Tutorial uh... proportions and hands. how.

[proiettile]

well, this is kinda dumb, but i had the sudden revelation last night: i can't draw properly proportioned bodies or hands. so, my question is just... how? is there a proper technique to use for drawing hands, and bodies? i know if this sounds stupid, but i honestly don't know. whoever reads this, have a lovely day and stay safe!

 

[peritwinkle]

There are so many pictorials out there on Pinterest The easiest way to learn is to break up anatomical shapes into blocks and balls. Here are my faves:

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I also have a mini tutorial on anatomy that might help with hands:

Tutorial - ~ Peritwinkle's Tome of Art Tutorials ~

Hello everyone! As many of you know, I post quite a lot of art on this site, and out of my passion for it I decided to make a second thread, this time dedicated to sharing all I know and hopefully guiding some of you who are interested in improving. I am by no means an expert (frankly, just...

www.rpnation.com

Good luck!!!

 

[alabast]

^ 100% agree on breaking it down into basic shapes. Studying photos, videos, etc. are very helpful, but if you aren't sure how to get what you see on a reference to the paper, study how other artists get it onto paper. Part of the challenge of portrait type art is to be able to see 3d shapes instead of just 2d lines when you look at a reference. Keep studying references to train your eye to notice proportions of images, the structure etc. That's why starting with basic shapes is so important- it teaches you structure.

One of the most famous quick proportion tips is the 7-8 head proportion for the human body.

I struggled with hands for a long time, and this video in particular helped me find a way to learn from reference images properly. I still struggle ofc, but learning to even just draw a ref picture down in a structured manner helps me practice effectively. There are English subs, and if you want to you can skip to around the 2:00 mark for proportions of the hand.

Hope this helps :') I'm no professional so take this with a grain of salt.

 

[Crayons]

Hands are evil. Even when you draw them right they look wrong most of the time. The best way is to understand the shapes and just draw A LOT of hands from life or photographs. Life will help you understand the forms better, but photos are good for practice.

Using wire-frames (as in Peri's comment above) is a great way to learn general figure structure, but it's also really helpful to draw from life (or photos) as much as possible. There are some brilliant stock creators out there who provide images for pose references. I recommend Senshi Stock as a good place to start.

Also, remember to properly evaluate any anatomy help you find online. A lot of stuff esp. on Pinterest is super bad.