6 Drawings of Hands
A selection of my drawings of hands from life
Next to faces, hands are the most challenging part of the human body to draw convincingly. I’ve been drawing them as a necessary part of my life drawing practice for over forty years, and I still find it difficult. The complex structure of a hand and the enormous flexibility and variety of expression that it is capable of, combine to present a tricky proposition for the artist.
Gestures, both active and in repose, are deeply familiar to us — we know what a hand looks like in thousands of different ways, and to convey that in a drawing takes great concentration and practice. When drawing a hand you must never assume you know how it is going to look. The key is rigorous observation, analysis of the component parts and comparison of relative elements. Look closely at the ratio of thumb to forefinger, the diminishing size from middle finger to little finger, the angles of each digit, and each part of each digit, to its neighbour, and so on. That you must also take in any possible foreshortening or erroneous elements such as plasters, rings, tattoos or injuries just complicate the task further.
Each of these following examples of my drawings of hands are taken out of context from a larger nude portrait but, I feel, are worthy of consideration on their own merit.
