Hand Study feedback would be nice
3yr
W.I.M.U
Hello! I just finished these hand drawings. I mainly focused on the proportions and the line quality (wish I still struggle with). I would like to make them more expressive but I really don't know how.
Thank you for reading this, critiques are welcome! :)
Starting with a boxy foundation for the hands would help you define the plains a little better. It looks like your hand shapes and fingers taper off a lot more than a real hand. You can do trace-overs after finishing a study to find your errors, this is what I usually do when I'm struggling to see what's 'off' just by looking.
Proko's hand lessons: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJjMiXlq9ns&list=PLtG4P3lq8RHExM4hzeEW2TRZTB88wKKYf
As for cleaner linework, you can sketch in a light colored pencil (such as blue or bright orange), and draw over it with regular pencil or charcoal using fewer and smoother lines (part of this will just come with practice as your dexterity improves). Likewise, you can just do your underdrawing lighter in pencil or erase most of it before your final pencil rendering.
Drawabox.com lessons to improve line quality: https://drawabox.com/lesson/1/2
For more expressive hands, think about regular gesture drawing - if you see a finger pointing in a certain way, exaggerate it!
Thank you no thanks ! I’ve never heard of the light colored pencil technique before, that’s definitely something I will use. Oh and thank you for the links and advices, this means the world to me :)
In all honesty I don't see much problem with these hands except for the top right one.particulary,the ring finger seem to not be foreshortened correctly,not only that,the part connecting the hand to the arm seem to have shrunk a little (Here's some overlay I did,if that's useful) I would advise studying more of the structure and perspective of the hand (This video is a good starting point https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XBMQ-H-qUVk)
But,to answear your original question,if you want to make your hand more expressive then I would advise copying the work of great animators (I advise Glen Keane and Milt kahl,example below)since they are so good at telling stories with hands.
If you are still struggling with improving line quality,there is always the tried and true method of copying people with good line quality (I already said Glen Keane,but I also advised Mucha,Amber "Krooked Glasses" Davko,Jeff watts and Sayman Douman [along with others]
Well I hope this was useful and wasn't a waste of time.(Also thanks for reading and best regards)