How does an artist capture their simple elegance?
Hands were the bane of my existence (and I am sure many other artists can relate). I would create a drawing I was so proud of, but once I got to the hands, it usually took a turn for the worst. Overtime, I can say hands do not scare me anymore, though they can still be frustrating. While I may breeze through sketching other parts of the body (except for the eyes...but that will have to be a topic for another time), I usually have to work on the hands a bit more, maybe redoing them once or twice.
A couple weeks ago, I took a few pictures of my own hands in various positions and began drawing. I was such using a small sketchbook and placing the hand in random places on the paper as I had no plan for any sort of masterpiece. I was just drawing - practicing, and enjoying myself. I paid close attention to every detail, every bit of color, and was in no rush. Upon finishing the three hands, I must say I was quite proud of the outcome (and still am).
Focusing on any one part of the body, whether it be hands or not, and drawing that one thing to the best of your ability is such a great practice exercise. For anyone who may be struggling to draw this unique, human feature, spend some time on them. Look up pictures or study your own hands, observing the usual creases, where the knuckles bend, how the veins bump the skin ever so slightly. While not everyone wants to draw realistically, studying hands and other real life objects always helps. Cartoonists, for example, are very familiar with human anatomy, and it gives them more freedom when drawing characters in action.
While I do plan to create a YouTube tutorial on drawing hands in the near future, here are just a few tips for the time being:
1. When draw cartoon hands, I would suggest always drawing a "skeleton" first. Just get a few basic shapes to make up the shape and position of the hand before actually outlining the hand.
2. This may go without saying, but when drawing realistic hands, always do an outline first before going in with color. Pay close attention to how the outline of the hand really looks instead of how you may think it looks. Then, if you are going to color, be sure to erase everything until it's just a faint line. Otherwise, the pencil lead will get smudged in the coloring, leaving marks that are hard to cover up.
3. This last one has to do with coloring and can be applied to coloring many things besides hands. There are so many more colors than what meets the eye. Every skin tone - peach, tan, brown, dark brown, et cetera - has a lot more color to it than variations of that one tone. For example, in my own skin tone (pictured in the first image) I have red, pink, a bit of green, yellow, brown and purple (mostly for shadows), and many more. I use them all to give the picture much more depth and a more realistic appearance. But I don't just make them up. When I study the reference picture, I can see all these colors. It just takes practice to be able to pick up on all the colors in a picture.
I hope these tips and pictures helped you at least a little bit! When I post the video (my channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/thatoneartist), I will let you guys know on Instagram. Hopefully it will be soon! The video this week is a blog from an art museum AND a little art challenge, and that is going up on Wednesday, so keep an eye out!
- Darcie
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