click/tap/space to go to next image A series of little sketches for @thewestwindblows , who asked for advice about drawing hands and proportions! Go check them out :) Read notes and credits for more detailed information/tips!
First of all, nothing quite beats observational drawing! If you really want to know how to draw hands like, well, the back of your hand -- better get staring at it >:3 That being said, it's also going to help you if you don't quite think of it as a "hand" while you are observing and trying to copy the form. Concentrate more on the lines, angles, and spaces as you work. It may help to take a photo and turn it upside down or make it look unfamiliar in one way or another. Otherwise, you could just end up drawing hands the way you are used to drawing them, even when you are looking at a reference! When I'm drawing, I use a combination of muscle memory, live referencing, and use of basic geometric structures as shown in the project. You can think of the base form of hands as a flexible rectangular prism! Fingers should all be coming out from one narrow face, the wrist on the opposite face, and the thumb positioned as is appropriate to the orientation of the palm. The hand is very flexible though, and may not look as expected in a certain pose, so if you're not sure, try to model it with your own hand! Also, looking up tutorial videos online and learning many different approaches can help you find one that works for you. There isn't really a "right" way to understand drawing. Proportions can be super flexible in the realm of cartoons! In most people, the full length of the hand is 3/4 or more of the length of their forearm :0 And there's tons of different combinations in hand and foot size, height, weight, and even head size! If you're looking to keep cartoons looking expressive, it's usually a good idea to maintain a size of hand that looks proportional to the face -- large enough to cover from the chin to the eyes/eyebrows. But, in cases of very large heads combined with very small bodies, that can look strange, so you can also opt to make hands proportional to the body (or even a little smaller for a "cute" effect). If you look at animated TV shows and cartoons, you can see a lot of varied proportions, so again, there's not exactly a right or wrong way to do things. Just keep experimenting and asking people for feedback, and you'll come to find what you prefer!
