How to Draw Hand Bones – Anatomy for Artists

Anatomy of the Human Body

Arms(101 Lessons)
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Hand Bones

How to Draw Hand Bones – Anatomy for Artists

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How to Draw Hand Bones – Anatomy for Artists

675K
Mark as Completed

Assignment: Draw the Hands

Your assignment is to simplify the hand bones into their basic forms. Draw from life using your own hands or draw from the 3D models of the hand bones I provide you. Download the images for the assignment in the downloads tab and get to work! If you have the Premium Anatomy Course, you have 3D models of five dynamic hand bone poses that you can draw from any angle. You might even try drawing the same hand from multiple angles. And if you really want to challenge yourself, look at the model from one angle, but draw it from a different angle. After you’re done drawing, you can rotate the camera to match your drawing angle to check your accuracy. This exercise will help develop your ability to invent hands from imagination.

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Nicolas Ladouceur
Rougher than I wanted, had quite a bit of struggle with proportions.
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Love Byström
Remember, the metacarpals and carpals are about as long as the phalanges. Here the palm is just a bit too short. The shape of the bones look really good however! Clear planes and direction
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Ang Jin Kuan
haiii here's my handbones assignment. I wasnt sure how much i should be referencing so i mostly heavily referenced until the fifth one, i just used what i've learned + intuition(less reliant on ref), so which way would be better? Any other critique/feedback is welcomed too!
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Madelyn Kuipers
Definitely a tricky one with all the intricate shapes. Feedback and critiques welcome and appreciated!
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Stan Prokopenko
you did great!
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Gian Amir Calibuso
I had fun in this hand bones assignment, since before I was not really confident in my hand drawings and just used to leave them or not draw them at all since it would look goofy or just too unprofessional and I hate that (I just don't want for everybody else to see my noodle hands kek). But after this assignment, I think I learned the general idea of how the hand works and feel a bit more confident in drawing them, though I might still not draw them in my future assignments... but now I know that it's doable for me to draw them, thanks everyone! 
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Camellito
Hello!!! Finally we got to the hands. Here are my assingments
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Jack
2mo
These are my hands so far
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Jack
2mo
These are my other hands
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fefelix
Helloo everyone i did some hands. like as a pre-exercise for the bones assignment. what do you think in terms of gesture/ readability/ proportion?
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Anubhav Saini
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Liandro
Hey, @Anubhav Saini, thanks for reaching out! Again, I appreciate your patience in expecting my delayed reply. Nice job working through this challenging lesson. I think your sketches have a great sense of construction and pretty good use of the “draw-through” technique. Overall, I think there’s room for you to improve in proportions. One general pattern I notice across all sketches is that, compared to the palms, the fingers seem to be getting a bit too small (too short or too thin). In this specific exercise, sometimes proportion incongruences may be associated with perspective. For example, in drawing 5 (which, to me, is actually a pretty good one), both the index finger and the thumb look too short, even though they are closer to the viewer, while the pinky looks way too long, in spite of being farther away. In drawing 4 (which, despite being a challenging pose, looks like the most well-resolved drawing of this set to me), the thumb feels a bit too thin - its bones should look about just as thick as the other fingers'. In drawing 2 (which is the drawing I think has the most room to improve), the metacarpal area looks too big for the size of the fingers. Also in drawing 2, it looks like the middle finger is missing (I’m only seeing the pinky, the ring finger - which lacks the third phalanx - and the index finger), and the thumb looks a bit oversimplified - it would be nice to add in all its phalanges. As a suggestion, a complement to this assignment that could certainly be helpful would be to use images of Stan’s example drawings to assess your own work after you’ve done. Say, for example, you’ve watched the main lesson and the demo videos; then you try the exercise on your own without looking at the example drawings; and then, afterwards, you pull Stan's example drawings back again and put them side by side with your own to do a kind of “self-critique” and make the adjustments you find viable. Maybe you’ve tried this self-assessment before already? When doing it, try to be very gently with yourself, not with a mindset of “finding errors” or “scolding yourself for not being so good”, but rather with a caring and mindful approach of curiosity and “how could this be improved?” You don’t need to pressure yourself to draw exactly like Stan, of course, but this exercise of comparison can definitely help you improve faster because it can train your eye to help you notice major visual inconsistencies that you might work on for yourself even before asking other people to critique your assignment. Hope this helps! Let me know in case you have any questions. Good studies!
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Tsotne Shonia
This is quite tough, there's A LOT to think about at the same time, even if we break it down in small steps. But anyways, here's my attempt.
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Avşin
using rythm lines first helps a lot look for the flow , size height comperison and connections great drawings <3
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Samuel Parker
Hands took a long time to get right, partly due to managing the complex overlapping forms, but also I’ve found that using an Hb pencil was the right move. Using the 2B pencil I had been using up until this point was detrimental in that I wasn’t able to draw the underlay sketch light enough.
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Avşin
using rythm lines first helps a lot look for the flow , size height comperison and connections great drawings <3
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Samuel Parker
And some digital hands
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Margaret Langston
My assignment for hand bones. Did this myself, not copying demos.
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edodum
hey I make the assignement for the hand bone
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Luke Ng
Nice work! I think you need to focus more on simplifying the bones into simple 3D forms (e.g boxes and cylinders) and not just copying the contour of the bones. Hope that helps. Keep it up!
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Luke Ng
Had to make a second attempt at these studies after receiving some feedback. All critiques and feedback are welcome
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Luke Ng
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Sandra Süsser
Hand bones lesson notes
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younchen
My attampt..
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angelo berjuste
hi. is it normal that i cant find the 3d models of the dynamics hand bones ?
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Jean-François (Jeff) Durix
I cannot either. I could just download the static pictures
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Alexis Riviere
A few hand bones drawn from photo references.
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Jesper Axelsson
Hi @Alexis Riviere, really nice studies! Great work with the gesture and structure! - You might want to pay more attention to the proportion of the phalanges. In some drawings they appear as if they were equal in lenght, when they should get progressively shorter. - The outer phalanges feel a bit thick, especially in the top right drawing. Try to capture the thinning of the fingers as you reach the tips, and the specific shape of the outer phalanx. - In the top left drawing, I think you got the olecranon at the wrong angle, making the arm look overtwisted. I think it's accurate to say that the forearm can rotate 180 degrees. At one extreme (fully supinated) the hand is parallel with the elbow, with the palm up; at the other extreme (fully pronated) the hand is still parallel with the elbow, with the palm facing down. Hope this helps :) Keep up the good work!
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abrahan13
Any feedback is appreciated
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Jesper Axelsson
Hi @abrahan13, nice studies! Good gesture, structure and anatomy! - Try to group the fingers and look for rhythms between them, in the gesture stage of the drawing. This will bring a continuity and harmony to the hand, as well as help you ensure that the proportions are right. - In image 1, finger in the top middle, the perspective is a bit off. See paintover. It helps to think of the whole finger as placed in a single box, to keep perspective in check. Hope this helps :)
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James Paris
My attempts for this lesson, it wasn't easy ! Definitely a big perspective skillcheck :D I'm not fully satisfied with them, I think some of them are not thin enough and i kind of failed with the metacarpals ! Next time, I'll try to take photo reference and even imagine some poses !
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Jesper Axelsson
Hi @James Paris, overall, really nice job! The anatomy looks accurate and the structure and gesture is good! - Sometimes the angle of the ellipse is a little off. In image 3 for example, the ellipse on the 2nd phalanx of the pinky, is a bit too vertical. - In image 6 the thumbs saddle joint seem to me like it is at the wrong angle. I attached a paintover with some tips. Hope this helps :)
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David Gutmann
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Jesper Axelsson
Hi @David Gutmann, nice studies! Great job with the gesture and structure! - The proportions are a little off. In #4 the hand is a bit tall. In #1, 3, 4 & 5, the middle phalanges of the bent fingers seem to long in relationship to the others. - In #2, I think you're placing the hand too much out of the radiocarpal joint. See if you can find where the carpals start on your hand when your hand is palmar flexing. You'll find them close to the plane break; the carpals are still in the socket of the radius. Hope this helps :)
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Founder of Proko, artist and teacher of drawing, painting, and anatomy. I try to make my lessons fun and ultra packed with information.
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