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ccRask — How to Draw Hands: Tutorial
Published: 2011-03-26 18:32:02 +0000 UTC; Views: 74061; Favourites: 3744; Downloads: 1174
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If this is in the wong category, please let me know XDOkay, so, I've promised this thing to a lot of people at a lot of different times. And I've put it off, and put it off... and finally I was prodded enough to freaking do it! So here it is! My very own tutorial on how I draw hands. I tried to keep it simple while covering all the bases I could... and in doing so, pointing out and clearing up common mistakes I've come across.
I hope it helps! Feel free to download and share around as much as possible... credit to me is always welcome
And as it says, if there's any questions you have, or something I didn't cover that you'd like to have cleared up, I will do my best to answer those for you!If you fave this, thank you! I can't take the time to thank everyone one at a time, but I really appreciate it, and I hope it comes in... handy
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Comments: 523
You're very welcome! Glad it helps
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Wow! I can't wait to try this! It makes a lot of sense now. Thank you so much for making this. <3
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Oh good! I'm glad to hear it
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Brilliant tutorial... still can't draw hands but I think that's just me, I'm obviously never meant to draw non crappy.
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If you take that attitude, yeah, guess not... no one starts out brilliant, and natural talent only takes you so far. I've left up stuff on this account from about 8 years ago because I think it's nice to have a visual example of that. You can improve, it's just up to you to care enough to do so.
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I've always taken that attitude to everything, whenever I try something new I expect to be a master at it straight away. Very unrealistic but that's me when it comes to picking up skills.
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It's hard, but its worth it to change that attitude. Nothing in life works like that as far as I've ever found.
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Yay, finally, how to draw hand simple!
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thanks for putting this up *w* i love you *w*
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You're very welcome! Hope it helps!
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it really did help ! 
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You can use simple shapes to build up anything, it's just about finding which shapes work for what you're trying to draw
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it just never worked like that for my hands o,o
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Yeah, it's something you need to get into the habit of doing
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I don't believe I ever commented on this, but I will now.
Out of personal interest around Thanksgiving of last year, I really wanted to work on things that I couldn't really get much improvement on, or just tried to ignore completely. Personally, hands fell under BOTH of those categories. With the discovery of your tutorial though, it's helped me understand that the hand is more dynamic and interesting than just drawing five blocky fingers and hiding the rest of them away.
It's still a bit difficult for me to draw more cartoonish hands in my own style, but drawing more realistic and fleshier hands and fingers has become much easier. The only reason I've decided to say anything now is because I'm currently working on a college portfolio, and decided that having a worksheet on hands would probably be important - then I remembered your tutorial.
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Thank you very much.
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We'll see how long it takes me to get there, lol
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This is so helpful! Especially considering I need a hand (literally) for art class
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Bahhaahaa, good one. But yeah, glad it helped! You are more than welcome! I'll be doing more stuff like this in the near future as I teach my drawing class.
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That could be interesting, I might follow along here. I'm horrible with anatomy unfortunately. Can't wait to see more
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You're welcome, your style is good too, I might try your style to improve my drawing a little
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Go for it-- though I guess by my style you mean messy lines... all of my lines have a reason for being there, I just don't clean up my work very often because I think it loses some life if I'm not very careful to keep the spirit of it. And honestly, that's good practice for people that are so afraid of making a mistake. Loosen up a bit
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Yeah, I never draw by guidelines though I draw straight outlines (much to my disappointment I absulutely can't 
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Guidelines are key, you want to break everything into shapes and explore how they overlap and interact with each other. Good luck!
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Thanks, I'm hoping I can eventually learn how to use basic shapes for my artwork but till then It's freehand >.<;
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Using basic shapes is free-handing it though...
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Well then I guess it'd be drawing without a guide x-x
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Like, without a reference? I draw from references all the time. It's preferred and a far smarter way to do things, particularly when you're starting out
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I used to draw by reference but then my art teacher killed my art style u.u;
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Y'know how hard I fail at drawing hands? Even this tutorial couldn't completely help. However, at least you've managed to stop me just drawing circles... So thanks! ^_^
How the hell'd you get that good, anyway? Did you have lessons, or is it natural talent, or what?
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Oh thanks! You'll get there eventually, I promise. I'm glad this thing helped!
I had a fabulous art teacher in high school, studied with him for pretty much 3 years straight. He was a hard-ass but just really great, a huge influence on me. I don't believe that natural talent gets you all the way-- it's just a starting point.
I would recommend looking up some of Bruce Hogarth's books for more understanding on hands.
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Sure did!
Dude, I wish my art teacher was as good as your's. She just spent the entire time making us clean up the room from the previous class's lesson (v.v). She's mainly the reason I dropped art, though seeing some of the more beautiful pictures here on devART makes me wish I'd kept at it anyway...
Hogarth rings a bell... Did he write a book about dynamic figure drawing? It seems right in context...
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I always hear so many horror stories about art teachers... really a shame, because I liked most of mine, and they're the reason I decided to become an art teacher, myself.
Hogarth is the one and the same! Dynamic Figure drawing is a fantastic book and actually has a great section about hands (and feet). He also has a book entirely about heads, and entirely about hands.
Also, it's never too late to pick art up again. You might have some catching up to do, but the big secret to getting better is to practice, and to draw what you see.
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Unfortunatley, art isn't taken very seriously at our school (even though we're a performing arts college!), so most of the art teachers aren't top-knotch. You're an art teacher? *bows* I envy your class.
I NEED to find that book. Luckily, I live two streets away from a library, so being able to draw some-what defined hands and other such appendages, here I come!
I've very recently began trying to learn how to draw again, but I'm not entirely sure where to start. Reading manga doesn't help; I automatically draw manga-like characters, which, while recognisable, aren't too realistic. It's the eyes, as well; they always seem so 2D/big/freakish... You don't happen to know where I can find an eye tutorial, do you? *sweatdrop* All the ones I can find are about digital art, and all I have is a decade-old MS Paint...
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That's too bad, but you know, I attended a liberal arts college and my art department was pretty crummy. And performing arts =/= visual arts, so maybe that's why. Thanks, though-- I'm only part-time right now, but I am teaching drawing this semester, which is great so far
Eyes, eyes... Hogarth's book about the head goes into detail about each feature of the face. And I'm sure there's something up here on DA about eyes. I am planning on putting together tutorials for the face for my class, so I'll upload them here when those happen.
Manga/anime isn't bad, it's just not realistic, as you said. My best advice would be to start drawing from life. Sit and really study an object; notice where the edges are in relation to each other, how things fit together, and so on. Draw from pictures (you can de-saturate them in nearly any editing program so the colors don't trip you up), since good life models are understandably hard to come by. Look at the kinds of faces and figures Da Vinci, Michaelangelo, and Rubens painted. It's ok to copy things, sometimes even to trace, just for the sake of figuring out how an artist did something. And then practice what you learn again and again and again.
Whew-- hope that helps!
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True, true... Do you work in the school you went to?
I'll definitley have to find those books. Most of the time, when I'm practising drawing eyes, I just trace them off of a picture online and then try to copy that, but that's impossible under some circumstances, and unreliable in others... And they don't have pupils (v.v). I'll carry on looking for online tutorials for that...
One of the worst thing I picked up from manga was the overall style of drawing; straight, sketchy lines, lack of shading, etc. Makes it somewhat hard to draw from real life, as, IRL there aren't that many straight, sketchy lines. The worst is that I always try to draw from memory, even when I have the thing I'm drawing RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME. Because, you know, who needs real life *shot*.
Help it does. I've tried doing as you said just now; get an online image (a photo I have), trace and copy it, try to get it right. The end result was actually recognisable as a human being (a very sketchy, colourless human being, but a human being non the less)! I shall continue to practise, O Mighty Teacher of Art.
Thank you so much!
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No, I work in a totally different state, haha. I would've loved to teach in the district I graduated from, but it wasn't meant to be.
The main problem with manga is that it's a stylized representation of real life. And all the manga I've seen doesn't have sketchy lines, it's got very defined lines, which is a problem for beginners since they have to realize that you have to draw the shape of an object before you go to the very defined detail.
Definitely avoid drawing from memory for now. Your brain has a stockpile of symbols-- images you've always associated with things-- so it tells you, "I know how to draw a chair, here it is" and has you skip over the actual looking part. Here's a fun exercise-- take a picture (an artwork might work better than a photo), print it out, and draw it upside-down. Don't turn the picture right-side up until you're totally done. Your brain will not recognize what the picture is (even if you know ahead of time) as you're drawing it, so it will quiet down and allow you to actually see the lines and shapes making up the whole. That's how the process should work-- look at the edges and values of things rather than thinking "this is an eye". It will go a lot better for you.
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~Day-mn.
Eh, by shetchy, I mean manga-style, but gone over a couple times so it LOOKS like it was sketched. Which is totally cheating. And you're right, most manga does have the whole defined-line thing, which I ALSO can't do (v.v). However, I can draw very good perfect circles. I was proud of that until I learnt it meant I'm mad~.
I TRIED IT. I tried the upside-down picture, and it FAILED AT LIFE. So I tried again, with the same picture, and it FAILED AGAIN. So, in the end, I tried 6 different pictures, ranging from easy to difficult, and all of them turned out FAIL. 
It's, y'know, the proportions. That's basically the root of the problem, I just realised. When I'm drawing from memory, I make the proportions manga-style (whatever looks best), but when I'm drawing from real life, they're all messed up... Teach me, O Mighty Teacher?
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The idea with the upside-down drawings is to NOT think about what you're drawing. If it's a picture of a chair, don't think "I'm drawing a chair". Think that you are drawing lines and shapes, and pay particular attention to where they connect. Drawings work better than photos. Maybe try this one? [link]
Here's another exercise: Contour drawings. Grab a marker, and without lifting the marker from the page, draw an object-- draw all the contours (or edges) of the object. This mans all the details as well, not just an outline. DON'T LIFT THE MARKER FROM THE PAGE! You can draw almost anything, but stuff like flowers, hands, and vegetables come out the best. Don't worry about making it perfect-- it won't be. But it will help you really focus in on what you're drawing.
The big trick is just to draw what you see. Really look at where the lines of an object meet. Try to see the shapes that make up an object-- are there boxes or cylinders or spheres? Art, unfortunately, is not about drawing perfectly straight lines or perfect spheres.
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Thanks a lot, this gonna help me in my studies
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