How to Draw Hand Bones – Anatomy for Artists

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How to Draw Hand Bones – Anatomy for Artists

825K
Mark as Completed

Assignment: Draw the Hands

Your assignment is to simplify the hand bones into their basic forms. Draw from life using your own hands or draw from the 3D models of the hand bones I provide you. Download the images for the assignment in the downloads tab and get to work! If you have the Premium Anatomy Course, you have 3D models of five dynamic hand bone poses that you can draw from any angle. You might even try drawing the same hand from multiple angles. And if you really want to challenge yourself, look at the model from one angle, but draw it from a different angle. After you’re done drawing, you can rotate the camera to match your drawing angle to check your accuracy. This exercise will help develop your ability to invent hands from imagination.

Newest
Alejandro
5mo
My Drawings for this assigment
Aiba Miller
I know he said don't get stressed out, but I get stress as heck when I can't figure something out, because then suddenly it feels like I'm lost and don't know what to do or where to go, I hope I can get some enlightenment. I can actually draw hands quite okay without construction, but this just breaks me apart and it looks terrible. It took me like 2 hours, following gesture (which I feel like I can't do well in hands by themselves) I just see so many proportion issues, which is annoying because I measured and used rhythms, perhaps too much, which I really DIDN'T want to do. I suppose there's nothing for it but to keep doing these, should probably just copy Proko's ones first instead of going out of the gate on my own. After I was done, I overlayed mine onto the original, the fingers were quite close, but originally the palm was too small, I just realigned it and it looked much better, but still a lot of issues, I'm sure.
Melanie Scearce
I know it's easier said than done, but definitely try not to get stressed out about the process! It will take lots of practice. I do think that you will learn more by figuring it out yourself than copying others drawings, but that is also a good exercise especially when you're feeling stuck. Good job taking a look at your drawing overlayed on the reference image. I recommend doing that each time you complete a study and asking yourself what you did right and what fell a bit short.
Ezra
7mo
i made the finger bones too thick😅
Rachel Dawn Owens
That’s ok! Thicker fingers make them look less creepy. I like all your notes on the side. Those will get you far with your education. These drawings are so good 👍
Shannon Stone
Noe Luis
9mo
March 4, 2024 Tackle simplifying the complex hand bones on the 1st image. Drawing the phalanx individually to find the dimension on the 2nd image.
Samuel Sanjaya
My hand bone assignment. Did i got the perspective correct ? Any feedbacks or critiques will be greatly appreciated !
@palyo
1yr
Hi everyone! These are my drawings for the hand bones' assignment which really challenged my perspective in many occasions but overall it was very fun. Probably the worst of these five is the fifth one so these days i'll send another version of it down in the replies. Anyway, i'd really appreciate any kind of critique/advice.
@palyo
1yr
I found some time to actually do it, here it is.
Nicolas Ladouceur
Rougher than I wanted, had quite a bit of struggle with proportions.
Love Byström
Remember, the metacarpals and carpals are about as long as the phalanges. Here the palm is just a bit too short. The shape of the bones look really good however! Clear planes and direction
Ang Jin Kuan
haiii here's my handbones assignment. I wasnt sure how much i should be referencing so i mostly heavily referenced until the fifth one, i just used what i've learned + intuition(less reliant on ref), so which way would be better? Any other critique/feedback is welcomed too!
Madelyn Kuipers
Definitely a tricky one with all the intricate shapes. Feedback and critiques welcome and appreciated!
Stan Prokopenko
you did great!
Gian Amir Calibuso
I had fun in this hand bones assignment, since before I was not really confident in my hand drawings and just used to leave them or not draw them at all since it would look goofy or just too unprofessional and I hate that (I just don't want for everybody else to see my noodle hands kek). But after this assignment, I think I learned the general idea of how the hand works and feel a bit more confident in drawing them, though I might still not draw them in my future assignments... but now I know that it's doable for me to draw them, thanks everyone! 
Camellito
1yr
Hello!!! Finally we got to the hands. Here are my assingments
Jack
1yr
These are my hands so far
Jack
1yr
These are my other hands
@fefelix
2yr
Helloo everyone i did some hands. like as a pre-exercise for the bones assignment. what do you think in terms of gesture/ readability/ proportion?
@jhp
7mo
Bro wth is this
Anubhav Saini
Liandro
2yr
Hey, @Anubhav Saini, thanks for reaching out! Again, I appreciate your patience in expecting my delayed reply. Nice job working through this challenging lesson. I think your sketches have a great sense of construction and pretty good use of the “draw-through” technique. Overall, I think there’s room for you to improve in proportions. One general pattern I notice across all sketches is that, compared to the palms, the fingers seem to be getting a bit too small (too short or too thin). In this specific exercise, sometimes proportion incongruences may be associated with perspective. For example, in drawing 5 (which, to me, is actually a pretty good one), both the index finger and the thumb look too short, even though they are closer to the viewer, while the pinky looks way too long, in spite of being farther away. In drawing 4 (which, despite being a challenging pose, looks like the most well-resolved drawing of this set to me), the thumb feels a bit too thin - its bones should look about just as thick as the other fingers'. In drawing 2 (which is the drawing I think has the most room to improve), the metacarpal area looks too big for the size of the fingers. Also in drawing 2, it looks like the middle finger is missing (I’m only seeing the pinky, the ring finger - which lacks the third phalanx - and the index finger), and the thumb looks a bit oversimplified - it would be nice to add in all its phalanges. As a suggestion, a complement to this assignment that could certainly be helpful would be to use images of Stan’s example drawings to assess your own work after you’ve done. Say, for example, you’ve watched the main lesson and the demo videos; then you try the exercise on your own without looking at the example drawings; and then, afterwards, you pull Stan's example drawings back again and put them side by side with your own to do a kind of “self-critique” and make the adjustments you find viable. Maybe you’ve tried this self-assessment before already? When doing it, try to be very gently with yourself, not with a mindset of “finding errors” or “scolding yourself for not being so good”, but rather with a caring and mindful approach of curiosity and “how could this be improved?” You don’t need to pressure yourself to draw exactly like Stan, of course, but this exercise of comparison can definitely help you improve faster because it can train your eye to help you notice major visual inconsistencies that you might work on for yourself even before asking other people to critique your assignment. Hope this helps! Let me know in case you have any questions. Good studies!
Tsotne Shonia
This is quite tough, there's A LOT to think about at the same time, even if we break it down in small steps. But anyways, here's my attempt.
Avshin
2yr
using rythm lines first helps a lot look for the flow , size height comperison and connections great drawings <3
Samuel Parker
Hands took a long time to get right, partly due to managing the complex overlapping forms, but also I’ve found that using an Hb pencil was the right move. Using the 2B pencil I had been using up until this point was detrimental in that I wasn’t able to draw the underlay sketch light enough.
Avshin
2yr
using rythm lines first helps a lot look for the flow , size height comperison and connections great drawings <3
Samuel Parker
And some digital hands
Margaret Langston
My assignment for hand bones. Did this myself, not copying demos.
@edodum
2yr
hey I make the assignement for the hand bone
Luke Ng
2yr
Nice work! I think you need to focus more on simplifying the bones into simple 3D forms (e.g boxes and cylinders) and not just copying the contour of the bones. Hope that helps. Keep it up!
Luke Ng
2yr
Had to make a second attempt at these studies after receiving some feedback. All critiques and feedback are welcome
Luke Ng
2yr
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Founder of Proko, artist and teacher of drawing, painting, and anatomy. I try to make my lessons fun and ultra packed with information.
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