Drawing hands

Drawing a hand or two hands is one of the most difficult subjects that an artist can ever choose.

Basics – how to draw hands?

Example of the flexibility of the wrist, the proportion of a hand to the face, and the flexibility of the thumb.

Here are some tips for learning to draw hands, but you can also take a look at your own hand:

• The length of the middle finger is about the same as the palm from the base of the middle finger to the wrist.
• The three sections of each finger are roughly the same size.
• When viewing the back of the hand, the length from the knuckle to the first joint is about the same as the combined length of the other two sections.
• The joint of the thumb is located at about the same height as the knuckles.
• The knuckles follow a slight curve.
• When the hand is at rest, the three middle fingers align with the wrist.
• The hand lines, like the fingertips, are unique.
• The thumb muscle occupies about 1/4 of the palm.

Zoning of the hands – palm and back of the hand

Even though everyone has hands that they can draw, I know how difficult it is to keep your hand that you want to draw still and concentrate on drawing at the same time.

In addition, you will also find photos of perspectives that only one other person can have on your hands, so you yourself can not see them from this perspective.

Sample tutorials for drawing hands

Below are some examples of different hands and gestures, which you can trace.

Example palms

The palms are slightly bent inward similar to a plate. On them are the thumb and fingers. The inside of the joints are indicated by slight folds, as well as the places where the palm can be bent.

Example back of the hand

View of the back of a hand from above. The sketch shows the basic shapes (back of the hand as a plate/circle with fingers and thumb attached). In the extended sketch, joints, knuckles and fingernails are indicated which are further elaborated in the drawing.

Pointing finger to the right

Pointing finger to the right with a view of the inside of the hand. Here you can see the bent fingers and above them the extended thumb, behind it the extended index finger.

Man hand pointing left

The pointing man’s hand with a view of the back of the hand appears elongated due to the outstretched index finger and thumb. The fingers are slightly angled in the background. In the shaded version, the male arm hair is also added.

Hand gesture

A hand gesture shows a lot of emotion. From the basic shapes, you can easily see where the skin folds need to be drawn.

Thumbs down

In the sketch you can see that you start with a circle to which fingers and thumb are added. The fingers are bent and the thumb is stretched out downwards.

Draw hand clenched into fist

To draw a fist, start with a large circle for the folded fingers and add the thumb to the side. Joints and bones of the back of the hand are added to the drawing.

Draw baby hand

A baby’s hand is very round and wrinkled. So drawing a toddler’s hand starts with a lot of circles. Therefore, the drawing includes folds that separate the baby hand folds.

More Pages

• Drawing Gestures and Body Posture
• Shading / Drawing Shadows
• Drawing Perspectives
• Design Principles

From the German Blog

• Hands Holding a Pen – 3 Tutorials
• Left-Handed or Right-Handed?
• Improving Writing and Handwriting through Drawing
• Drawing Technique: Learning to Draw with a Grid
• Blending and Shading with Pencil