This was entirely unplanned. Before this morning, I had no intention of making any new tutorials right now.

Sure, I planned on adding more 'eventually' - but not today. But for some unknown, unexplainable reason, today when someone asked for a tutorial, I actually felt like doing it.

Long ago, when I started making tutorials I sucked just as much as most of the people reading them ^_^ I remember people telling me that my tutorials seems attainable. Like I wasn't really that good, but I was still doing okay. People whould look at it and say - hey, I can draw that! Okay, I'll try.

I wouldn't say that I'm a great artist now. I'm better then I was, but there are still a lot of artists that are so much better then I am. But I've got experience under my belt that a lot of you probably dont have yet. I've developed my drawing abilities and are now able to do things I wasn't able to do before. Hands are one of those things.

The main reason I haven't made a hands tutorial before now was simple. I don't know how to teach people to draw hands. I have no method for drawing hands. No special steps to make the process simplier or more easy to understand. I've had to train my mind and my hand to cooperate properly and draw them through practice.

When I sat down and drew the examples for this tutorial I surprised myself. Drawing these hands were so simple for me, I shocked myself. I remember just a year or two ago having so, So much trouble with the hands. No matter how many times I drew them, they always looked wrong, or clumsy. Stiff, unrealistic. But I've been drawing for quite a long while now, and it's become easier with time. Not because I memorized how to draw them, not at all. But because I've trained my eye and my mind to work better.

I've trained my mind to analyze the shape and proportion of the objects around me. I'm now always drawing and practicing lines and shapes, but I'm alwasy observing and learning new shapes. I practice my artists mind.

You don't have to draw every single day to practice drawing. But you do always have to look and analyze the shapes and things around you. That's the best way to get better at drawing. Train your mind to see an objects shape and build; not just the object itself. Don't see a hand. See the mass of it. Picture the different parts that make up the hand and how they bend, and squish and twist. Memorize how the shape changes when you bend the thumb. Look at all the different ways it can move. Figure out in your mind what it all means. If you understand the shape, you can draw it.

No Tric s

Almost every time I start with the thrumb. The thumb is what defines the shape the hand will have. It's probably the most important part of the hand, in my mind. Put your hand out in front of your face and bend your thumb. Not at the knuckle, but at the base. Look at all the ways it can bend. The human thumb is fully posable. It rotates in many directions. Notice the ball of the thumb. How it e tends out from the wrist must more drastically then the hand does from the other side of the wrist. But also look how the ball of the thumb can move from the outer side of your wrist, to the front of your wrist when you bend your thumb in towards your pinky. If you put your hand palm-side facing you, with your thumb bent in like this, the amount of buldge on that side is much smaller then if the thumb is fully e tended outwards.

Below are some common shapes for drawing the thumb. The e ample shows the thumb rotating around- starting from slightly behind, to profile, to the front. When drawing the thumb, I start with the outer curve - the top of the thumb. This line ends straight. The inner side of the thumb curves outwards from this point, and down.

Going backwards slightly, look at the animated image above. Look at how the pinky bends outwards from the hand. Look at your own hand again and stretch our pinky out as far as you can. Now bend you thumb and pinky in towards each other (keeping the fingers themeslves straight) until the two touch. Notice how the body of the hand bends. The ball of the thumb is coming in the most, but the ball below the pinky is coming in too. Not only is the thumb a posable joint, but the pinky is to. Not nearly as much, but the ball below the pinky can bend inwards too.

Now only can you make your palm flat by stretching your hand out, but you can curve in the entire hand. This diversity in it's shape, is what makes the hand so difficult to draw. And even worse, since we all see our hands and use them so often that people notice immediatly if you make mistakes when drawing them.

I never have use any sort of guide syste for drawing hands I've seen books that try to show a guide syste for hands or make you understand the hand's proportions by showing the bones but none of that stuff ever he ped me at all. But I do have a sort of a system for myself.

Further Examinations

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The above image shows a cross-section of the hand, when seen from the side. This shows how the ball of the thumb extends down far more then the ball of the pinky. This also shows how much further back on the hand the thumb begins then the finters. But it is IMPORTANT to realize that the fingers do not all start along a straight line. The top edge of the hand is not straight, but curves.

The tip of the pinky is much, much lower then the tips of the rest of the fingers but this isn't entirely because it is so much shorter then the others. Rather, it has a lot to do with the fact that it begins so much lower then the others. The large knuckle for the pinky is entirely below the large knuckle of the middle finger. Also, the tip of the ring finger is higher then the index finger; not because it's longer, but because it's large knuckle is higher on the hand then that of the index finger.

What does this all mean? It means that when the fingers bend, the row of knuckles aren't flat, but curved.

Examples

In the end, you will always need a different angle or pose for the hands in your drawings and these few examples will never be enough for anyone. These are just to show you how different princles are put to use. But remember, now matter what you need, you will always have two perfectly good examples right on the ends of your arms. Use them.

A relaxed hand, never has straight fingers. Relax you hand when it's hanging down from your arm. Now, without forcefully controlling your fingers, bend your wrist up so your hand and arm are at a 90 degree angle and see what the fingers do. They bend in. The tendents pull them in. But in no relaxed state, do the fingers ever stretch all the way out. So unless the person is pushing something, or has a reason for all the fingers to be extended outwards, remember to bend the fingers slightly.

The thumb doesn't usually bend much when it's relaxed, however the position of the thumb in releation to the hand does. When your hand is relaxed the ball of the thumb is in towards the hand more. The plam of the hand is curved, not flat.

The two above are good examples of the pinky joint bending into the hand making the back surface of the hand very curved and thinner then when the hand is spread flat out.

Notice how the pinky bend much further into the hand then the rest of the fingers. Look at your own hand and compare.

On the hand giving the peace sign, the thumb is mostly straight, but it is bent into the palm to hold the ring and pinky fingers. The ball below the pinky is also bent into the hand making the whole hand even thinner in width, but thicker in depth.

Pay attention to how far down the pinky bends. Do it with your own hand and see. The pinky bends very far down, the ring finger following close behind.

Well, that's all I really have to say. I hope it helped a little.