Project - Mannequin Hands

Lesson by

Stan Prokopenko

inDrawing Basics

Course In Progress

Assignments 503

Downloads 8

Project - Mannequin Hands

Lesson by

Stan Prokopenko

in Drawing Basics

Course In Progress

Assignments 503

Downloads 8

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!

Alison Shelton

•

I’m really struggling to go from the gesture to the boxes. I keep erasing and making a mess. I think I see the boxes in my head but they just won’t get onto the paper. I even watched the drawing hands videos. I tried the first one multiple times. I will try the second and third after watching the demos.

Alison Shelton

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15h

Last 2. I’m about to watch the demos for these. I need to do a lot more warm ups for 3 point perspective.

Alison Shelton

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17h

I watched the demo for this hand and then stopped. I need to learn to be neater.

@yoyoy12

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Mannequin Hands level 2

@yoyoy12

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10d

Mannequin Hands level 1

Wenhan Lee

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12d

This...was certainly an attempt. Constructive criticism is highly invited. I had to take full advantage of layering in this project. And a trick I have learned is to loosely sketch a cylinder to map out the position and direction of each box.

Elijah R

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13d

My second round after a… very long break… drawn most of it from reference. The one I DID do from imagination is the bottom one. The one that looks terrible. Level 2 people are on another level, literally. You wouldn’t think drawing a hand from imagination would be that difficult but… well here we are. Pls tell me how drawing from imagination would sound so simple yet so difficult. Anyways I’m ranting. Thanx for reading and have a good day… or night. 😊☺️😊

@bezet

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14d

I drew the first three before watching the demo. I redrew the last one after watching it.

C. A. Corbell

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17d

Here's my submission. Among the challenges I found it tricky sometimes to determine the shape of a box segment when the segment of the finger might have a tapered appearance but, if it's coming toward the viewer, the box should get bigger.

Natalia

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18d

That was fun, but still I need help with tumb

Isaiah

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21d

🙂

Nancy Larson

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24d

An excellent exercise in drawing boxes for sure while identifying the planes of an organic form. I was humbled over and over as I attempted to draw straight lines and clean boxes. I became a bit discouraged and had to leave it for a spell. I might enjoy such an exercise once I have more confident eye / pencil coordination and can draw lines that are straight and crisp. I am grateful for the eraser.

@chrisdzy

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24d

Stan was taking no prisoners with this one. Feel like I was cooking with the rotated 2 but the rest seem mid at best and one was terrible lol second opinion would be sick! Ty :)

@silver847

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25d

This was definitely tough. But I learned a lot!

@ironfern

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1mo

These were definitely a challenge! This is my submission for the assignment. I'd appreciate any feedback! Thank you!

David D

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1mo

I found these boxed hands hard to remain consistent in what I was mannequinizing. The volume that contains each finger segment? The bone underneath? Somewhere in between? I also found it difficult to ignore the organic form and restrict myself to boxes… after many iterations, I’ve had to trade perfect for done and move on to the next assignment. I’ll continue practicing perspective boxes. I have been humbled. Haha I need more practice, but I could feel this assignment dragging my brain towards seeing the perspective boxes.

Melanie Scearce

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1mo

Using your descriptions, I think 'the volume that contains each finger segment' would be the most accurate way to describe how I go about this assignment -- thinking about the orientation of the bone underneath as well to guide the placement of the box. It's hard to pinpoint I think because the orientation is more important than the physical size of the box, to an extent, if that makes sense :) You've done well here! Learning perspective is difficult but well worth the effort. Keep it up!

Maren

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1mo

The bottom hand tripped me up. It’s hard to figure out perspective when the fingertips sort of taper at the end.

Tommy Pinedo

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1mo

The bottom hand was hard for me too due to its perspective, but yours look great!

@schmal

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1mo

did I do these correctly? I had huge issues with doing the thumb right, is there a trick?

Michael Yoila

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1mo

Never had a problem with drawing hands, but boxifying is a bit confusing

@jackb

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1mo

I feel happy about some parts of this and frustrated by others, I could feel my brain working trying to figure out how to orientate the boxes :’)

Elijah R

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2mo

Here’s my submission, honestly the fingers just shrank overtime. Which is unfortunate as the proportion just feel way off. First few days of September, hoping to get better despite the fact I seem to move like a slug in these lessons.

@notapirate

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2mo

MAN, I hate school ... anyway, this was hard ngl, but I had fun overall and feel like give or take I think im starting to understand with the box and how to use it, but I could use more practice. (I also had to look at a demo to help me understand what I had to do, so I watched and did the LV2 demo, to give me an idea, but not an answer (づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ )

Elijah R

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2mo

Honestly same, school kinda sucks, nice hands btw. Some of the top ones have shrinking fingers but I think you knew that. I also have this issue. Nice clean forms though.

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Stan Prokopenko

Founder of Proko, artist and teacher of drawing, painting, and anatomy. I try to make my lessons fun and ultra packed with information.