Draw Hand To Learn

Hands can be almost as expressive as face

How to Draw Hand

Hands can be almost as expressive as faces once you know how to draw them well. Despite their complexity, hands are not too hard to draw, but they do not break down into the simple shapes of balls and blocks that way so many other subjects do. Here's how to get around that problem.

You will need to do about a dozen sketches before you really start to understand hands. Start by thinking of mittens, rather than hands. That's because you need to simplify the image for yourself, but, as mentioned, the old balls and cones and boxes shapes don't really work with hands. So imagine a mitten instead.

Drawing Hand Tutorials

The most important thing to get right for hands is the palm. Notice how it is narrower near the wrist, wider at the end where the fingers come out. Then consider the thumb. It makes a nice sloping "V" shape away from the index finger if you look at the hand from the side. But if you look at the hand with the tips of the fingers pointing at you, you may notice something interesting. The "life line" in your palm, that defines how the thumb moves.

How to Draw Hand Step by Step

Different drawing techniques lend themselves more or less to drawing hands. Shading tools and charcoals are very good for drawing hands, because you can so easily use the shadows and highlights to suggest the shape of the hands. Line drawing of hands, while they can be very interesting, are much more difficult. So if you are having trouble with drawing hands, use a charcoal or a shading tool, and put down the pencil altogether.

Finally, if you want to draw really good hands, you'll need to study the bones and muscles that make them up. If you were in art school they would make you draw the bones of a hand in great detail.