Drawing Basics: Drawing the hand, proportions

Proportions of the hand

Hands can be tricky to draw. The anatomy seems more complex than other forms created by the figure. There are subtle proportional cues to keep in mind. Also, the forms and shapes found in the hands must interlock well in order to read right. For these reasons, I find hands a challenge to draw.

In an earlier post on drawing hands I demonstrated how to look at the hand as simple shapes in order to construct and draw a hand. Today, I thought we could look at some of the general proportions of the hand.


Remember that when discussing proportions of the figure these are just general guides to give us a starting point. There will be some variation from these guides as each individual is different.

Lets take a look at some of the proportions of the hand.

Drawing Basics: Line and edges

In an effort to help some of my students find new ways to illustrate the forms of the human figure, I have been working with them to try out new ways to describe the shapes they see.  One way to do this is to avoid using the line to describe the outside edges of the forms. Line is an effective device to describe the boundaries and edges of forms and surfaces but it is not the only way.

Today, I want to show how we can describe the figure without relying solely on line to both avoid outlining the figure in one even line and to suggest variety in the ways the figure is interacting with the space around it.

Painting Basics: Portrait painting part 2

Continuing from where we left off in the post about how to start a portrait painting, we can paint over of the initial drawing using the color and value relationships we want. There are several directions we can go with this. For example, we could paint in just black, white, and shades of gray to set up the values as a next step in painting. We could also start painting in one location on the painting, working on that area we are happy it is finished, then move on to another. We could also work out the light side and shadow side of the subject as large fields of color then refine the shapes, values, and colors as we work down to the smaller forms. This is the method I chose to demonstrate today.  

The direction you choose to take in the process is a matter of personal choice.  Give it a try, see if it works for you.

Today, we are going to continue painting a portrait, looking at how to block in the large value and color fields in order to set up the composition for further development.