Fingers

Murmillo · Post by **Murmillo** » Wed Jun 30, 2004 3:52 pm

Anybody else have trouble drawing em. For some reason, they always look fat or way too sucky...

Nightgaunt · Post by **Nightgaunt** » Wed Jun 30, 2004 5:19 pm

Yes. I usually go for that glove-style thing so I can avoid drawing fingers, but I found a pretty useful tutorial at http://pillarsoffaith.keenspace.com/tutorial.html and I think I might try out some of those tricks at some point.

Krytos55 · Post by **Krytos55** » Wed Jun 30, 2004 6:28 pm

I usually just have the hand in a fist or off screen if I can. Alothough it's not like they're any worse than the rest of my art.

A thing that may help though is just picking up a drawing class textbook and seeing how it's done there.

Faub · Post by **Faub** » Wed Jun 30, 2004 10:10 pm

http://www.polykarbon.com/tutorials/hands/hands.htm
Polykarbon also has a useful tutorial.

Your best bet is just to draw hands. Draw your own if you have a couple minutes. If you find a pose that's difficult in your comic, pose yourself. You are your own best model.

Platypus · Post by **Platypus** » Thu Jul 01, 2004 12:09 am

Create a new species with only 3 fingers !

Post by **Mercury Hat** » Thu Jul 01, 2004 8:57 am

You can't get better at drawing something if you don't draw it so just practice and practice.

JinguJ · Post by **JinguJ** » Thu Jul 01, 2004 7:20 pm

Usually I start with much rougher, simpler sketch of this

The white dots as the joints, and then I add the flesh.

Most importantly, use your own hand as the model.

Nightgaunt · Post by **Nightgaunt** » Thu Jul 01, 2004 7:36 pm

Or you could just draw everyone with claws - they'd all be lobster-people!

Platypus · Post by **Platypus** » Thu Jul 01, 2004 7:40 pm

Tho' I must add that anime especially the action and horror genre has an abundance of nice hand sketches ...

Dutch! · Post by **Dutch!** » Fri Jul 02, 2004 3:56 pm

Heh. I mentioned this after one of my own cartoons. How somehow I managed to learn how to draw my characters well enough that I no longer needed an eraser to redo them and get the faces right. Now all I needed to do was work on those fingers.

Next cartoon I mentioned that they now looked like chimp hands, but I guess evolution was working, so it's only a matter of time before they evolve into real people hands...

Also, I found a hand position I could usually draw pretty well, so I've been posing my characters with hands in similar positions for a while. Gets me used to drawing them in a different pose, and soon I am sure I will find it necessary to evolve that pose to fit something else as well. Before too long I'll no doubt have a few different poses developed that I can use depending on what is needed.

Um...I guess I could compress that into one word, eh?

Practice?

Jackhass · Post by **Jackhass** » Fri Jul 02, 2004 4:27 pm

Everyone has trouble drawing fingers.

I've been drawing for years, have taken several life-drawing classes and I still have trouble with them in certain positions.

The good news is that while they look horrible to you, most people don't really pay much attention to hands...so you can take shortcuts...

BRP · Post by **BRP** » Fri Jul 02, 2004 5:26 pm

But on the flip side, everyone knows what a hand is supposed to look like. I have this lazy habit of making hands inconspicuous. Just don't draw something that's wrong where people will really notice it, I guess.

Toxic · Post by **Toxic** » Sat Jul 03, 2004 10:14 pm

I've actually found it helps to just have just three fingers (three not counting the thumb) since cartoony fingers are thicker that realistic finger, thus four looks like a little too many.

Dutch! · Post by **Dutch!** » Sun Jul 04, 2004 6:49 pm

We're soon working on a simple storyline where during a primary school science lesson the kids' experiment goes horribly wrong and everyone grows a fourth finger.

For several strips we plan on seeing how they go about reversing this disastrous turn of events, because 1) it looks unnatural, 2) it feels unnatural, and 3) no one's gloves fit any more...

Xmung · Post by **Xmung** » Sun Jul 04, 2004 8:12 pm

years ago i worked for a company that made educational comics for disadvantaged youth - it was great to work there, especially since there was a 'senior cartoonist' who was just excellent, so i learnt a lot from him. it was rather crushing though when he made the comment that the way i drew hands looked like a bunch of bananas!

after that i tried very hard to get them looking more natural. i agree with the comment above that most people don't pay a lot of attention to them, but it a matter of pride, eh?
having someone to model their hand in difficult positions or gestures is useful.

Ruxen · Post by **Ruxen** » Sun Jul 04, 2004 9:48 pm

Ewww hands. I pretty much do what JinguJ does in terms of hands. Most of the time if you have a comic comic you can get away with hand shortcuts, a good way to dig your own grave is by strategically placing them though. Like having all your characters put their hands behind them, in their pockets or whatever. People notice things like that fairly often, especially if you keep doing it.

Anotherday · Post by **Anotherday** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 9:38 am

ugh I HATE drawing hands. My fingers always come out looking totally deformed no matter what I do. No, seriously O_O

I found a PRETTY good site on drawing hands and figures, but I still have issues with drawing them. Here it is:

http://www.bakaneko.com/

under the "hands" section. Still, she makes it look so easy...when it's really very hard.

Taiwanimation · Post by **Taiwanimation** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 3:00 pm

Looking at some comics, you'd almost think that showing the hands is a kind of obscenity. Actually it'd make a great HNTRAC joke, black rectangles in place of hands. (How not to run a comic, hntrac.keenspace.com)

Xmung · Post by **Xmung** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 4:16 pm

travelling home on the train yesterday i got a bit fascinated looking at all the hands of the other passengers... so many different ways people casually use their hands - holding books/papers/magazines, scratching their head, rubbing their chin, clasped in their laps, er picking their nose! next time i'll have to secretly try sketching a few and start up a 'hand gesture bank'. i figure this is the best way to get okay with hands - draw as many from real life as possible.

Axonite · Post by **Axonite** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 8:08 pm

There's a reason I usually draw my one regular human character with his hands in his jacket pockets...