How to Draw HANDS + SHADING

Hey! I'm Darlene and you're watching a Rapid Fire Art tutorial. Today I'm going to show you how to draw a hand from complete scratch. How to make it look skinny, chubby, masculine, feminine, and even wrinkly. I'll also walk you through my shading process. These are the tools I'll be using. For more details, check out the description below. Let's start constructing. First, you'll need to start with a rectangle that's slightly longer than a square. Use a sketching pencil, like an HB, to keep those construction lines as light as possible. I'm switching to a 4B so you guys can see my lines more clearly. Every now and then, I'll pull up a video of my hand on the left side of the screen to illustrate some important points. Please keep in mind that this tutorial is not for drawing hands from reference, so please try not to draw my hand throughout this video. My objective with this tutorial is to help you learn how to construct a hand without having to refer to a reference image. Okay, so the first point I want to make is that this part of the hand arches downward to the right. So let's cut our rectangle like so. The right side of the hand also tapers inward, but only slightly. Let's bring the bottom of our hand in to about here. Now that we have a good solid shape for the body of our hand, we can erase any unneeded construction lines. Next, let's draw the first set of joints. Split this top section into roughly 4 equal spaces. There are 3 ways you can do that. Number 1, you can measure the space with a ruler, and then divide that number by 4 to get 4 equal spaces. Number 2, without a ruler, you can roughly split this section in half, and then in half again on the left and on the right side. Number 3, this is more advanced. You can make a rough estimate with your eyes, and then draw 4 very loose circular shapes all similar in size. Use very light strokes so you can easily rearrange them if your spacing is off. For the thumb, draw a nice big circle while leaving a little bit of space at the bottom. Now, if you have trouble drawing circles, pause the video and take all the time you need to sketch them out. If you need some help, follow the tutorial in the top right. It's also perfectly fine to trace a coin or use a compass tool. The next thing we need to do is find out how long to draw the fingers. It's really simple. Just measure the height from here to here, and then add it to the top. You can use your pencil and finger as a measuring tool, and then make a line at the top to mark the spot. I'm just doing this roughly, but you can use a ruler if that works better for you. This line gives us the height of the middle finger. It's the longest one. Draw the middle finger by making a straight line from the center of the circle to the top. For the other fingers, remember that arch we drew earlier? We're going to duplicate it up here and make it a little bit longer. It doesn't have to be exactly the same shape though. Now we can finally draw the other three fingers. Try to space your fingers far apart. If you want to draw them closer together, modify your arch so it's steeper on both sides. Now for the thumb. The length is similar to the index finger, so what you can do is measure the index finger and bring your ruler down here to the bottom circle, so you know just how long to draw the thumb. I like to use a curved line so the thumb looks more relaxed. This is because its natural resting position is rotated outwards, presenting us with a three-quarter view instead of a front-facing view. If you want to relax the other fingers, you can switch to curved lines instead of straight ones. Next, we need two more joints for each digit. For this part, you can use a ruler or completely eye it. Let's start at the middle finger again. Now here's the spacing for each joint. Split the finger in half and make a tick to mark the spot. Next, draw another tick more than halfway up from there. Finally, draw a circle at each joint. Each one should be smaller than the last. And then do the same thing for the last four digits. Let me lighten all the construction lines so that the next step will show up really well. Now here's the fun part. We're going to add an outline around the whole hand. The first thing we need to do is decide on the person's weight. Let me first show you how to draw a skinny hand. Start by drawing a curve at the tip of the thumb. As mentioned earlier, the thumb is rotated at a three-quarter angle, so the soft thumb pad is visible from the right side, while on the left, we'll see the top of the nail. Let's draw the thumb pad first. Wrap your strokes around the joint, bring them in along the length of the bone, and then back out again towards the next joint. Beside this joint, there's a web connecting the thumb to the side of the hand, so let's end the stroke here and come back to it later. On the left, the nail is visible, so draw a sharper corner to represent the nail's edge. Wrap your strokes around each joint and then down to the bottom to form the wrist. Again, for a skinny finger, the outline will be convex around the joint and concave around the length of each bone. Next is the index finger. Make a curve at the fingertip and then work your way around each joint. This part should be very straightforward because we already have a good set of construction lines in place. When you get down to the first joint, be prepared to angle your strokes towards the thumb, finishing the web. There is also a web between each of the other fingers. Each web can be drawn above the first joint. Now go ahead and draw the last three fingers. When fingers are close together, the webbing becomes a v-shape. When they're spread apart, you get a smooth u-shape. Let's finish up by wrapping those strokes around the joint and down along the side, leaving just a little bit of space from the guidelines. Now that you know how to draw a skinny hand, I'm gonna lift away some graphite and show you the chubby version. With everything partially erased, you'll be able to compare both versions against each other, even as I draw. Starting at the thumb, make a nice round curve at the tip. The nail should be drawn in the same way. For the right side, bring your strokes out further, making the thumb pad appear slightly thicker. This time, go in at the joint and then out along the length of the bone. I hope you can still see the old outline. If you can't, turn down the contrast on your monitor. Skinny fingers are widest at the joints, while chubby ones are widest along the length of the bone. When you get to the fingertips, don't forget to make them wider. Since there is quite a bit more fat tissue under the skin, the webbing will be more full, so let's bring everything close together to form a v-shape instead of a u-shape. Don't be afraid to overlap your lines for the webbing. Don't forget to bring your strokes in at the joint and then back out again along the length of the bone. And there we have it! Skinny fingers are widest at the joints, while chubby hands are quite the opposite. Now that we're done with the hand shape, it's time to draw the fingernails. Right above the last joint, draw a shallow curve. Draw the side of the nail angling outward, and then at the tip of the finger, end the nail with another curve. For a set of long nails, extend the sides and taper them in, trying not to create a funnel shape. So that's my method for constructing a basic hand shape. Once you familiarize yourself with the general anatomy of a hand, you can make slight modifications to form a variety of different poses, such as this. This hand is slightly rotated, and the digits are closer together. Some of them are also slightly bent. Let's talk about shading. I'm going to quickly walk you through how to shade a wrinkly hand, and also give you a few tips on how to shade a smooth one. If you want a more elaborate explanation on shading, subscribe and watch out for my next tutorial, which will be a shading introduction. Here are four useful shading techniques for realistic skin textures. The first is contour shading. This is a technique that can accentuate your subject's form. You can instantly turn a flat line drawing into something 3D by using strokes that wrap around a unique terrain. I can introduce a few concave lines here to show you the apple has been bitten. Curved lines around a finger can make it look rounder. For the purposes of this tutorial, these lines will aid in the portrayal of fine wrinkles stretching across the hand. It will also be used to shade inside of tight spaces. The second technique is called hatching, which consists of many straight lines going in one general direction. The closer the lines are, the smoother the shading will be, and the easier it will be to blend. I'm smudging it with a blending stump to show you how well it blends. The third one is called cross hatching, which are a series of lines crossing right through each other. This technique will help us form those geometric skin textures. Sometimes this can turn out looking quite harsh. To fix that, you can soften the lines by using a tissue paper. The last one is called circulism, and as the name suggests, this shading technique is comprised of many overlapping circular shapes. The more circles there are, the smoother your shading will look. For wrinkly skin, I like to use a very sharp pencil so that the lines show up very clearly. If you want to draw smooth skin, use a dull pencil. It will give you thicker lines that will be much easier to blend. You can shade darker by pressing harder or switch to a softer pencil. Right now I'm switching from an HB to a 2B. Let's go back to the main example. I'm going to wipe this drawing clean, leaving only the outlines so I can build all the layers up for you step by step. First, shade a few layers of graphite using the circulism technique. I like to start with a sharp HB pencil and slowly build things up layer by layer, trying to keep the value fairly consistent and flat in the beginning. Just focus on filling the hand with circles while keeping your pencil sharp all the way through. Now we have a textured base layer to work on top of. The hand looks completely flat right now, so the next step is to give the drawing more depth. That means we'll have to shade certain areas darker. But where? First, consider where the main light source is coming from. Areas facing away from the light should be shaded darker, like these areas here. You can shade around large joints, around the side of each finger, cast shadows, basically any surface that's turned away from the light or is being blocked from the light. Also, since we're drawing a very skinny hand, we can also shade along these areas here. These are bones that connect the fingers to the wrist. You can make your drawing skinnier by shading these bones much darker and or shading all five bones instead of just the three like I did here. You can achieve a darker shade of graphite by pressing harder on your HB pencil or switching to a 2B. Every single person, no matter the age, has wrinkles at their joints. Most prominently, these ones. Here's a close-up of the drawing process. Using a 2B pencil, start out with fairly straight lines and then surround those with some curved ones. Alright, let's age this hand further by introducing age-related wrinkles. The most prominent ones usually form at the webs and wrist, following the contour of the skin. I'm going to start with the webs. As we age, our skin loses elasticity and becomes thinner, so any small wrinkles will become more exaggerated. Along each finger, you can use contour lines to draw various wrinkles of different lengths and thicknesses. Wrinkles can really help bring out your subject's form, so pay attention to the lines that you're forming. Using the wrist as an example, a series of straight lines will make it look flat, while lines like these will make it seem like there's a large bump under the skin. Experiment with different curvatures to get the effect that you want. To draw deep wrinkles, use sharp, dark lines. You can do that by pressing harder on your 2B pencil or switch to a softer pencil, such as a 4B. I'm using a 0.5mm 4B mechanical pencil for higher precision. Right now, they just look like lines tattooed onto the skin, and that's because there's such an abrupt change in value from dark to light. To make each line look like it's a part of the skin, we'll need to shade around them so the value is slightly more gradual. Use the contour shading technique beside each and every wrinkle. Here's a close-up example. The strokes are darkest near the wrinkle line and become lighter as I work my way out. Also make sure to highlight areas that are facing the light. The brighter and wider your highlights are, the rounder your wrinkle will look. Did you catch that? Let me play it again. Where wrinkles fold and overlap each other, use dark values to bring out that depth. You can also use contour shading around these wrinkles too. If you want your shading to look smooth, use a blunt pencil and then blend it with the tip of a blending stump. Blending stumps are great in tight spaces like these. If you want to show lots of texture, keep your pencil sharp while you shade to get this effect. To add veins, draw thick lines across the hand using a blunt 2B pencil. These lines should be lighter and thinner at the ends where you want the vein to disappear. Now since our main light source comes from the top, I'm shading this side of the vein darker. This part is facing the light directly so it's going to be the lightest. If you darken the areas directly beside the vein, you can make the vein bulge out more. Make those value transitions gradual so that the form will appear round instead of sharp. Here's a clear example of what I mean. I want to go back a little bit to point out where each shading technique has been used thus far. If you focus your attention over here, you'll see that I use some sharp hatching along these flat areas of skin. It kind of makes the skin look as though it's being stretched towards this general direction, creating these tiny wrinkles. Since the lines are straight instead of curved, it makes the skin look even flatter. Right here we have cross hatching which brings out those geometric skin textures. I also used it minimally on the upper joints and I really like how that turned out. As for contour shading, I used it all along the fingers but they're most noticeable at the base. And I didn't just use circularism at the beginning. I also used it randomly across areas I just wanted to fill or darken without having to think too much. Don't be too caught up in finding how and where to use these techniques perfectly. Just experiment and see how it goes. You don't even have to use all of them either. Just use what makes sense for your drawing. You'll notice that these techniques have all been used in a very subtle manner and when it all comes together, it's very effective in conveying realistic skin textures. Let me zoom back out and rewind most of this so you can see the shading progression across the entire hand. Okay, last thing, the nails. The challenge here is to try not to make them look flat. I'm going to do that by shading the sides darker than the middle. Why are the sides darker? Because the nails wrap in around the sides, causing them to turn away from the light. I will also give each nail a few highlights to make them shiny. Let's plan all of this out by drawing some lines along each nail to mark roughly where we will shade and where we will highlight. Before we shade, let's add a curve right above the cuticle. This is called the lunula. Also add a curve at the top to show how long the nail has grown. When we shade, these two sections should be lighter than the body of the nail. Here's a close-up of the shading process. If you need to, use a kneadable eraser to lighten your construction lines. With an HB pencil, shade the two sides using the hatching technique and make sure your strokes are close together so they're easy to blend. Extend your shading into the top and bottom section of the nail while keeping the value noticeably lighter and then use a blending stump with the same back and forth motion to soften out all the edges. Do this for the other nails as well. And that's it! Here's the entire shading process from beginning to end. Before I end the video, I want to address how you can convey a very feminine versus masculine hand. This is a slender female hand with subtle features and long fingernails. I'm going to make it more masculine by adding and changing just a few features. The first and most obvious thing is hair, but it's just a little. And in case you didn't catch it, I've also widened the wrist. The most masculine features, in my opinion, are very pronounced joints, tendons, and veins. Females naturally store more fat than men, so veins and tendons are a lot more subtle for us. Let's bring those features right out. All right, I know this is really odd, but there's one last thing we can do to make the transition complete. And that is to cut those nails and make the joint wrinkles more noticeable. We only made a few changes, but see what a big difference that made? And there we have it! 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