How to Draw Hands
By Kelly | June 3, 2007
The three most expressive body parts, those that are key in depicting a character’s mood, are the face, hands, and feet respectively. In other words, you should spend almost as much energy on a figure’s hand as you would the face! Don’t hesitate to draw hands- many anxious young artists hide them in pockets or behind the back. It takes study and practice, but you can learn to construct a pretty convincing hand if you understand the basic forms and underlying anatomy.
This tutorial makes frequent use of Constructive Anatomy by George Bridgeman, a work in the public domain hosted by the Internet Archive.
I also recommend the following:
Check the Recommended Reading Booklist for more reference books, and tips on getting them cheap.
1. Basic Hand Anatomy
Anatomy studies by George Bridgeman
Understanding the components of the hand – bone, muscle, and tendon- will help you draw believable hands. Draw studies of your own hands, paying particular attention to silhouette and form, and with particular empahsis on change of direction in the lines of the silhouette.
Exaggerate plane changes and overlapping forms to make more dynamic hands
Do many studies of your own hands for practice. After studying, try drawing some new poses using your memory!
2. Simplified Forms
I like to think of the hand as three big pieces- the palm, thumb, and fingers. Imagine the hand as a mitten, with the fingers as one mass. Then, in your mind convert that mitten into a more three-dimensional form. The hand is long and relatively flat, it’s just the folds of the palm and joints of the fingers that make it seem complex.
The fingers have three joints- the knuckle, where it attaches to the palm, a smaller middle joint, and an even smaller joint near the tip. The natural movement of the finger’s bend goes from knuckle, to middle, to tip. In other words, the tip joint only bends in the most extreme poses, and it only bends alone if there’s pressure on the finger tip (such as poking an object).
Don’t forget which side the thumb is on! A simple ‘rule of thumb’ – palms out, thumbs in. Palms in, thumbs out. Check your pose with a mirror or get a buddy to model if you aren’t sure.
Here are some of Bridgeman’s hand studies, showing how he simplifies the form, including some very geometric plane studies-
3. Animals and Anthro Hands
Here are a couple of techniques for making anthro/furry hands:
Cartoony paws use simple, rounded forms to convey the structure of the hand. Detail is minimal, since with animated characters every line must be re-drawn thousands of times. These animated characters typically have 3 fingers and a thumb, and lack extraneous details like furry accents and paw pads.
Mid-way between animal and human, this style of hand has stubbier fingers and bigger joints, plus the animal characteristics of fur and paw pads. This kind of hand is better for more beast-like or masculine anthros.
These examples are how I’d draw hands for my Good Cheese characters. The female hand is slender and elegant, with only pointed nails (and perhaps a pink palm) to lend it some animal flavor. The male hand is more beast-like, with stubby fingers and hints of fur at the knuckles.
Feel free to experiment with different styles, and draw the hands that best fit your character’s design.
Happy drawing! 
Topics: Drawing tutorials | 84 Comments »
84 Responses to “How to Draw Hands”
Pages: « 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 [1] Show All
Pages: « 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 [1] Show All
September 25th, 2007 at 3:44 pm
Quite helpful!
I very much think that also adding anthro animal hands is useful!
Escpecialy when you put in cartoon virson! ^^
July 12th, 2007 at 3:50 pm
this is such a great help!! I’m new to anthro drawing so this is amazing help for me.
July 2nd, 2007 at 3:07 pm
OMG this web site rocks!!!!!! I LOVE IT…
June 28th, 2007 at 3:03 am
I like this. The hands are the hardest thing for me and this helps.
June 14th, 2007 at 12:53 am
Thank you so much! This is very helpful!
June 13th, 2007 at 10:53 pm
THANK YOU! I’ve always had trouble drawing the hands and stuff,but it could be that I use a computer.Now if there was only an anthro tutorial onlegs ^^;;;
June 12th, 2007 at 1:17 am
Bridgman is awesome. I’ve been trying to incorporate his techniques into breaking down forms. Thanks for this tutorial. It was helpful.
June 10th, 2007 at 4:00 am
This tutorial really helped me with hands. I really liked the anthro ones, because i mostly draw in anthro :P. Thanks for the tutorial.
June 7th, 2007 at 5:13 pm
Heh, sweet! Hands!
I hate drawing hands for my anthro dudes, but this is making it easier!
Yeah!
June 5th, 2007 at 10:58 pm
This is rather helpful, especially the breakdown of the three approaches to how to draw hands.