumb.

4.Short thumb extender

 

When we draw fingers we will be able to notice some tendons in the dorsal view while in the palm the elements are hidden.

1- Metacarpus bones.

2- Carpal bones.

3- Ulna bone.

4- Radius bone.

 

The carpus is a set of small bones that form an axis on which the hand rotates and serves as a union with the bones of the arm.

 

The metacarpus from the index to the little finger are hidden and immobile inside the palm, while the metacarpus of the thumb gives mobility and strength to your finger, allowing us to hold and manipulate objects.

Back view.

 

1- Inteosseous muscles.

2- First dorsal interosseo.

3- Extensor of the fingers.

4- Extending retinaculum.

 

Thumb view.

 

1- Long thumb abductor

2- Short extensor of the thumb

3- Long extensor of the thumb

 

 

Palm view.

 

1- Thumb abductors (this group is various muscles between abductors and flexors)

2- Commissural ligaments.

3- Long palmar.

4- Palpal carpal ligament.

5- Reticular flexor.

6- Palmar short.

7- Abductor digiti minimi.

8- Palmar aponeurosis.

9- Swimming Ligament.

10- Tendon sheath.

 

As you will have noticed the tutorial was from the simplest to the most complicated, I hope it was pleasant and useful for you.

 

You already know the different views of the hand, how to draw them and how you can make variables to express it. I want to close with this simple scheme that will help you practice without getting lost.

 

 

Shallow sections of the palm.

 

1- Digitopalmar impeller.

2- Hypnotic eminence.

3 Eminence Tenar.

4 central hole.

I recommend you to practice the structures and examples several times, as well as finding the mentioned in hands either from life or from your own hands.

 

Thank you very much for reading this tutorial, I hope you found it useful.

 

Remember that you can leave me your comments, and questions, until next time.