How do I draw hands without them looking like bunches of bananas?

Hands are considered the hardest thing to draw and the reason is not complexity — it is that you already know what a hand looks like, so you draw the symbol rather than the object. Constructing from simple masses stops that, because a box and a wedge give your knowledge nothing to latch onto.

Step by step

1. Draw the palm as a box.A flat, slightly wedge-shaped block, wider at the knuckles than at the wrist and with a definite thickness. Getting the palm as a solid with a top, a side and an edge is most of the battle.
2. Curve the knuckle line.The knuckles do not lie in a straight row. The middle finger knuckle is furthest forward and the arc drops away to either side, more steeply towards the little finger. A straight knuckle line is the commonest structural error.
3. Set the finger lengths from that arc, not from the wrist.Because the knuckle arc is curved, the fingers start at different distances from the wrist. Measure each finger from its own knuckle, and remember the middle finger is longest, the ring and index close to equal, the little finger reaching roughly to the last joint of the ring finger.
4. Divide each finger into three shortening segments.The segment nearest the palm is the longest; each subsequent one is shorter. Draw them as small boxes or cylinders with a clear joint between, and the finger stops being a sausage.
5. Attach the thumb to the side of the palm, low down.The thumb has its own large muscle mass — the ball of the thumb — occupying a third of the palm, and it swings out from near the wrist rather than from the knuckle line. It has two visible segments, not three, and it faces at right angles to the fingers.
6. Move the fingers as a fan.Fingers rarely act independently. When one curls the neighbours follow partway, and when the hand closes the fingertips converge towards a point in the palm. Drawing four independently posed fingers is what produces the alien look.
7. Simplify the far fingers.In almost any view some fingers are behind others. Draw them as simple overlapped shapes with soft edges and less detail, and put the crisp drawing into the nearest one or two.
8. Draw your own non-drawing hand constantly.It is free, always available and infinitely posable. Twenty minutes a session of your own hand in different positions improves this faster than any other exercise.

Tips

• The back of the hand shows tendons and knuckles; the palm shows soft pads and three main creases. They are so different that a hand drawn palm-up with the back's landmarks looks immediately wrong.
• Nails sit on the top plane of the last segment, curve with it, and are shorter than people draw them. In most views you see the nail at a strong angle.
• Where a hand grips something, the object tells you where the fingers are. Drawing a hand around a mug is easier than drawing a hand in mid-air.
• Fingertips are rounded pads that squash against surfaces. A finger pressing on a table flattens visibly, and that detail reads as observed.

Common mistakes

• Drawing the fingers first — Without a palm to attach to, the fingers end up the wrong length, the wrong spacing and the wrong direction. The palm sets everything.
• Making all four fingers the same length and the same width — They differ substantially, and the little finger in particular is both shorter and thinner. Uniform fingers read as a glove.
• Putting the thumb on the edge of the palm at the knuckle line — It attaches much lower and further round, and it needs the thumb muscle mass. This one error accounts for a lot of hands that read as prosthetic.
• Hiding hands in pockets or behind backs — Understandable, and it stops you ever learning. Draw them badly for a while instead.

If it doesn't work

Questions people ask