Hands

I recently received excellent advice that I should draw hands, a lot of them. So today begins a journey into understanding hands better. Hands are extremely difficult to draw. Their complexity and the fact that most everyone on earth has a set of hands means that any slight error in drawing is glaringly obvious. Add to that the fact that quick sketching requires an economy of lines, well drawn hands in industrial design sketching are a rarity. Highly detailed drawings tend to hide errors better, so spending a great deal of time on a drawing of hands usually means a good result. But when you have to sketch the hands quickly with only a few suggestive lines, each line has to be spot on.

In these first set of hands I'm focused on understanding how to reduce the form to its most simple geometry and understanding their anatomy. I'm also looking into what positions are the most difficult to draw and what I need to focus on to improve.

I've also included a drawing with labels of the bones of the hand. Being able to analyze and commit to memory the structure of a hand will allow me to draw them more efficiently and accurately from imagination, the core of design sketching.

The scans of my drawing might a little bit weird because I drew them in a hard bound sketch book. When the drawings bleed into the binding I have a hard time getting it to fit on the scanner bed flat. I'll have to find the best way to scan my stuff out of this sketchbook without having to tear the pages out.

Let me know what you think of the sketches. Expect many more hands very soon.

Keep Sketching!

-Parker