Some hand studies

Hands

I'm not sure how to draw the fingers.. how big are they supposed to be?
And I'm also happy about critique

Someone wrote down a lot about proportions of the hand here: https://sweetmonia.com/Sweet-Drawing-Blog/the-various-proportions-of-human-hand-fingers-arm/

My question for you would be, do you study hands, because you actually want to draw full feature sized hands, or because you feel insecure about hands in your gesture drawings? Because in my experience, hand studies can be a bit of an overkill for that purpose. Sooooo many extra details to keep in mind.

Usually it's far more viable to simplify the heck out of hands. Often, you can just use a rhombus to indicate the whole hand, especially if the fingers are closed.

If the fingers are spread, it's usually enough to indicate the forefinger, the pinky and thumb. The great thing about indicating stuff: the human eye will give you a lot of credits. If you just indicate the overall shape and size correctly, the observer's mind will just assume, that you mastered all the details and just fill in the blanks correctly for you.

So, don't just jump ahead in adding details to hands, just because you want to prove, that you learned how to count to five. Keep working from general simplified abstract forms over the whole body, until you just have to add the details, because there is still time on the clock, and nothing else left to draw. And at that moment, you will find, that you have established so many landmarks, that finding the shapes and proportions for the last remaining details has become really easy.

i find hand studies to definetly improve how i draw hands in gesture too. theres a lot of knowledge that goes into drawing something in a simplified manner . in a sense you need know a lot about your subject to reduce it into simple forms and the best simplifed drawings suggest a lot of info to the viewer that isnt actually there but to suggest that you need to know it first. also you forget that the principle of gesture also applies to the hands and other isolated body parts, not just the whole figure. also i found that blog post to not be of that helpful when it comes to drawing hands , it has some pointers when it comes to proportions but the way it is applied i can only imagine leads to stiff drawings of hands much like shown. i think its more important to look at form and how to use your lines confidently to describe that form and the perpsective that comes a long with it, later on it will require much less effort to tweak the proportions.

I wanna add one more quick thing (I sadly cannot type for long now)

You're doing a great job with the palms! I do feel like Your fingers look a bit boxy and flat. Try also observing the finger as a cylinder-like shape that is slightly thinner at its point.



Don't be scared of foreshortening!!



Best regards

I've found that studying hands significantly enhances how I draw them in gesture drawings. To simplify something effectively, you need a deep understanding of your subject, as reducing it to basic forms requires extensive knowledge. The most effective simplified drawings convey a wealth of information that isn’t immediately visible but is suggested through the artist's understanding of the subject.

It's also crucial to remember that the principles of gesture apply to hands and other isolated body parts, not just the entire figure. I found the blog post on drawing hands to be somewhat lacking in usefulness. While it offers some tips on proportions, the way these are applied often results in rigid, stiff drawings, much like those shown.

Instead, focusing on form and using lines confidently to describe that form and its perspective will ultimately make adjusting proportions easier and more natural. Understanding and capturing the essence of the form will lead to more fluid and dynamic representations.

For a quick deep dive into hands as well as their gestures and simplification I recommend Sinix' video:



His other stuff is brilliant as well.