Drawing Hands, Part 2

Sometime in August, I decided I wanted to learn to draw hands and did a blogpost on my first few studies. I don’t have a daily goal, but over the days I draw them, sometimes a few a day, sometimes none for many days. While the drawings aren’t looking that different from day to day, I’m slowly understanding what the hand does, and what to look for in trying to capture the feel of a living, moving hand.

Here are some studies.

Gesture, hands that speak, hands that tell stories and look alive and moving. These are all important to me, so I’m working with an approach I use when drawing people in motion. Here is an attempt to capture it in stages.

My first three lines on the paper are gestural: Line 1 is the main gesture. Line 2 is a line that counterbalances the first line, a line that provides some tension and interest to line 1. Line 3? A little fuzzier: here it captures the volume of the palm and keeps me from thinking flat.

I like this bit of the process, it reinforces the action for me, and keeps the hand alive. And it reminds me a little if the Japanese flower-arranging form of Ikebana. (although that hold far more spiritual meaning in it’s three lines) After that, I build the actual structure of the palm and fingers over my gesture lines.

It’s a learning process and I’m making my way around gathering bits and pieces of learning and information from different sources, but mostly just drawing and looking a lot. I’m tagging these studies with #drawhundredhands on instagram.