I'm really big on progress, so I decided to take all of my art and put it into a book, so I can see how far i've Come! And this way I can stop cluttering up my Literally Everything book.
So, I've noticed that more than a few people have commented on how I draw hands, and GOD DO I KNOW THE STRUGGLE so, we're going to put on that "I am a professional artist" mask on and I'm going to give you some tips on how I, me myself and I, draw hands.
First, this is in now way an instruction manual. Think of it more of suggestions, and stuff you can do. Second, I tried to make it better than my horrible shading tutorial, with actual pictures and stuff, so feedback is much appreciated.
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I know it looks really rough, cuz thin sharpies and I DO NOT get along and I suck at traditional line art (I sketched it out in pencil first, I'm not magic XD). I'll transcribe the words so you don't have to struggle reading my handwriting.
1. Start with a trapezoid or rounded square *realizes I spelled trapezoid wrong in the picture*. (Personally, I like the trapezoid better, but your actual hand is more of a square shape, so it's up to you.)
2. Mark out where your fingers will start using circles
3. Mark the general area your fingers will take up (ideally around the same size as the palm, but again, up to you)
4. Sketch in your fingers
In pink *changing for clarity*: Something I noticed while making this is that your fingertips make a rainbow, meaning that the tip of your pinky is almost perfectly in line with your thumb if you spread them out. This means that whatever shape you use for your palm will actually be tilted if your hand is positioned like I've shown. (Ya learn something new every day XD)
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1. Draw a triangle and flatten out the tip
2. Add in your pinky, slightly curved. Leave space between your pinky and the end of your triangle (I'm finding I do not like the word pinky).
3. Add the rest of your fingers. If your pinky (ew) is the outermost finger, the rest of your fingers should overlap outside the palm. (Ring finger will fill leftover triangle space.)
*for when your thumb and pointer finger are first, your shape will look like this: (mister shape above here), and your fingers will overlap inside the palm. Otherwise, everything's exactly the same.
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One last thing that's important to remember: your hand is a 3D shape. That means that for some poses, such as 3/4 views and such, you'll have to give that trapezoid/square sides. Which is really easy, and if you can't figure it out, look up a reference of a cube or rectangular prism and go off of that. Which leads me to my actual last, and most important piece of advice:
USE
REFERENCES
PLEASE
Trust me, if you can't figure it out, or you just don't feel like messing around until you get it right, or you just wanna get better faster, look up a picture of whatever you're trying to draw. It doesn't even have to be a photo; it can be a drawing as well, and as long as that person knows what they're doing, sometimes it can be easier to see shapes in art than real life. But yeah, references are amazing. Just ask GoGoBookworm!! She's an incredible artist, and she uses references all the time!!!
So yeah, I hope this helped somewhat. I'll link some videos that really helped me when I started below, so hopefully if this didn't work for you, those will.
