I hate hands…

Probably a common complaint, they always seem to take more attention and time than I think they should, and even when given the time I get a lot of mediocre hands.

Some years ago I spent around six months studying oil painting at a small Italian Atelier in Florence, and one of my instructors most common critics of my work was my hands.

So this weekend deep dive subject is drawing hands.

This first link again is to Sinix. Even though I’m not a digital artist I find Sinix’s advice very helpful, especially some of techniques for getting a quick hand gesture, that looks good, with out going into detail.

The next link is George Bridgeman’s Book of 100 hands. This link is actually to a free pdf download of Bridgeman’s book that you can then print out your favorite illustrations for study.

Next on the list is Marco Bucci, he introduces a very helpful concept of seeing the hand a like a sheet of paper. Once you see it illustrated in the video it will make more sense as great visualization tool to add to your kit.

The last hand reference I recommend is yours:) Drawing your non dominant had has many benefits. An important transition for artist is moving from a 2d reference to drawing from life. Drawing your own hand is one of the easier transition to drawing from life. Then of course the countless pose options when you are the model. Then set up a mirror and you double the number of poses you can set up. Enjoy!