Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Hands

Three tips for drawing hands:
1. Look for the big outside shape first.
2. Try to establish a line of action: from the forearm, and the wrist through the palm and all the way through the fingertips.
3. When you can't find another subject to sketch, practice using your own hand as a model.

11 comments:

Unknown said...

This is something that I need to practice a lot!!

Jean Wogaman said...

This is great! Thanks.

Do you have any tips for drawing feet?

Linn sukkerspinn said...

Awesome! :)
I really need to practice this too.

Unknown said...

tips on drawing feet would be WELL appreciated. this was a great tip too. :)

Christopher Manzanares said...

Beautiful Drawings.

Anonymous said...

i hate drawing hands and have just started trying, trying...
grr...
but this'll help ^^

Tyler J said...

Fantastic sketches!

I really like the line of action comment as I don't know I would have ever thought to approach the hand the way I approach a full-figure drawing. Now that you mention it, it seems silly to separate the methods.

Tyler J said...

Looking at these again, they remind me of the hands that Stephen Rogers Peck did in his book "Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist," which is a tremendous resource for anyone looking for a good Anatomy book.

In particular, I love the base shapes and the efficient line-work. There is something elegant in its simplicity.

verdadverde said...

usually whoever can draw hands well, can pretty much draw just about anything

James Gurney said...

Thanks, everybody. I did these back in art school days, and was probably looking at Peck, Loomis, and Dorne. There might be copies of some of their examples, I can't remember--otherwise they're of my left hand held out in front of me, or the view of it in the mirror.

Nick said...

This should be extremely useful. I've recently started studying hands and it can be all too tempting to start loading the drawings with every crease I see, which really detracts from the whole.

Thanks for this!