Project - Mannequin Hands

Lesson by

Stan Prokopenko

inDrawing Basics

1.4K

Assignments 389

Downloads 8

Project - Mannequin Hands

Lesson by

Stan Prokopenko

in Drawing Basics

1.4K

Assignments 389

Downloads 8

Drawing boxes can get repetitive, so let's try to make this one engaging and practical. In this project you'll be drawing mannequin hands. Hands are an excellent subject for practicing drawing boxes because fingers can bend in various directions, allowing for up to 16 different boxes in a single drawing.

Level 1

Download Photos: Download the 3 photos in the downloads tab.
Gesture: Before drawing the boxes, identify the big shapes and the gesture of the hand. Lightly sketch in the simple shapes to ensure the boxes are in the correct location and proportion. Avoid drawing any anatomy, skin details or nails.
Construct Boxes: Constructing boxes in three-point perspective to represent the segments of the hand and fingers.

The aim is to practice drawing boxes in perspective using hands as a subject. Don't get distracted by trying to draw a perfect hand with anatomical detail.

Level 2

After drawing each hand from the photo, draw the same pose from a different angle. This will require you to imagine the pose and draw from imagination.
Don't Strive for Perfection. It's okay if the pose isn't exactly the same from the new angle. The objective is to practice drawing boxes in various configurations.

Extra Credit: Drawing hands from imagination is pretty hard. If you want to do some extra homework, you can review these free hand lessons from my Anatomy course:

How to Draw Hand Bones – Anatomy for Artists

How to Draw Hands – Muscle Anatomy of the Hand

How to Draw HANDS – Details for Realistic Hands!

How to Draw Hands from IMAGINATION – Step-by-Step

Deadline: Submit by 02/22/2024 for a chance to be in the critique video!

Mika Vermeulen

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I found this a very dificult exercise and I will need some further practice. Feedbakc is welcome!

Rachel Dawn Owens

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Nice blocky hands! This IS a very difficult assignment. Hands are hard. I find it easier to start super loose and sketchy. Especially for the foreshortened hands. I think you could add a little more to the side plane of that middle finger. Also, here’s a demo I made for this lesson that might be helpful too.

@lauralana

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After I did the first one, I noticed that the fingers were connected at the edges of the shapes and I hadn't fully mannequinized them, so I tried to do that with the following two. It did help me to better understand the inherent geometry of the hand and try a form that had previously scared me (and still does tbh, but a little less so). :)

@lauralana

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I changed a couple of things. I think it's a little better. Now on to the demo!

@fluffybuttss

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11d

I feel like I did better by the third one (curled in fingers). I struggled with the proportions of the fingers in the first two and the fingers ended up being very thin and small

Rachel Dawn Owens

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11d

I think you’re right. The 3rd one turned out the best. Maybe lean more towards making the fingers too large next time if you tend to make them too small.

Randy P

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12d

My take on changing the orientation of the hands for level 2. Copied over my level 1 drawings for reference. Then I decided to do some rough thumbnails in blue first before drawing the larger alternate views. There was a lot of messy trial and error (and erasing!) along the way. These are the cleaned up final iterations.

Nicole

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12d

Randy P

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13d

Level 1 Hands. This was a good exercise and feel like I’m starting to gain intuition about how to orient the boxes. Some of the joints were awkward to represent so I just focused on getting the boxes in the right direction rather than trying to get a logically correct mechanical relationship. I’m curious to see how this is tackled in the demo vid.

Melanie Scearce

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13d

These are looking great! Very clean. The only thing I noticed is on this pose, the side plane is showing a bit too much on the index finger. That finger is coming more towards us in space and so the side planes will be barely if at all visible.

@pmirko

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14d

this was really hard for me, lots of wonky cubes....

Rachel Dawn Owens

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14d

Your hard work paid off! These look great. All the different boxes turning in space look solid.

Aura

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25d

Doing these is oddly relaxing. I feel like the more exercises I do the better I grasp the concept (ha who’da thought), but I gotta stop here bc my goal isn’t to be really good at box hands. Any critique is greatly appreciated.

Melanie Scearce

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24d

Your mannequin hands have been looking great! Glad you found them relaxing and not stressful. It seems like you've really gotten the hang of this exercise. Just two very minor critiques: Be careful not to break the joints too much, I think it would make more sense for the tip of pointer finger to point in the direction of the flow of the rest of the finger in this one. Also, tapering the fingertips a bit more when they are coming directly towards the viewer will help the perspective.

Aura

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26d

My level 1 offerings 🫡 working on level 2 now.

CharmLotta

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30d

While waiting for new lessons, I'm doing a second tour through the course. I'm repeating level 1 as a warm-up and facing level 2 this time.

Naomi

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1mo

Melanie Scearce

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1mo

Great job with this assignment. The only thing I would adjust is to move the index finger over so that it is originating out of that side plane of the cube of the palm. These hands have great gesture!

@gwendolynjules

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1mo

This was really hard for me but also kinda fun! (Sorry if the pictures are low quality)

Gilles Dubuis

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1mo

A tedious attempt at level 2

@hjalmarhoeg

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1mo

Tried hand nr. 2 from a different angle. Soo difficult!

Gilles Dubuis

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1mo

Level one; there is a lot to think about so the drawing are a bit messy, but, so far, it's a very satisfying exercise.

Yevhen Syrchin

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1mo

love these perspective excersises. very interesting!!

Stefan Sharkov

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2mo

Here are my first attempts for the level 2 assignment. I struggled a lot with this exercise, so I'm excited to delve into Stan's demo for some insight.