Project - Mannequin Hands

1.2K
Course In Progress

Project - Mannequin Hands

1.2K
Course In Progress

Drawing boxes can get repetitive, so let's try to make this one engaging and practical. In this project you'll be drawing mannequin hands. Hands are an excellent subject for practicing drawing boxes because fingers can bend in various directions, allowing for up to 16 different boxes in a single drawing.

Level 1

  • Download Photos: Download the 3 photos in the downloads tab.
  • Gesture: Before drawing the boxes, identify the big shapes and the gesture of the hand. Lightly sketch in the simple shapes to ensure the boxes are in the correct location and proportion. Avoid drawing any anatomy, skin details or nails.
  • Construct Boxes: Constructing boxes in three-point perspective to represent the segments of the hand and fingers.

The aim is to practice drawing boxes in perspective using hands as a subject. Don't get distracted by trying to draw a perfect hand with anatomical detail.

Level 2

  • After drawing each hand from the photo, draw the same pose from a different angle. This will require you to imagine the pose and draw from imagination.
  • Don't Strive for Perfection. It's okay if the pose isn't exactly the same from the new angle. The objective is to practice drawing boxes in various configurations.

Extra Credit: Drawing hands from imagination is pretty hard. If you want to do some extra homework, you can review these free hand lessons from my Anatomy course:

How to Draw Hand Bones – Anatomy for Artists

How to Draw Hands – Muscle Anatomy of the Hand

How to Draw HANDS – Details for Realistic Hands!

How to Draw Hands from IMAGINATION – Step-by-Step

Deadline: Submit by 02/22/2024 for a chance to be in the critique video!

Newest
Yevhen Syrchin
love these perspective excersises. very interesting!!
Stefan Sharkov
Here are my first attempts for the level 2 assignment. I struggled a lot with this exercise, so I'm excited to delve into Stan's demo for some insight.
@solobo
12d
Melanie Scearce
Nice job!
@dollydigital
hand 1 in original orientation and an attempt at rotating it
@dollydigital
should do the others i suppose but having too much fun with this
Chauncey Holder
This really challenged me but it was very fun
J. Menriv
30d
Project - Mannequin Hands - Level 1 (Round 2)
Antonio Santiago
Very fun assignment, it made drawing boxes so much more fun by actually trying to represent something with them and made me better at drawing specific boxes not random boxes with no meaning. Definitely felt myself being able to visualize them and drawing the exact boxes I wanted as I did more hands. I feel like my first ones ended up being too thin but was able to fix that somewhat later on. I think it also helped my observation skills since I had to learn how to simplify which required an understanding of what I'm looking at. Any critique is highly appreciated.
Rachel Dawn Owens
Sounds like you did exactly what you needed to for this project. Learning to simplify complex subject down to simple structures is foundational for drawing. You will learn to see boxes, tubes, and spheres in everything. Your hand drawings are looking great. Particularly the one on the top of the second image. The perspective and proportion look solid. The hand with the foreshortened fingers on the first image is extra difficult, so I made this demo to help students. It may not be how Stan does it, but I find it really helpful to start loose before building structures on top. Especially when drawing foreshortened forms. Hope this helps. Keep it up!
Michael Longhurst
Great assignment. Really tough, but really made me think about the orientation of each box and how to draw it. I struggled a lot with the proportions and getting the fingers to point in just the right position, but feels like it’s getting easier.
@al_ic_ja
1mo
@al_ic_ja
1mo
Carlo Julian
This was harder than I thought it would be. I think a lot of boxes ended up wedge shaped.
Gannon Beck
Well done!
J. Menriv
2mo
Hand 3
Melanie Scearce
Nice work! The curve that the knuckles follow looks awesome. Only thing is make sure to separate the thumb from the plane where the fingers attach.
J. Menriv
2mo
Hand 1
Jenna
2mo
I had a fun time doing this assignment! It felt cool to take boxes and apply them to creating 3D body parts. The first three are done before watching the demo. 4th is after watching. Critiques welcome!
Evan Wray
2mo
First two. First one is much cleaner than the second one. I feel like I'm starting to understand the perspective of each individual box better and better, but the proportions are all messed up so they don't look very good overall. Oh well I suppose that'll come with time.
ken Carlos
2mo
Bravo 🫶
Luke
3mo
It took awhile to see the boxes in the hand. I found it really helped starting with a single plane, then figure out the angle needed to project it into a cube.
Evan Wray
2mo
Really love the shifted perspective on #1, cool choice and great execution!
Luis Fidalgo
I found this proyect very fun
Sean H
3mo
Here's my first hands for this assignment. Have to keep reminding myself to focus on boxes and not the natural details/taper of the hands themselves haha. To that end, feel I find myself not thinking enough about the convergences at times. Hopefully will improve the more I do these though. Also keep catching myself drawing way too small for these... maybe I'm unintentionally trying to hide mistakes in the hands lol
Amu Noor
3mo
You captured so much gesture with just boxes. Wow!
Amu Noor
3mo
This was the hardest assignment. EVER.
Rachel Dawn Owens
Haha, hands are very difficult to draw. Looks like you did a wonderful job though! I like how you played with the line-weight on some of these. Very nice!
Max
3mo
Hello, I really enjoyed this project, I did a bunch of other hands, and here's three I would some feedback about if possible. They are all level 1 post critique video. For the 1st drawing, I feel like the palms are pointing at the top though I hatched the top part of the upper hand, I don't know if it's just because we are only using boxes. also it's proportion is a little too big. I did this drawing in 40 minutes. The 2nd drawing is the one I'm more confident about, the reference was clear and really expressive. It took me 10 minutes. The 3rd was the hardest, the angle of the palms and fingers were really hard to grasp at first sight but in the end I'm happy with the outcome. This one took me 2 hours. Also on the 3rd drawing I don't know if the index fingers are right, technically the farther it goes away from us the smaller it appear, but it doesn't feel right to me. Maybe the converging or the angles of the boxes are wrong. I would love to receive any feedback to improve my drawing skills and especially my understanding of 3 points perspective !
I did not Want to see that
Alright, with this the assignment is done. This one was a bit harder than the others, and I did have to really think about it more. One note to myself would be that I should just take my time for every single line, and perhaps before I instantly go into the project, maybe loosely sketch my thought process out first to get a better image of what I should be doing. I do like some more than others. The first three images are all first level and have been made after the demo. The 4th is level 2 pre demo and the last one is after the demo. Out of the level 2 projects I like the last one more, since I did put some more thought into it, but of course it can still be wrong. If there are any mistakes, pointing those out to me would be extremely nice and I will be very grateful for those that do! Although it isn't a requirement of course!
Rachel Dawn Owens
Nice! These are really clean drawings. You’re right, sometimes it’s easier to start looser and then draw the forms on top. Especially when you’re dealing with foreshortening. Thanks for sharing!
Full course
You will be given unexpiring access to watch the videos online .
View course details
Give a gift
Give a gift card for art students to use on anything in the Proko store.
Or gift this course:
About instructor
Founder of Proko, artist and teacher of drawing, painting, and anatomy. I try to make my lessons fun and ultra packed with information.
Help!
Browse the FAQs or our more detailed Documentation. If you still need help or to contact us for any reason, drop us a line and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible!