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Drawing Hands – 30 sketches in 30 days

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HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! Coming in a bit late here with my wishes for a splendid year but still, we are only in the second week of January 🙂

 

In December, I took on another 30-day challenge (click here to see the first one). This time it was drawing hands. Hands. Are. Difficult. No question. They were before I started the challenge and they still are. Yes, I did learn a few things along the way but there is soooooo much more to understand about hands and how to translate from vision to paper.

 

So here are the lot of them – some pretty good, some not as successful, and all a learning process. The first photo shows all the pencil drawings, the second has the charcoal and pen ones, and the third has the others – the horizontal pieces, one that was smaller than the standard size, and a leftover pencil drawing.

 

Drawing hands 1
Drawing hands – Collection 1

 

Drawing hands 2
Drawing hands – Collection 2

 

Drawing hands 3
Drawing hands – Collection 3

 

Here are a selection of the drawings up close.

Gail Sibley, #3, charcoal, all about perspective!
Gail Sibley, #3, charcoal. All about perspective. Didn’t do any shading – whew!

 

Gail Sibley, #6, bald point pen, coming back from a day trip from Vancouver when I realized I hadn't done my daily sketch. Cam, my honey, was in front of me so drew his hand. I rather like this sketch!
Gail Sibley, #6, ballpoint pen. Coming back from a day trip from Vancouver when I realized I hadn’t done my daily sketch. Cam, my honey, was in front of me so drew his hand. I rather like this sketch!

 

Gail Sibley, #7, pencil. I stood in front of the mirror and drew my hand. Again no shading. I feel some sensitivity in the lines of this drawing, with much being said with very little.
Gail Sibley, #7, pencil. I stood in front of the mirror and drew my hand. Again no shading. I feel some sensitivity in the lines of this drawing, with much being said with very little.

 

Gail Sibley, #12, charcoal. Set up the light in the evening to get this dramatically lit pose. This is my hand viewed in the mirror. The following day I drew the same pose but from viewing directly.
Gail Sibley, #12, charcoal. Set up the light in the evening to get this dramatically lit pose. This is my hand viewed in the mirror. The following day I drew the same pose but from viewing the hand directly.

 

Gail Sibley, #17, pencil. One of my favourites! I really feel like I got the tension and tendons and shading in this one!
Gail Sibley, #17, pencil. One of my favourites! I really feel like I got the tension and tendons and volume in this one! One of the interesting things about the pose was that I couldn’t see the finger tips.

 

Gail Sibley, #18, pencil. Another drawing with extreme perspective. Soooo tricky to draw what you see not what you know!!
Gail Sibley, #18, pencil. Another drawing with extreme perspective. Soooo tricky to draw what you see not what you know!!

 

Gail Sibley, #19, charcoal. The same pose as #18 but lit dramatically and viewed in the mirror. Took some looking to get that finger to point right out at the viewer!
Gail Sibley, #19, charcoal. The same pose as #18 but lit dramatically and viewed in the mirror. Took some careful looking (and drawing) to get that finger to point right out at the viewer!

 

Gail Sibley, #22, pencil. I couldn't decide what pose to take, I put my hand down on my drawing board and there was the pose!
Gail Sibley, #22, pencil. I couldn’t decide what pose to take. I put my hand down on my drawing board and there was the pose!

 

Gail Sibley, #23, pencil. Visiting my brother and his family before Christmas, I had a quiet moment to fulfill my daily commitment. Here's my hand touching the window.
Gail Sibley, #23, pencil. Visiting my brother and his family before Christmas, I had a quiet moment to fulfill my daily commitment. Here’s my hand touching the window.

 

Gail Sibley, #26, bald point pen. I had my hand around a palette knife to begin painting when I realized I hadn't done my daily drawing yet. I grabbed the closest implement which happened to be a pen
Gail Sibley, #26, ballpoint pen. I had my hand around a palette knife to begin painting when I realized I hadn’t done my daily drawing yet. I grabbed the closest implement which happened to be a pen.

 

Gail Sibley, #27, pencil. Nearing the end and as I sipped my tea, thought about my next pose. Looked down at a couple of tea leaves at the bottom of the cup and voila, a pose!
Gail Sibley, #27, pencil. Nearing the end of the challenge and as I sipped my tea, thought about my next pose. Looked down at a couple of tea leaves at the bottom of the cup and voila, a pose!

 

Gail Sibley, #30, pencil. Cam's hands. I had wanted to draw his hands along the way but other than the quick sketch on the ferry (#6), we hadn't made it work. Down to the last drawing, I insisted! So here are his gentle hands. Again another favourite.
Gail Sibley, #30, pencil. Cam’s hands. I had wanted to draw his hands along the way but other than the quick sketch on the ferry (#6), we hadn’t made it work. Down to the last drawing, I insisted! So here are his gentle hands. Again another favourite.

 

For some reason I didn’t get into colour. Just didn’t. There was lots to learn just trying to get the subtlety of shading in black and white!

 

And what did I learn? That hands are hard to depict. But I knew that already hence the challenge. But why are they so difficult? I think it’s because of their proportions, and the changes from spherical to cylindrical to cube shapes. And there’s all those tendons and boney joints attached to bones joined together under a common skin sheath (the hand) that combines hard parts and fleshy parts. And it’s the irregularity and flexibility and disparate nature of the fingers. Shall I go on??

I also learnt that even though you think you’re holding totally still, you find all of a sudden that things aren’t quite right between your drawing and what you see and you realize something’s shifted. The smallest shifts in position create huge changes in what you see. Egads. And then trying to correct the positioning…..next to impossible!!

 

So your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to draw a hand (yours? it’s the most convenient and there’s nothing like drawing from life).  Then leave a comment about how you found the process. Doesn’t matter what you think about your drawing skills. The exercise is about looking and then translating what you see to paper and the experience of the process.

 

I look forward to hearing from you!!

 

Wishing you good drawing!!

~ Gail

 

PS.When I first began posting my hand drawings on my Facebook Page, my friend Laura wrote:

“Hands, Touching hands, Reaching out, Touching me, Touching you”

Ring any bells?

If you didn’t guess what that’s from, then watch the video below.

 

10 thoughts on “Drawing Hands – 30 sketches in 30 days”

  1. Kathie Smithson

    You are good, really good! They are all lovely but my favorites are #’s 6 and 26. The ball point pen sketch is so fluid, lots of movement there. I like the pose of your hand and again the lines in #26 … both done in pen.

    Way to go Gail,

    Any plans for a workshop on Salt Spring in the near future …. oh … I forgot, you go to Mexico soon. :-(( Let me know when you’re back. OK? :-)) Hope you’re having fun wherever you are!

    Warmly,

    Kathie

    Reply
    1. Gail Sibley

      Thanks thanks Kathie!. I love #6 too – as you say, so fluid. If only it twas always that way!

      Workshop – I should plan one – yes! Ideas??

      Going to Mexico for only two weeks this year. Have my show to work on (opening early May at Gallery 8) so spending the time here in Victoria. Anyway, our weather has been so lovely and snowdrops appearing already!

      Let’s talk when I return,
      Gail

      Reply
  3. Andrea Dreger

    These are lovely, I enjoyed them tremendously!
    Also love Neil Diamond, so of course I knew from whence the final line had come:)

    Reply
  4. susan

    These are great Gail. Hands are challenging and ironically the one “model” we have at our disposal. All. The. Time. We should be GREAT at them!

    Reply
    1. Gail Sibley

      Thanks Susan. You are so right! Our model is right in front of us and we have no excuses not to be good at them. But we do have excuses. And have I done a hand drawing since I finished the challenge at the end of December?? Only one. And I feel as if I have soooooooooo much more to learn!!

      Reply
  5. Sandy

    Really enjoyed this Blog have understood hands to be a very hard item to draw you have made a fine job of it maybe its just my imagination but I never realized before how much personality resides in ones hands.

    Reply

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