How to Draw Simplified Hands | TUTORIAL, by Jackie Droujko on YouTube. 14 min 50 s.
- Video length
- 14 min 50 s
- Time to do it
- 30 minutes
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Steps
- 9
What you need
Steps
Start with the anatomy. The palm is a blocky wedge, not a flat square. Each finger has three segments, the thumb has two, and the thumb sits at an angle off the side of the palm.
Block in the palm as a box or wedge first. Then attach each finger as a simple cylinder on the knuckle line before you draw any nails or creases.
Decide your style before adding detail. Realistic hands keep more knuckle bumps and creases, while cartoon hands can drop them and keep only the big shapes.
Simplify the whole hand into a mitten shape with a thumb sticking out. If the pose reads clearly as a mitten, the fingers will work when you add them back.
Curve the knuckles. The knuckle line arcs across the back of the hand, and the middle finger is the longest, so the fingertips form a soft curve when the hand is relaxed.
Check basic proportions. The palm is roughly the same length as the middle finger, and the thumb tip reaches about the middle joint of the index finger.
Draw from a photo. Copy the big angles of the palm and fingers first, then compare your sketch to the photo and fix the shapes before refining.
Analyse your own drawing. Look for fingers that are all the same length, straight and parallel, then shorten, taper and overlap them so some fingers sit in front of others.
Clean up last. Erase the construction lines, darken the outline, and add only the creases that follow the bend of each joint.
Tips and common mistakes
Draw hands larger than life while learning, because small hands hide proportion mistakes.
Keep a reference photo open the whole time instead of drawing from memory.
Fingers taper toward the tip and are never perfectly straight, so add a slight curve to each one.
Photograph your own hand in the pose you need when you cannot find a reference.
Questions
Do I need a drawing tablet for this?
No. A pencil and paper work fine, and the same steps apply in any drawing app if you prefer digital.
Why do my hands look flat?
Usually because the palm is drawn as a flat square and the fingers are all the same length. Give the palm depth and overlap the fingers.
How long does it take to get good at hands?
Expect a few weeks of short daily sketches. Drawing one hand a day from a photo builds shape memory faster than long sessions.
This guide was drafted from the video's details and general task knowledge. It has not been checked against the full video. Check the video and relevant product instructions before following a procedure. Report a correction.
