Idk if this may help anyone BUT here is a very quick and stylized way I group muscles together. I usually start with the head, neck and shoulders then work down from there.
after eight years, I finally updated my huge Historical Fashion Reference & Resources Doc! Now in the form of a MUCH more easily updated Google Doc with better organization, refreshed links, and five more pages of books and online resources.
I know tumblr hates links, but it’s worth it for a doc that I can now update with far more regularity going forward! RIP to the original, you did your duty for far longer than you should have. 😔🙏🏼
As I do with most things, I draw hands from a series of gesture strokes that insinuate the pose and shape I want. Something I personally find very appealing about hands are all the joints, bends, and crooked bits so I start with those and build the rounder, meaty bits from there.
In the first two steps here if you just look at the individual strokes I’ve drawn, you can see they’re just some curves, really, that sketch out the shape of the hand, and I’m focusing on the joints and knuckles. (The fingertips in the second one are actually rly unnecessary and ugly to me haha – that’s usually the kind of thing I’d just throw down in step 3.)
And again below, just starting w/ some curves and squigglies to show the joints and knuckles:
These hands are by no means realistic or fully proportional but drawing’s supposed to be fun and these are really fun! I’m like, really not about that whole “draw a box and then the little tubes and those are the fingers” thing. It’s too technical and so much life gets lost when you sketch that way. Maybe it’s helpful for a pose you’re uncertain about but then just look at a photo or your own hand to see how things work, y’know?
Something else I’m really about is using shading and line to emphasize the bends and stuff even after I’ve got the hand down:
The first image here you can tell the fingers are bent, but they also look lumpy imo. To stylize further, I add some thin lines for the joints and fingernails, and then shade for some extra depth + to pronounce the foreshortening etc. (Fingers are so ugly from this angle! But we gotta draw them like this sometimes…)
Some examples where these extra lines assist in conveying the shape:
And shading:
(Bottom right is the same pose as a previous example which I didn’t realize till now sorry haha)
Some general tips:
- Use asymmetry!!! When the joints don’t line up exactly right, or you’ve drawn two hands doing the same thing but idk one’s curled a little bit more or the right pinky sticks out but the left doesn’t – these little touches make the drawing more dynamic, even if the general pose/concept is flat.
- Thumbs are really cool? They’re like trapezoidal. The same tapering thing kinda happens where the hand meets the wrist. A hand is like a big thumb
- Two things that a lot of beginner artists get wrong: which side the thumb is on (…always double-check…I still double-check sometimes too), and drawing the fingers straight instead of slightly bent when trying to draw a relaxed hand. Relaxed fingers curl! And this is much easier to draw imo than perfectly tense fingers
- Study your own hands and think about their shape. Part of developing a style + comfort with drawing a particular thing is how you choose to simplify the form thru line. I explained above that I focus on the joints and knuckles and seek to simplify those with curves and squiggles but maybe you’re more interested in a different aspect. (Like, you can see I don’t draw palms v much…that’s cuz I like knuckles haha)
Hope this is helpful/feel free to ask followup questions!
Tuesday Tips - A Matter Of Perspective: understanding the angle you’re drawing from means you can extrapolate the forms and sometimes exaggerate them. Think of your eye as a camera with a “fish-eye” lens, especially for a standing figure while you’re seating. -norm #grizandnorm #tuesdaytips #100tuesdaytips #amatterofperspective #figuredrawing #lifedrawing
GGGUNS AND STUF i forgot who asked for it , as usual look up different refs to ;earn how to draw the amny differnt varieties of guns!!
EDIT: SORRY THIS WAS DONE W HILE AGO so there are a few mistakes
THE DUAL GRIP IS WRONG U SHOULRN"G BE DRAWING THAT U SHOULD LOOKA T THIS ALSO YOUR FINGER shouldn’t be on the trigger unless you’re about to shoot!! AND the labelling in the fourth pic isn’t very accurate so don’t rely on that for naming gun parts!