How To Draw A Cupped Hand

Of all parts of the torso, the hand is by many considered to exist the hardest to draw. Nosotros all accept stories of how, early on, we would proceed our characters' hands behind their backs or in their pockets, fugitive as much as possible the task of tackling easily. Yet paradoxically, they are our most readily available reference, being in our field of vision every moment of our lives. With just 1 actress accompaniment, a minor mirror, we can reference hands from all angles. The only real challenge, then, is the complexity of this remarkably articulated organ: information technology'south almost like drawing a small effigy onto a larger one, one doesn't know where to start.

In this tutorial nosotros will deconstruct the hand's own anatomy and indeed demystify it, so that when you wait at a hand for reference, you can make sense of it as a group of elementary forms, easy to put together.

I use the following abbreviations for the fingers:

Thursday = thumb
FF = forefinger
MF = center finger
RF = ring finger
LF = little finger

Basics of the Hand

Here's a quick look at the bone structure of the hand (left). In blueish, the 8 carpal bones, in royal, the v metacarpal basic, and in pink, the xiv phalanges.

As many of these bones cannot motility at all, we can simplify the basic structure of the hand: the diagram on the right is all yous actually need to remember.

Note that the actual base of the fingers, the joint that corresponds to the knuckles, is much lower than the apparent base of operations formed by flaps of skin. This will be important to depict bending fingers as we will see later.

Based on the above, a uncomplicated fashion of sketching the hand is to kickoff with the basic form of the palm, a apartment shape (very much like a steak, but roundish, squarish, or trapezoidal) with rounded angles, and then attach the fingers :

If you lot have a hard fourth dimension cartoon fingers, it's very helpful to think of them, and describe them, as stacks of iii cylinders. Cylinders are easy to depict under any bending, taking away much of the headache of drawing fingers in perspective. Detect how the bases of the cylinders are exactly the folds you need to draw when the finger bends.

This is important: The joints of the fingers are not aligned on straight lines, simply fall onto concentric arches:

In improver, fingers are not straight, but bend slightly towards the infinite between MF and RF. Showing this fifty-fifty subtly gives life to a cartoon:

Let the states not forget the fingernails. There is no need to always draw them, indeed they are a degree of item that merely looks correct when the hands are seen sufficiently shut up, but we are not ordinarily taught how they should await, and because of this, I for one couldn't brand them look right for a long fourth dimension. Here are some notes on the fingernail:

The fingernail starts halfway up the top joint of the finger.
The point where fingernail detaches from flesh varies: some people have it all the way at the edge of the finger, others have it very low (dotted line), so in their instance the fingernails are wider than they are long.
Fingernails are not apartment, but shaped much like roof tiles, with a curvature ranging from extreme to very slight. Notice your paw and you may find that this curvature is dissimilar for each finger – but this level of realism is unnecessary in drawing, fortunately.

Proportions

Now, taking the (credible) length of FF every bit our base unit of measurement, we can roughly put down the following proportions:

The maximum opening between Th and FF opening = 1.v
The maximum opening between FF and RF = 1. The MF can be closer to either without affecting the total distance.
The maximum opening between RF and LF opening = 1
The maximum angle between Th and LF is 90º, taken from the very base of operations of the Th'south joint: the fully extended LF is aligned with information technology.

I said "roughly" because these do vary with people, sometimes a lot, but remember that deviating from the norm on newspaper can await incorrect. If in doubt, these measurements will always expect right.

Details

The bones shape is simply ane challenging attribute of the hand; the other may be the detailing of folds and lines. Who hasn't been frustrated by drawing a hand and not being able to get all these lines to look right? Allow's expect at fold lines and some measurement details:

The virtual extension of the inner line of the wrist separates the pollex from the fingers. A small tendon line may mark the junction of wrist and mitt.
When fingers are shut together every bit above, the thumb tucks a scrap under the palm and is partially hidden.
The FF or RF every bit sometimes almost as long as the MF.
The folds that mark the knuckles are elliptical or like parenthesis, but when the hand is flat as above they are not pronounced (unless someone has protruding duke, which happens on much-labored hands) and can exist fatigued as mere dimples.
The folds of the finger joints testify elliptically on the back side, but they fade when the fingers are bent. They show as parallel lines on the palm side, but they are more pronounced at the lower articulation – typically yous wouldn't use 2 lines for the upper joints.
From the back, the lines of the fingers extend downwards to the limit of the palm, which makes the fingers look longer from the back.
From the inside, the lines are shorter because the top of the palm is padded, so the fingers await shorter on the palm side.
The lines of the fingers terminate in are drag lines (these short horizontal dashes) on both sides, and on both sides these drag lines all point away from the MF.

Annotation also, in the diagram above, how the fingernails are not fatigued fully only indicated in a subtle way advisable to the overall level of detailing (which is rather higher than necessary, for purposes of showing all the lines). The smaller the mitt y'all're drawing, the less detail you want in information technology, unless you want it to expect old.

I didn't mention the lines of the hand above, then let's take a await at them closely here:

The most visible lines in the palm: the and then-called eye, caput and life lines, are where the skin folds when the palm is cupped. Unless your fashion is very realistic, in that location'due south no need to depict others, it volition await excessive.
Don't confuse the life line with the contour of the thumb, which becomes visible under certain angles such as the one on the right. The life line is almost concentric with the contour of the pollex, but see how much higher on the palm it originates – the (true) base of operations of the FF, in fact.
From the side, the padding at the base of each finger appears as a series of curved, parallel bulges.
These fold lines wrap halfway effectually the fingers. They are accentuated as the finger bends.
There is a minor crash-land here on the extended finger due to skin bunching up. The bump disappears when the finger bends.

Now, what do we see when the hand is extended and seen sideways?

Outside, the wrist line curves out into palm base, so the transition between the two is marked by a gentle bump.
The bottom of the manus looks flatter from the outside than information technology does from the inside, although the thumb base may still be visible.
From the outside, the RF'due south last joint is fully exposed because the LF is gear up well back.
From the within, a petty or none of the MF tin can exist visible, depending on the FF's length.
Inside, the wrist line is covered by thumb base, then the transition is more abrupt and the crash-land more of import.

Annotation also that when seen from the outside, the palms shows another, new contour line. It starts at the wrist and, as the paw turns more, joins up with the LF line, until it covers upwards the Thursday base:

Range of Motion

Detailed articulation implies motion, and the hands move constantly. Not just for functional uses (belongings a mug, typing) just also expressively, accompanying our words or reacting to our emotions. It's therefore no surprise that drawing hands well requires understanding how the fingers move.

The Thumb and Fingers

Let'south start with the thumb, which works lonely. Its real base, and centre of movement, is very low on the hand, where it meets the wrist.

The natural relaxed position leaves a infinite betwixt the Thursday and the residuum of the hand.
The Th tin fold in as far every bit touching the root of LF, but this requires much tension and quickly becomes painful.
The Th can extend equally far as the width of the palm, only this also implies tension and gets painful.

The other iv fingers take little sideways move and mainly bend forward, parallel to each other. They tin exercise this with a certain degree of autonomy, but never without some consequence on the nearest fingers; endeavor for instance to curve your MF alone, and see what happens to the rest. The Thursday lonely is completely independent.

When the mitt closes into a fist and the fingers all scroll together, the whole of the manus maintains a cupped shape, every bit if information technology was placed against a big brawl. It's just that the ball (here in carmine) gets smaller and the curvature stronger:

When the paw is fully extended (on the correct), the fingers are either direct or bend slightly backwards, depending on flexibility. Some people'due south fingers can bend dorsum 90º if pressure is applied against them.

The fully closed fist is worth a detailed look:

The 1st and 3rd fold of the fully bent finger meet, creating a cross.
The 2nd fold appears to be an extension of the line of the finger.
Function of the finger is covered by the flap of peel and the pollex, a reminder that the whole thumb structure is outermost. You tin make your FF skid outside and cover the flap of skin, information technology'south anatomically possible, just it is not a natural fashion to grade a fist.
The MF'southward knuckle protrudes almost and the other knuckles autumn away from it, so that from the angle shown here, the parallel fingers are visible from the outer side, not from the inner side.
The 1st and third fold meet and create a cross again.
The thumb bends so that its last section is foreshortened.
The skin fold here sticks out.
When the paw makes a fist, the knuckles protrude and the "parenthesis" are visible.

The Hand every bit a Whole

When the paw is relaxed, the fingers curlicue slightly – more so when the hand is pointing upward and gravity forces them aptitude. In both cases, the FF remains straightest and the rest autumn away gradually, with the LF existence the most bent. From the side, The gradation in the fingers makes the outer 2 or iii peek out between FF and Th.

LF frequently "runs away" and stands isolated from the other fingers – another way of making hands look more than natural. On the other hand, the FF and MF, or MF and RF, volition often pair up, "sticking" together while the other two remain loose. This makes the hand look more lively. RF-LF pairings also occur, when the fingers are loosely aptitude.

Since the fingers are not the aforementioned length, they ever present a gradation. When grasping something, like the cup below, the MF (1) wraps the nearly visibly around the object while the LF (2) barely shows.

When holding a pen or the like, MF, RF and LF curlicue back towards the palm if the object is held only betwixt Th and FF (pick up a pencil lightly and observe this). If more pressure level is applied, MF participates and straightens up every bit it presses against the object. Full pressure results in all the fingers pointing abroad as shown here.

Equally we accept seen, the hand and wrist are remarkably articulated, each finger almost having a life of its own, which is why hands tend to stump the beginning illustrator. Yet when the manus starts to brand sense, we tend to fall into the opposite trap, which is to draw hands too rationally – fingers advisedly taking their places, parallel lines, careful alignments. The result is strong and just too tame for a role of the trunk that can speak as expressively every bit the eyes. It can work for certain types of characters (such as those whose personality shows stiffness or insensitivity) but more frequently than non, you'll want to draw lively, expressive easily. For this you tin can become one of ii ways: add attitude (i.e. add drama to the gesture, resulting in a dynamic hand position that would probably never be used in real life) or add together natural-ness (observe the hands of people who aren't thinking almost them to see the casualness I'm referring to). I can't possibly show every mitt position there is, only I give below examples of constrained vs. natural/dynamic hand:

*Annotation in this item case – trained fighters will always agree their fingers parallel while punching (every bit in the forced position), otherwise they may intermission their knuckles.

Diversity

Hands vary individually just as much every bit facial features. Males's hands differ from female's, young from old, and then on. Below are some existing classifications, simply they don't cover the whole range of characters a paw tin can have. Graphic symbol is a good word considering it's most useful to depict easily as if they were characters with their ain personality: fragile, soft, dry, callous, uncouth and so on. (See Practice Time)

Hand Shapes

This is actually near the proportion of fingers to paw:

Finger Shapes

Even fingernails are non all the aforementioned! Well, Female parent Nature gives united states of america flat or round blast bases, really, and the different means of styling the blast are human-fabricated.

Practice time

Discover people's hands. Commencement, for anatomy: how the fingers look in various positions, how lines show and alter, how certain details are dependent on tension, etc. Second, for variety: how do male hands differ from female person hands? How do they change with age? With body weight? Could yous recognize someone by their hands?
Make quick energy sketches of easily, from any source – yours, other people'due south, photos. You can notice some stock photos of hands on Envato Marketplace. Don't worry about your sketches having correct proportions or even looking like much; this is about capturing expression.

Draw your own easily in various positions and, using a mirror, from various angles, making sure to deconstruct them into the simplest possible forms (the equivalent of drawing a stick effigy and so fleshing it out). You can also start with the free energy sketch and build on that (as nosotros have done with the full figure) before finally refining the details. In the sketches below the under-sketch is very light simply in some you can just meet the wide elementary shapes used.