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”
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Pages: « 9 8 7 [6] 5 4 3 2 1 » Show All
December 2nd, 2009 at 10:12 pm
i love your art, but i have a quick question. how do i draw furry yaoi? i came across your site and i found everything i needed BUT that.
November 6th, 2009 at 10:43 pm
this really helped try showing us how to draw the hand gripping something :D
November 6th, 2009 at 1:28 am
The pictures alone helped me a lot… this was really useful. Along with eyes, I find anthro handpaws to be mind- bengingly hard to draw. I’ve always struggled with the thumb, in particular, and using my own hands as a reference didn’t really help… it’s really great to have someting like this around when you’re working on a drawing.
October 10th, 2009 at 6:37 pm
im kinda new to draw furries and beside the face, the paws or hands are the hardest part, put this was pretty helpful
September 21st, 2009 at 3:20 am
mastery of anatomy quite perfect. certainly been through a long time to process object of detailed observations
September 4th, 2009 at 10:34 am
Really great tutorial, learned allot from it
your work inspires me, keep it up!
=)
August 26th, 2009 at 8:36 am
Hay, was just wondering if you could do some tutorials on like the stages of creating a hand xD, just started drawing Anthro’s and its Great fun!! Love the anatomical references :P
August 20th, 2009 at 10:17 pm
thanks ^_^ it would be awesome if you did a humanoid leg tutorial cause im crap at them
May 30th, 2009 at 12:01 am
Wait, I just thought about something!!! You should totally make more links pics, maybe one with Jerome in it….(I get it, I sound kinda gay cuz he’s a dude and so am I…well…..I don’t feel like answering that one, because I don’t like the sound of my answer.) Yes, I realise that I say everywhere that I’m not like that, but some of them are really hot…so, yeah, I like Jerome….so what? He’s got a good look to him. He should get more publicity!!
May 29th, 2009 at 8:35 pm
Furr One) I love Good Cheese, so please, keep going with the comic creations, I love your characters, and my favorite is Jerome, cause his being a skunk is kinda cool, and Calib is sort of mean to him when he is sitting outside Priya’s house. Furr Two) Thanks for the tutorials, I’ve learned tons from these sites, and I can draw Anthro really well.