Drawing hands and feet
Art & Design · Key Stage 2 · The School
Why they trip people up
Hands and feet are famously difficult to draw. Even experienced artists find them hard. They have many small, moving, overlapping parts. Everyone has looked at real hands so often that even a small mistake looks instantly, obviously wrong. Feet cause exactly the same trouble, for the same reasons.
Starting from simple shapes
Do not start by drawing fingers directly. Start with a rough rectangle for the palm instead. Add five simple sausage shapes next, one for each finger. Get the rough length and angle right first. Fine detail comes much later, once these basic proportions are already correct. Rushing this order rarely ends well.
Proportions worth remembering
The middle finger is usually about the same length as the palm itself. The thumb starts much lower down than people expect. It sits roughly level with the base of the palm, not up beside the first finger. Getting these two facts right fixes most beginner hand drawings instantly. Most drawings go wrong here, before a single detail is even added.
Draw a rough rectangle for the palm, roughly as tall as it is wide. Mark where the thumb actually starts. It sits low down, near the base of the rectangle, not up near the fingers. Add five simple sausage shapes spreading out from the top and side of the rectangle. Four fingers of slightly different lengths, and the thumb at its low starting point. Check the middle finger against the palm. Is it roughly the same length? Only once these basic shapes look right does any fine detail get added, like knuckles or fingernails.