hands
 

I am so sick of drawing hands. I always seem to have a problem with them. It takes no time at all to get the shape and size of the hand, but when it comes time to draw in the fingers and values that make it all up, it always turns to mush. Any tips?

Are you drawing them from life or your mind? If it's from life, hands are no more difficult to draw than anything else. Don't think of them as hands but lines or tones just like everywhere else.

If you're drawing from your mind, than I don't have any tips right now.

Well at the moment, I am drawing the hands on a figure out of my mind, yet I still want them to look life-like. I mean, I can get them right after a while, but ... maybe the fact that there are so many joints in the hands. I have been studying the common positions and such, looking a pictures. But thanks anyways ^.^

If you have a camera find someone to pose. I have a hard to looking at something 3d and drawing it on something 2d. when I look at pic some how it prossessessesssss.... somehow?

draw your left hand every day in different positions.. do lots and lots.. 2 to 4 pages a day.. it can be quick contour drawings you'll get better at them it just takes time..

"You're fingers look like sausages" - My teacher kept saying this and it was because he's always pushing structure.

You can draw what you see and you can also draw what's in your mind but if the picture in your mind isn't clear enough then you get sausages. The only way is practise. Follow Jens advice and always think about the structure of the hand. The bones, joints, muscles, skin etc.

Exercise
 

You can try this exercise:

When u are drawing a finger in a closed hand, imagine it translucid and draw very softly just the outline, BUT divide the finger in 3 kind of little sausages that are joined, this is usefull for 3/4 view, and even for a "palm view".

May be some one catch the idea... :D :confused:

Hi.

Well, what really helped me was to draw at least 1 hand each day. The good thing about it is that you don´t have to push yourself to draw something that you may feel frustated to do, because it is just one sketch. If you try to do 3 or 4 each day, and after a couple of days you don´t show progress, you will be frustated. I am comic book artist so maybe that is why the next tip helped me, When I was learning how to draw hands, I had a tendency to draw them all with the fingers closed and from the dorsal side since that was the only pose that the hand didn´t really suck. What i began to do was (beside the daily practice) begin drawing as many hands and in as many poses as I could, that way I got to draw a lot of hand in my daily sketches and I didn´t feel like "I´m LEARNING to draw" (something that always hurted my big fat pride).

Another tip that you might want to try for those times when you want to make a real good drawing or painting is make a lot of sketches that look pretty much the same.

There are books on the subject. I´ve got Hogarth´s and Loomis (the last is online, tell me if you need the link) but I´ve heard that "the book of a hundred hands" (by Bridgeman, I think) is very good.

Another tip (but you have to be real confident with this one) is to draw an animation of a hand, it helps a lot to understand how the hand moves. And I´ve heard that one of the best ways to learn anatomy is by sculpting, but I never tried it (will do it next year) so I can´t tell you if it really works.

So it is practice, practice and practice and also a lot of patience (like everything in life).

Victor Cabanelas

Could you give the link to the Loomis book? I'm always looking for a good book. Never know when you'll learn something!

Here it is:
http://www.fineart.sk/
Follow the links there
Victor

Thanks! Actually, when I went to that site last Friday (from another recomendation), it wasn't cooperating. Snaps!

Also, join Domai. The photos are really amazing.