How to you Draw hands

[TheBryceKrispy]

Hands are hard to draw. Got any tips?

The old question, How do you draw hands? Especially hands in different positions.

[VibrantFox]

i made a pretty cheap tutorial on how i cheese drawing hand here: https://tapas.io/episode/988827

but one of the things that tend to help is using reference. sosmetimes it'll be images online that you can use for visual reference or for more specific gestures that might be hard to pin via search terms you can use your own and snap a picture.

there's also a good handful of resources for better hand tutorials than my lazy one that you can find online if you just look up how to draw hands or hand tutorials. youtube can also be a friend in this just know that every artist has their own approach to tackling hands. hope it helps

[kytri]

People seem to think I'm pretty good at drawing hands so I'll give this a shot.

Honestly a lot of it is going to come down to practice. I don't know your particular situation but one thing I see a lot of beginner artists do is avoid drawing things that intimidate them, such as always drawing characters with their hands behind their backs or in their pockets. Instead try to find excuses to draw them when you might not strictly have to. For example I like to put hands in a lot of my closer up shots because they add a lot of expressiveness to a character. You'll get better at drawing hands and it adds a really useful tool to your storytelling toolbox.

The other major thing is using reference. I typically like to use my own hands for this. Like if I'm trying to draw a character holding a pen I'll literally pick up a second pen in my right hand (I'm left handed) and study how my fingers wrap around it. If I need a different angle that I can't see by twisting my arm into weird shapes I'll use a mirror. For poses holding less commonplace objects you can often use something that is similarly shaped. For example if I want to draw someone holding a sword, maybe I don't own a sword but I do have a broom handle and the shape is close enough for hand reference.

[Hodge]

Generally, I try to begin with the gesture because hands can be very useful for characterization. They kind of look like weird triangles at this stage haha. Then I get down the form, sometimes simplifying it into basic shapes or drawing the skeleton underneath if needed. Then comes the details, which vary, but even in a simplistic hand there is room for some details, whether its long finger nails or skin folds or veins or knuckles or etc. which makes the hand believable or add to the character. Eventually, if you keep practicing, you can kinda just draw it and skip intermediary steps. But if poses are something that you need to work on, then early steps like gestures is pretty important because that's when you learn what poses work and helps build your visual memory.

[yozhikisblue]

I approach hand drawing in a very structural, methodical way (as I do with most things I draw).

While I would normally recommend doing anatomy studies, I think one of the interesting things about hands is that you can map the skeleton and muscles correctly with ease, and still have difficulty conveying what an actual living hand looks like in motion, or how people express themselves through hand gestures.

This way of studying has helped me a great deal more:

Look at your own hand. Try slowly moving it into a series of different positions. Now, pay close attention to not only the surface level appearance, but the feeling of what you are actually moving. Perhaps even imagine that you are building a robotic hand that needs to replicate the same gestures in the most efficient way possible. Instead of seeing hand drawings as static gestures, pretend that you are drawing machine blueprints.

As an example, I've drawn quite a few different hand gestures on the pages here:

Kingdom of Sunlight :: Chapter 1 - 2 & 3 | Tapas

and here:

Kingdom of Sunlight :: Chapter 1 - 6 | Tapas

Most of my attention in these panels is on how the hand exerts pressure. How is it in contact with the thing it's touching or holding? What muscles are engaged to complete the task? I figure this out by doing it myself, and taking note of how it "feels" to button a shirt or squeeze a cane-like object. References help too, of course- but without this additional "insider info" about how it really "feels" to perform that specific action, I think the resulting drawings can come off looking as if the hands are sort of free-floating, and not really in contact with the thing they're doing, similar to how if you don't consider weight or volume in animation, even rotoscoping- drawing directly over top of live action- can leave the result feeling a little "off".

Long story short I absolutely love drawing hands, so feel free to hit me up with some questions! Of course I also have a long way to go and plenty to learn

[DokiDokiTsuna]

Here's a silly tutorial I made when I was, like, 13~

[jarzebiny]

I've given up on drawing hands well because ain't nobody (aka me) got time fo' dat. I have literally drawn extra fingers on hands on accident because that's how bad I am at it.

Now I just draw them like this. Works for me! Sometimes a stylized version is a good approach (but you kinda have to embrace the imperfection of it, that can be hard to do).

But I salute you in your pursuit of it, it's hard as hell and I admire people who want to get better at it Good luck!

[Shanny8]

Still not superb or consistent when it comes to drawing hands. I do okay at times- but then there are times where the hands I draw look horrid.

[kalrhungus]

i never understood how someone could have problems drawing hands. if you don't know what a hand looks like - you always have a reference with you.

[DokiDokiTsuna]

Never thought about it that way XD

I think the reason is probably a combination of lack of dexterity/skill and the fact that a hand is just a very weird shape. Like, you can't really simplify it into a pyramid or a spheroid the way you can with most body parts. And then, after you finally learn to draw an outstretched hand, you've got 10 million gestures and poses to learn with those darn fingers...^^;

[yozhikisblue]

I find your way of drawing hands very expressive <3 My work has always leaned in the direction of "realism" such that I'm one of those artists who's not sure if they even have an easily recognizable "style"- (though I've been told otherwise). I think I have a lot to learn about simplifying forms and drawing more heavily stylized art, and all the different art styles on Tapas have certainly been helping!

[Zhengo]

Usually for hands I use my own for reference. As for how I go about drawing them, I usually start with a trapezoid shaped box for the palm, a cylinder for the thumb, a rough shape on top of the palm for the space the fingers will take up. Then fill in the fingers with like segmented cylinders. After that polish and add in details.

[silverraven0]

You might try using this app.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.JindoBlu.HandDraw3DFREE

The ads is kinda annoying, but overall a good app for practicing.

[spadesart]

this tutorial by everyday comics helped me a ton in the past, nowadays i dont draw construction lines for hands

[jarzebiny]

Ahhh, thank you, you make me feel good about my art ahaha I definitely think you do! It's very recognizeable, especially your colored work. I think many artists feel that way, though. I don't know if I have a "style", either. I guess kinda feel like I've been developing one over the past couple of years. Ironically, that started to happen once I stopped worrying/wondering/caring if I even do lol.