How to Draw a Hand

צעד אחר צעד

1. שלב 1

   Block in the palm as a slightly tapered box.

   Wider at the knuckles, narrower at the wrist. This box is the anchor for everything - get its proportion wrong and no amount of good finger drawing rescues it. Compare its height to its width before you go on.

   תיזהר. Drawing the palm square, which makes the whole hand look inflated.

   בדוק The palm should be noticeably taller than it is wide.

2. שלב 2

   Draw the mitten: one shape around all four fingers together.

   Not four fingers - one mass. Getting the whole block of fingers in the right place and at the right angle is far easier than getting four separate shapes to agree, and it is what stops the hand fanning out too wide.

   תיזהר. Skipping straight to individual fingers.

   בדוק The mitten should be about as tall as the palm box.

3. שלב 3

   Draw the knuckle arc across the top of the palm.

   The knuckles are not level. The index knuckle sits lower, the middle one highest, and the line curves down again toward the little finger. This single arc is the difference between a hand and a glove.

   תיזהר. A straight horizontal line of knuckles.

   בדוק The middle knuckle should be clearly the highest point.

4. שלב 4

   Draw a second arc where the fingertips end.

   Deeper than the knuckle arc, and offset: the middle finger is longest, the index and ring roughly equal, the little finger much shorter. Two arcs now bracket every finger and each one only has to fit between them.

   תיזהר. Making the index and ring fingers noticeably different lengths.

   בדוק Index and ring fingertips should be at nearly the same height.

5. שלב 5

   Divide the mitten into four fingers.

   Three lines down through the block. They are not parallel - they converge slightly toward the knuckles, because the fingers fan out from the palm. And the middle finger is the widest of the four.

   תיזהר. Four fingers of identical width and parallel sides.

   בדוק The gaps should be narrower at the fingertips than at the knuckles - or the reverse if the hand is spread.

6. שלב 6

   Mark two joints on each finger.

   Each finger has three segments and they get shorter toward the tip - roughly a half, then a third, then a quarter of the finger's length. Marking the joints before drawing the contours is what stops the sausage look.

   תיזהר. Placing the joints evenly, which makes the fingers look mechanical.

   בדוק The last segment of each finger should be the shortest.

7. שלב 7

   Draw the finger contours, widening slightly at each joint.

   A finger is not a tube - it bulges at the joints and narrows between them. Two or three millimetres of variation is enough to read. This is where the drawing stops looking like a cartoon glove.

   תיזהר. Drawing perfectly straight-sided fingers.

   בדוק Each finger should be visibly wider at a knuckle than between them.

8. שלב 8

   Add the thumb from low on the side of the palm.

   Much lower than people expect - about halfway down the palm, not up by the index finger. It has two segments rather than three, and it comes off at an angle, so it is the one part of the hand that reads as a different plane.

   תיזהר. Attaching the thumb up beside the index finger, which is the single most recognisable hand error.

   בדוק The thumb should start below the midpoint of the palm.

9. שלב 9

   Draw the web between thumb and index finger.

   That soft triangle of skin is one of the most recognisable shapes in a hand, and leaving it out is why hands sometimes look assembled. It curves - it is not a straight line from thumb to finger.

   תיזהר. A straight edge, which makes the thumb look prosthetic.

   בדוק The web should be a shallow curve, concave outward.

10. שלב 10

    Check the negative shapes between the fingers.

    Look at the gaps rather than the fingers. Each gap is a narrow wedge with a rounded bottom, and comparing your gaps to the real ones will show you errors your finger drawing hides - your brain has opinions about fingers and none about gaps.

    תיזהר. Never checking, and ending up with fingers that are individually fine and collectively wrong.

    בדוק Each gap should be a different shape from its neighbours.

11. שלב 11

    Pick a light direction and shade the underside of each finger.

    Fingers are cylinders, so each one has a light side, a dark side, and a lighter strip right at the shadow edge where light bounces up from below. Shade them all from the same direction or the hand falls apart.

    תיזהר. Shading each finger independently, which makes them look like separate objects.

    בדוק The shadow should be on the same side of every finger.

12. שלב 12

    Put a small shadow wherever one finger passes in front of another.

    Overlap plus a contact shadow is what creates depth in a hand. Without it, four fingers side by side read as a flat comb no matter how well each one is drawn individually.

    תיזהר. Drawing all four fingers on exactly the same plane, so nothing overlaps at all.

    בדוק At least one finger should clearly be in front of another.

13. שלב 13

    Shade the side of the palm away from the light.

    Work in one direction rather than scrubbing back and forth. Scrubbing gives an even grey, which is exactly the thing that makes a drawing look flat, so lay the strokes the same way and build the darkness in passes.

    תיזהר. Being too timid. Beginners routinely stop two or three steps short of dark enough.

    בדוק The dark side should be clearly darker than the mid tone, not slightly.

14. שלב 14

    Go over the lines you want to keep, and lose the guides.

    This is the step that turns a construction drawing into a finished one, and it is the one most people skip. Press harder on the outline and the features; leave the small stuff light. That difference in weight is what makes a drawing look deliberate rather than traced, and it costs thirty seconds.

    תיזהר. Going over everything at the same weight, which flattens the drawing back out.

    בדוק The outline should be clearly darker than the smallest details.