Drawing Dynamic Hands

1. Course Introduction: Hey guys, how's it going? So are you a beginner or intermediate artist who struggles with drawing convincing dynamic hand gestures often struggle and find it hard to know how to start or how best to approach it. Well, you answered yes to either of those questions, then you're in the right place. And this course is for you. My name is Kyle Peck chalk. And today I'm gonna be your instructor, walking you through my personal artistic approach to drawing, believable and convincing dynamic hand gestures. Now hence, can definitely be tricky to grasp. No pun intended. Especially if you're a beginner or only have a little bit of experience drawing them. I remember years back, hands used to be a big weakness of mine. I would always struggle real hard on just getting them to look proportionately correct or dynamic. But through tons and tons of time practicing patients, I've now turned them into one of my strengths. So can you, so this course will be broken up into seven separate video lessons, each one covering a different dynamic Campos. And I'm gonna be referencing a lot of photos that I grabbed from the Internet in each video to show you my visual approach and how I go about breaking everything down into the most simple and basic forms. Including how to start with blinds of gesture and breaking things down into simple shapes. And then in the final video lesson, which will be a bonus lesson eight, I'm going to show you several character poses that I've sketched out previously. In which case, I'll be kinda displaying different dynamic hand poses and action. That way you can kind of see them with some context. And you can see how they go about conveying the action of the character. Then finally, at the very end, I'm going to be explaining a class project for you guys to work on his well, where you'll be taking everything that we covered in the videos and applying them in your own way, but more on that later. In the meantime, why don't we get right onto it. 2. Lesson 1: Lending A Helping Hand: Hey guys, welcome to the first lesson of my dynamic hand drawing tutorial series. This will be one of several different lessons. Each one is going to cover a different pan gesture. But for this lesson, we're going to start with this one here. I just grabbed a reference photo real quick from the Internet. You can use Google images. Another great resource is Pinterest, and another one is also quick poses.com. They've got tons of pose references along with hands, feet, head gesture positions, and much, much more. But anyway, let's get right to it. So first what I'm gonna do is I'm going to lightly sketch over the reference photo over here using red pencil to kinda show you guys my visual approach to breaking down the forms and structures, to simplify everything, to make drawing hands a lot more approachable. So what I like to focus on first are the outer contour gesture lines. So notice how I'm not really going into detail too much yet. I'm really just focusing on those smooth, curved lines that make up the entire shape. Here. I'm gonna just kinda separate the palm of the hand from the fingers. And then normally what I do to kinda make drawing the fingers a little bit easier is I like to block out the area where the fingers are into one solid shape. This is a very effective method to try because if you kinda just jumped into drawing details too soon and you focus on each individual finger. One might end up looking longer than the others, or there might be some proportional issues. But blocking them all in like this will ensure that they all stay in alignment. Meaning the tips of the fingers will stay in alignment with the general flow of the gesture. Then the palm of the hand is always broken up into three different sections. So I'm just going to outline that here. So we have the section where the thumb connects to the hand. We have the section neck opposite of that. And then the longer strip up top where the fingers are connecting to the poem. And I'm going to represent that here by drawing some owners. And have you noticed right in the center of the palm those three sections that I outlined for them, a sort of triangle shape with more curved sides than straight, but generally speaking, it's a triangle. So I'm going to turn, whoops, I'm going to turn off the reference image. You can kinda get a more simplified look at the lines that I just created. So when you use this approach for drawing any hand position, it can really make your life a whole lot easier. So next one I'm going to do is I'm going to take the solid shape that forms the fingers and I'm just going to separate it into the individual structures. And then each finger is going to have two joints. So I am going to just lightly sketch those in real quick. And then the thumb is going to have one joint. So I'm going to show that here. There we have it. There's basically be simplified outline. And you know what I look for visually when I'm sketching a hands at posed from reference. Or eventually when you do this enough, you can be able, you'll be able to draw hands from memory without needing reference images as much. So next, I'm going to create another layer and we're actually gonna go and sketch the hand from scratch using the reference photo. So let's zoom in a little bit here. So we can get as much space in view as possible. What I'm going to start with first is the wrist and the forearm. So I'm just going to draw a straight line here. Then I'm going to start outlining the palm of the hand using those same smooth gestural lines that I outlined over the reference image. Another important One thing to keep in mind is in most dynamic hand gestures, There's always going to be a bit of a crease down the center of the poem. Therefore, the alignment of the fingers are going to be a bit curved. Most often, unless the palm of the hand is perfectly flat, There's always going to be a little bit of a curve with the direction of the fingers especially. And I'm going to draw that solid shape to kinda block the fingers. And you can almost think of this simplified form. The hand was wearing a finger less mitten. You know, that's a very easy way to go about simplifying everything down in there real quick and the forearm. And then I'm gonna go and separate the center of the poem into those three sections. Which can be shown by just adding in a few curved lines here, like so. And then we have our curved sided triangle in the center. Center. This a little bit more here. Okay, So now let's begin forming the fingers. As I stated before, each finger has two joints. So I'm just going to quickly sketch in a few curved lines to show where those are gonna be placed. Over here for the thumb, I'm just going to draw a curved line to show that because the thumb only has one joint over here. Alright, let's begin separating the shape into the individual fingers. So I'm just going to draw those ovals here to show where they connect to the pump. Now, let's draw each finger. And now in this angle for the reference photo, it appears that the fingers are a little bit shorter. And that's because there's some foreshortening that is applied here. So that's perfectly fine and normal for the fingers to appear this way from this angle. And then the pinky, we're actually going to see a little bit of the fingernails since it's bending enough to where we actually see the top of the finger a little bit. Then let's just quickly draw the thumb in here, right here. Okay, There's our rough sketch. So pretty basic when you break it down like this, I think is a very effective method to go about simplifying everything. And it might take a little bit of practice at first, as do all things withdrawing. But eventually you're gonna get better and better and it's just going to seem really quite effortless. So next, I'm just gonna go ahead and detail this sketch a little bit. So I'm going to lower the opacity of this layer. And I'm just gonna go in, kinda outline this sketch with more detailed pencil lines. This is where we get to add a lot of those small subtle crease details, especially in the palm and the joints of each finger. So this is usually the fun part, but first, before we get to details, we have to lay the foundation, so to speak. Thanks. All right. Okay. And there we have it. Some more of the detail lines. And the last thing I'm gonna do is kinda just take areas boy, and make them a little bit thicker. Areas that are exposed to the light source. In this case, the light source is coming from the top-right. Lines that are least exposed to the light source are going to be a little bit thicker. And it's always good to vary your line weight in your drawings. So that way they look more dynamic and interesting rather than using one single weight throughout the entire drawing. And also another thing to keep in mind. Innermost detail lines are going to be thinner than the outermost contour lines as well. Ok, and there we go. There's our first-hand position. I hope you guys learned a lot from this and can take some tips and tricks from this lesson to apply it to your own hand drawings. Thank you so much for watching. I really, really appreciate it. And I will see you guys in lesson two where we're going to cover a completely new and dynamic can position to draw. Thanks guys and see you there. 3. Lesson 2: Raise Your Hand: Hey guys, welcome to lesson two of my dynamic can pose tutorial series. In this lesson, we're gonna be covering drawing a female hand. Now there's a lot of differences between the male and female hand. One of the big ones is finger length. And the size of each finger. Female hands tend to have more thin, delicate fingers, especially at the fingertips. Or as male hands are going to be a little bit thicker. So here I've grabbed another reference photo from the Internet. And I'm going to go about the same procedure as I showed you in lesson one, where I'm gonna go over the reference and kinda show you the gestural lines that I'd visualize when I'm looking at a reference photo in order to better understand the flow and motion. So first, I'm going to sketch the outline risks. Right here. I'm actually going to sketch some gestural lines that go right through the center of the hand. You know, one of the ways I like to visualize the gesture is imagining the flow of one structure, kind of moving into that of another. Even if it goes through the, the handle a little bit here. And then the thumb is going to be another smooth gestural line. Like so. That extends from near the top of the wrist here, all the way up towards where the middle finger is. Next, I'm going to sketch in the palm of the hand. As I mentioned in Lesson one, in most dynamic hand poses, There's always going to be a bit of a crease going down the center of the poem. So therefore, motion and position of the fingers is going to be a bit curved. So let's do that. Since this pose is being viewed from about a three-quarter side view, we're going to imagine the palm as a three-dimensional rectangle. Since there's a crease and the poem is bending a little bit. We're going to imagine this as a rotating twisting rectangle. Then we can also look at the outer contour of the thumb as being one continuous line that goes from the wrist all the way up to the tip of the thumb. And then much like I did in lesson one, we're going to block out the area where the fingers are and make it one solid shape. So I'm just going to turn off the reference photo real quick. So that way you can kind of visualize the way I've gotten simplified everything here. So when you keep the gesture in mind before moving into details, you're gonna be able to construct the basic shapes and forms that are needed to make up the entire hand. And then I'm just gonna go and draw each individual finger. Have you noticed with the middle finger and ring finger, the first section. But both of these fingers, they are both parallel to one another and they're both touching. And then once we get to the second section of the finger, that's where it separates from the middle finger. And then also aside from the ring finger, the first joint of each of the other fingers is the only one that's gonna be beds. If you notice here. On the three other fingers. The second joint is string. That's just something to keep in mind as well. There we have it. That's my simplified approach. So what we're gonna do now is go ahead and sketch the hand over here to the right of reference. We're going to bring the opacity of this backup again. I'm going to make another layer over here. What we're going to go and sketch the handout. We're going to follow the same steps as as I just showed you. Starting with the wrist. You can just show that here with a simple rectangle. Then next, we're going to sketch, start to sketch the palm of the hand with that three-dimensional twisting rectangle that I described. Then there's gonna be a little bit of a fold with that crease down the middle. The next to get that smooth fluid gesture of the pointer finger going all the way down to where the thumb meets the palm. Going to just skip. Nice smooth. Why? Nice smooth curve line going through here. And then another straight line to represent the direction of the thumb. Okay. And then I'm gonna go and block out the fingers into that solid shape. Okay, so everything looks proportionally correct and place properly. So now we can kind of start outlining some of the structures like the fingers. So first, let's separate this solid shape up top into each finger. Hello. Okay, there we go. And then just move that a little bit. I'm actually going to create another layer over this sketch where I'm going to draw in the thumb. That way when I erase all the guidelines underneath, it won't affect any of the new lines that I laid down. Right? So let's draw in the thumb. Now. Remember the thumb is going to have one joint as well. Unlike the other fingers that have two. And then there's gonna be a little bit of a curve here below the base of the thumb that meets the poem. Okay, there we go. So now let's go back to the first layer and then we're just going to erase those lines underneath. Again. This way, I created the thumb on a new layer. That way when I go to erase these guides, they don't affect any of these new lines that I placed them. Okay, Now this is finally starting to take shape here. And then once I've done that, I'm actually going to go and just combine these two layers together or rather merged them together. You can find this option up top here in the corner of the layers panel. And then at the bottom it says Merge Layers. Make sure they're both selected and then go and combine them together. Then when we add in the fingernails, since the fingers are being used for memorial three-quarter side view, we're going to see a little bit of each finger down. And since it's a woman's hand, the nails are going to extend a little bit beyond the tip of the finger. Right? Now I'm just gonna make this a little bit bigger so that way we can fill a little more space. Okay, that looks pretty good. So now I'm gonna go ahead and lower the opacity of this layer. And then I'm gonna go and outline the sketch with the more detailed, clean lines. I'm going to start with the outermost contours first and then work my way into the more subtle details. Now, one thing that I always tell people when they asked me, oh, how do you get better with line art? How do you create really smooth, crisp lines? And there's no shortcut for that really. It all comes down to preface and being patient with yourself because overtime you will get more and more competent in your sketching. Years ago, my line are always used to appear very shaky and rigid because, you know, I was still very unsure of myself and didn't have the competence yet that I needed to create really smooth, competent lines. But now all these years later, after much, much practice and struggling a lot, I've finally found my artistic groups, if you want to call it that. So yeah, just be patient with yourself. And the key thing to remember is you will get out of this what you put into it as with anything to trying to get better. So the more you practice and the more you stick with it and don't quit, you will get better and better. And I've always found that breakthroughs tend to happen right at the moment when you feel like you're about to give up, or you think this just isn't going to work. Well, don't ignore what's really going on. That's really a sign that you're about to get better at the things that you've been practicing it. So don't listen to that voice in your head that's saying it's too late and it can't be done, It's too hard. What's the point? Being a overcomer of anxiety and depression, I dealt with these thoughts plenty in my past. But the reason I am here where I am now is because I didn't quit and I didn't give into those negative thoughts. I found a way to overcome and rise above them. To the point now where I still get those thoughts sometimes, but I know better and I know that the anxiety is lying to me. This isn't true. I am getting better. I am doing all the right things. You just have to you just have to tell yourself that. You just have to believe you can do it a little bit. Alright, and there we go. There's our finished sketch. I hope this was helpful guys. I know this is a very tricky hand pose, but just practice as much as you can and don't get frustrated if it doesn't click right away. You know, like I just said, it takes a while sometimes to be able to get better at something. But even in the moments when it feels like you're not making any progress. And it may even feel like you are being set back or moving backwards. You know, that's actually a clear sign that in fact you are making progress. It's just not showing the results just yet. You just have to be patient and stay committed until the results come. So anyway, that concludes Lesson two. Thank you so much for watching. Hope you enjoyed it and took a thing or two from it. And I will see you guys in less than three are really cover a different hand position. Thanks so much and see you there. 4. Lesson 3: Fist Of Fury!: Hey there guys, welcome to lesson three. This time we're gonna be covering a fist hand gesture. So what I'm gonna do is sketch over the reference photo here to kinda show you my visual approach to breaking down the seemingly complex forms and structures too. Further simplify everything that way. Drawing this position won't be so much of a struggle at first glance. So let's begin. What I usually like to look for first is the gestural contour lines. So what I'm actually going to do here is I'm going to sketch one continuous gesture line going from the thumb all the way around up to where the pointer finger is. Like so. So it's gonna be forming a bit of a U-shaped curve. To put it simply, like you can actually think of the entire palm of the hand and the knuckles as one continuous shape. And it might take a little bit to kinda get the hang of doing this from looking at the reference photo. But the more and more you do it, the shortcut here I will get. And eventually you'll be able to do this with any hand position that you look at. And then we're going to draw the wrist here. The next, next one I'm gonna do is outline the edge of the palm of the hand. Even though most of it is covered by the fingers, we still want to pinpoint that to understand how the fingers are connected to the palm and how they move. So I'm going to draw a line going through here to kinda show the other side of the palm of the hand. And then up top, I'm going to kinda just rough in where the knuckles are going to go. In other words, where each finger is going to be connecting to the top of the poem. Have you noticed here we don't see the knuckle of the pointer finger because it's being covered by the middle finger here. From this angle. That's normal. So if you look at this and think, Oh, where's the, where's the knuckle of the pointer finger? Just know it's because the palm of the hand is curved because this particular position, and as I've stated, a lot of dynamic hand poses will have that crease going down the middle, which means it's folding and probe a little bit. So then what I'm gonna do is block out that shape where the four fingers are placed. And I'm only outlining where the middle finger to the pinky are. Because in this particular position, I like to think of the pointer finger as kind of its own shape, since it's in a much different position than these other three. So I'm going to just outline that here with another curved line and then sketch in the thumb. And then we're going to just sort of split this in half and show where the joints of each finger is, where the finger is bending like that. And then I'm gonna go and just separate this shape into the individual fingers. And then we're also going to go and sketch those curved lines to separate the areas of the palm like this. And draw another curved line here to show where the joints not the joint, the area where the thumb is connecting to the palm. And that's pretty much the gist of it. I'm going to turn off the reference photo so you can really see how simplified it can become. Now. The second section of the pinky finger and the third section, aka the fingertip. We're actually not going to see too much of the fingertip here. Because since the entire palm is curved, that means the pinky finger is going to be sort of bending inwards. So it's never going to be perfectly straight all the way across. There's always gonna be a slight curve. Anytime you're looking at this position. So there's the gist of it. Now, let's go and actually sketch the hand from scratch. Over here. Let's turn up the opacity of the reference again. And let's go about sketching the hand like I just outlined over the reference. So first, begin with the wrist. You can kind of just show this with a rectangle shape. Then we're going to sketch that one continuous gesture line going from all the way up to the pointer finger to form a bit of a U-shaped curves. Okay? And then next, we're going to sketch another line here showing where the other side of the palm is going to be. Even though it's gonna be covered by the fingers, we still want to outline that anyway. Then drawing the thumb here real quick. And then outline where the knuckles are going to be placed. Next. We'll sketch in that shape that we covered before, showing the placement of these three fingers from the middle fingers. And then we'll sketch the portrait Finger separately on its own. Alright, there we go. And then read those sections of the poem. Even though we're only viewing a little bit of them, because they're covered by the fingers, but there's still visible enough to know that they're there. And then we'll draw each individual finger. Okay, now this is starting to look like a fist. And you can also think of the fingers as having two different planes, flat planes. In this case, with this fist position. I'm just going to quickly outline. This can be one considered one plane right here, and then the other right here. Then there's quickly sketching the fingernail. Then I think this is ready to go into details. We'll take this sketch, lower the opacity of it. And then I'm gonna go and create a new layer above this where we'll put together the finish line. So let's start with the outermost contours over here. And then go up here to the locals and start forming lilies. Then we're blocked out that shape, forming the middle finger, ring finger and pinky finger. And then we'll start separating the shape a little bit. And then we'll draw your pointer finger over here, followed by the thumb. And also guys, take your time as well. Progression through these steps is gonna be different for everybody. You know, some of you might get it faster than others. And that's perfectly fine. You should always just go at your own pace and not beat yourself up too much. If you don't get it right away, trust me, you will get it as long as you put in the work and you practice continuously. Okay, so now that the outermost lines actually wait, let me sketch the rest real quick. There we go. Then I'm just gonna go into thick in some of these our contours a little bit so that we'd be bury our line work. Let's start going in and adding some of the crease details. Like around where the joint of each finger is, where the bend is taking place. Then over here, we're part of the palm is folding that specifically that top part of the poem where the fingers are connected. Okay, And that pretty much does it. So I hope this helps a lot guys are not as tricky as some other hand positions, but they can be tricky enough. So, yeah, just follow these steps and see what you can do. But I guarantee you that if you simplify everything down like this, It's gonna make your life a whole lot easier. And you'll have a lot more fun drawing hands when you really understand the basics and principles of breaking down everything and simplifying the fingers, the calm, all of it. Even just general outer contours to really get a sense of the overall shape. So that wraps up this one. Thank you guys so much for watching. Truly appreciate it. And I'll see you in lesson four where we're going to cover a completely new hand position. Thanks again and see you there. 5. Lesson 4: The Claw: Hey guys, welcome to lesson four in my dynamic can pose tutorial series. Here. In this lesson, we're gonna be covering this hand pose right here. And it's showing the hand in a type of clock position. Now at first glance, this type of pose might seem very tricky, but we're gonna go ahead and repeat the steps from the previous video so far. And I'm going to just draw over top of the reference so you can see how I go about and visually approaching getting this started. So first, let's lower the opacity of the reference photo here. And I'll zoom in a tiny bit so we get a better look. First, I'm going to basically just outline the contours and the shape of the palm. So first I'll just lightly rough in the wrist. And as I've explained previously, in many dynamic hand positions, there's always gonna be a bend or a crease down the center of the palm. Unless of course the hand is perfectly flat. But in this case, clearly going to be increase going down the center. And this means that the positioning of the fingers are going to be a bit curved. So first, let's go ahead and roughen the palm here since we're looking at it from more of a three-quarter view, we're going to imagine it as a three-dimensional rectangular. Okay? Now we're gonna give this some form here. And I'm going to draw a line right down the middle to show where that crease is happening. So it's actually not going to look like a normal 3D rectangle because here in this example there's gonna be a little bit of a twist. Think of it like the torso and oppose twisting. And that will cut up the palm of the hand into those three sections that I've got over in the previous lessons to form that little triangle shape in the middle. Now I'm gonna kinda just go and outline some of the contours and gestures that make up the flow and direction of the fingers. Here we can extend this line here from the first joint of the pointer finger all the way down to the wrist. Then as I've done before, I'm going to take the four fingers and I'm going to just kinda block them out as one shape. So that way everything stays in alignment when we actually go to add detail. But notice how I'm sketching really fluid, smooth, gestural lines, keeping it nice and rough for going into any detail just yet. Then we're going to draw a couple of ovals to show where the fingers are gonna be meeting. So we'll do the same thing over here with the thumbs. Ok, and now I'm going to start separating this shape here into the individual fingers. And remember, each of the fingers is going to have joints as well. For the pointer finger, we can actually take that same line here and use it to extend into the middle finger as well. And then we'll just create a line perpendicular to that, branching off to create the tip of the pointer finger. And then we'll go ahead and outline the middle finger here. Now we got the ring finger. And if we notice here, there's a pretty big gap in-between the pinky finger and the finger. So right at the base where they meet the palm, it's gonna be a little bit curved like this. Now we see that this curved line is keeping the fingertips of the middle finger to the pinkie in nice fluid alignment. And now let's go over here and do the thumb. Right there, we have it. I'm going to turn off the reference photos. You can kind of see it in its simplified form. So what's most important to keep in mind about this pose is again, the fact that the palm of the hand is twisting in the middle or it's, it's creasing and bending. So therefore, since there's gonna be that curve, that means the finger positioning is gonna be curved a little bit as well. That's why here we see the pointer finger overlapping the middle finger because of that curved motion. Okay, So now we're gonna go ahead and draw the hand pose from scratch. So I'm going to bring the opacity of this layer back up. And I'm going to create another layer. We're going to sketch the hand from scratch. Okay, so first, we will begin with the wrist. Over here. Draw a rectangle to show that. It also keep in mind, this is still the rough sketch stage. So feel free to keep everything loose, rough and messy at this point. But soon we'll be going into details and creating the final one. So now I'm gonna go and kind of outline those outer contour, gestural lines. That way this thing can start taking shape. Okay? And now I'm going to block in that solid shape, where are the four fingers are gonna be placed? Now I'm gonna go and start wrapping up the thumb. Then we'll draw those four ovals here to kind of show where the fingers are going to connect to the palm. And I'm going to start with the pointer finger here. Next, the middle fingers, followed by the ring finger next. Notice how I'm keeping the fingertips within that curve line here to make sure they all stay in alignment. And then to keep in mind in between the space between the ring finger and the pinky finger is pretty evidenced here. So we're going to be a little bit of a curve down at the base where the fingers are connected. There. Okay, and now let's do the pinky finger. Here we go. Now it's starting to take shape. There we have it. So that's a pretty simple effective approach to drawing this position out. Again, I know this is definitely not an easy one, but you should always be trying to challenge herself as much as possible. You know, tackled the types of poses. You might not think to draw right away because right off the bat they might, they might seem very challenging. But the only way you grow is expanding your comfort zone and attacking your weaknesses head-on until they become a strength. What the thumbnail there. Alright, I think we're just about ready to start going in and detailing the final line art. So we'll create another new layer above the sketch. I'm going to lower the opacity of the sketch layer here. And then I'm going to zoom in. So we got a better look. So real quick, I'm just going to go and outline the sketch. Really add all those interior detail lines, all of the creases and folds, especially at the finger joints. So let's begin here. Whoops. And up top, on the other side of the palm we see a tiny bit of the pointer finger knuckles. So make sure to include that. Here, as I explained before, will use the curved line forming the middle finger. And we're going to create another line branching off of that one to form the tip of the pointer finger. We'll also see a little bit of the fingernails up here as well. Next will be the finger. Then let's not forget that curved gap here at the base of the palm between the ring finger and pinky finger. Okay, next, let's go over here to the thumb. Okay. Alright, so there's the main gist of it. We have all the outermost contour lines in. Now the next step and final steps are gonna be to add the rest of the details. And then we're also going to make some slight adjustments to the line art, especially in the outermost contour lines. Because you should always try to vary your line weight in your drawing so that way it looks more dynamic and interesting. We'll get to that in a moment here. But first let's add some detail, pretty slides, especially around the joints of each finger to really show that fold and the bend. And then we'll do the same with the center of the poem. Okay, so what do you wanna do to vary your line weight is you want to make sure the lines that are on the opposing side of the light source, or rather those lines that are least exposed to the light source are going to tend to be a little bit thicker. And outermost contour lines are always going to be thicker than the innermost detail, but just, just little line art tips and tricks to really improve your drawings. Help you level up more. Okay, and that should about do it. So I hope this was helpful guys. This might not quit for you right away. It might take a little bit of time and practice, but keep at it. And just remember that even if feels like you're not making any progress, you actually are. It's just all about trusting the process. Even if it feels like you're stuck or even going backwards, you know, that's not true. You actually are still making progress. It just takes some time for the results to really show themselves. Alright, so I hope you enjoyed this one. Thank you guys so, so much for watching as always. I really appreciate it. And yeah, I will see you in. Let's apply what we are going to cover a new dynamic Campos. Thanks again and see you guys there. 6. Lesson 5: The L-Shape: Hey everyone, welcome to lesson five of my dynamic hand pose drawing tutorial series. So this example is showing a female's hand. And from looking at it, it's definitely a lot more simple than the previous example was in lesson four. That was a tricky one. This one not so much. So let's dive right into it. So we're going to go and lower the opacity of the reference photo. And then using red pencil, I'm going to go and outlined over it and show you how I break everything down into a more approachable way. So right away we can see on the right that the positioning of the middle finger and the thumb are going to create an L-shape. And that negative space right here. Like so. Then we can simplify the outermost contour is even more. We'll think of the bottom of the palm going up to the base of the pinky as one shape I'm sorry, as one curb line as well. Then the same thing goes for the top of the middle finger, all the way down to the pinky as well. This can also be as one gesture line. That way everything stays in alignment. And then we'll just kinda fill in these gaps here. So that when we turn the reference photo off, we can see the solid shape that we've created here. It resembles a hand wearing a mitten. Where are you going to see each individual, individual finger, but they're all blocked out as one solid shape. So next, I'm going to start separating this form into the individual shapes. So we'll start with the palm of the hand. First. I'm just going to create a light thin line down the middle to show where there's gonna be a slight crease, four fold going down the center of the poem. Then we'll go and separate it into those three sections. That way we form that triangular shape in the middle. Then I'm gonna draw a line showing where the joint thumb is. And then we're going to separate this shape up here into the individual fingers. And then broke up the oval as well. To show where each finger is connected to the palm. Because here parts of the middle finger are being overlapped by the ring finger here. So it's just always helpful to do that so you know, where everything is placed accurately. Even if you can't see it directly. Then the ring finger, pinky finger can also be blocked out as one solid shape to erase there. So you guys can see that a little more clearly. Then we'll go and separate that. And then here, unlike the pointer finger and middle finger, There's a little bit of a gap between each. And then I'm going to draw the joints. So that way we see a clear separation between the middle part and the fingertip and then adding the fingernails. And that's pretty much the general outline. I'll turn the reference photo off again so you can see the more simplified form. Since this is a female's hand, we also want to make sure that the fingers and thumb are a little bit more thin and delicate looking compared to a man's fingers, which are going to be more thick and beat me looking. Okay, so now that I've shown you that, let's go ahead and draw the hand from scratch. Bring the opacity of the reference back up again and create a separate layer. So that way we can sketch this out. So first we'll start with just the general outer contour lines. First, starting with that L-shape. Let me slide this. Okay, Now let's start breaking this down. First with the palm of the hand. And then we'll draw that crease line down the middle and separate it into those sections. Then next, we're going to draw those four ovals. Then one for the base of the thumb as well. Okay, and now let's go ahead and form your finger and middle finger here. Now it's important to note, well, that's because of the curve of the palm of the hand. That means the fingers are not all going to be the same life. The middle finger is always the longest and tallest. And then the portrait finger and ring fingers are about the same length. And then the pinky is always gonna be the shortest. But now I'm gonna go ahead and block out the second two fingers with that solid shape that I covered just before. Remember we have a gap between those two as well. And then let's erase a little bit so we have a more clear view. Okay, and now I'm just adding those crease lines for the finger joints. Let's go and kind of detail the thumb a little bit more. Okay, that looks pretty good, I think. So. We're just going to make that a little bit bigger. Nets will go in detail the lines. So we'll lower the opacity of this rough sketch. Create another new layer above it will create the final line art. Let's start outlining over here. And then we're going to go around down here and start detailing the palm. Next we'll go over to the right. So now that the outermost contour line or in, let's start adding some of the integrals details will form the first two fingers here. We'll start adding some of those crease lines and other details. And also don't forget the fingernails. Then the last thing we'll do is just sort of vary the line weight in certain areas. As I've explained. It's always good to do this. So that way your line art looks more interesting and dynamic. So will thicken the lines in areas that are at least exposed to light source. I think that pretty much does it. So I hope you guys learned something here. Again, remember that to kind of approach these him poses in a more easy way. Be sure to always simplify. Look out for the gesture lines, the outer, outer contour and gesture lines. And just block everything out very rough and messy and slowly build it up from there until you get to the final detail later. Alright, So thank you guys so, so much for watching. Once again. Hope you enjoyed it. And stay tuned for less than six, where we're going to cover a completely new hand pose. Thanks again and see you guys there. 7. Lesson 6: Oh Snap!: Hey everyone, welcome to lesson six of my hand drawing tutorial series. Here, this hand pose is performing a snapping motion. So let's dive right into it. I'm going to show you my visual approach by drawing over the reference photo. Let's zoom in a little bit here so we get a better look. So right away we can see that this hand pose is being viewed from a three-quarter angled, much like the one was from less than four. So we're going to approach it pretty much the same way by first pinpointing the outermost contours. So we can see that right here from the wrist all the way up to the knuckle of the pinky or I'm sorry, the middle finger, sorry, is one continuous gesture line. And then we can also visualize the level of the middle finger all the way up to the pointer finger is another gestural line. And then same goes for the other side. Going from the tip of the thumb all the way down to the wrist. Then we'll just fill in the gaps here. And I'll kind of separate this to show the base of the poem. So that's the shape that we formed here. Now, let's go in and start separating everything and really bring this to life. So for the fingers, we can kind of think of the first joint on the middle finger, ring finger, and pinky finger as a flat plate. Now remember, the palm is going to have that crease, the center. And in this particular pose, there's definitely going to be a bit of a hole going on. So that's why as we go from this side all the way down to the pinkie, there seems to be a decreasing order of height. So we can think of this as one solid shape. And then we're going to extend this line here. This line representing the first joint on the finger will go and form the portrait Finger here. We will branch out and draw the little finger. Then the other two. So we notice here the second, third sections of the rape finger, or almost completely straight. So we can just branch off of that line to create the tip of the pinky finger right here. Then we're gonna go and separate that shape to form the individual fingers. And then we'll draw in the thumb. And then even though we're not able to view the other side of the palm next to the thumb because it's being covered by the fingers. We still want to draw that in just so we can make sure everything is placed accurately. And then we'll kinda just connect a line from the pinky finger all the way down to the base of the palm. I'll turn the reference off so you can see the simplified form. And then to make it a little more clear, let me just erase some of these messy lines. We're actually not going to see that a couple of the pointer finger too much because it's being covered by the local and the middle finger. Okay, So that's the, that's the pose in this more simplified form. So with that said, now let's go and draw the hand from scratch. I'll take that away up the opacity of the reference again. That will create a new layer and sketch this out on the right. So first let's begin with that. First contour line going from the wrist all the way up to the knuckle of the middle finger. Create that line there to separate the palm and the wrist. Then we will move forward and kind of just trace the outer contours. Keeping it really light and simple at this stage as well. Let's draw that flat plane here to show the top of the middle finger, ring finger and pinky finger. Then the other contour line over here to show the direction of the thumb. Okay, we're starting, this is starting to take shape. Now. We're going to now form the other side of the poem. Over here. Read that line going from the pinky down to the base of the problem that we'll create will draw that section of the poem that the thumb connects two. Alright, now let's draw the individual fingers, starting with the pointer finger. Once again, this is a female's hand. So let's make sure that the fingers are not too thick. We want them to be more feminine looking. Now, we'll do the middle finger here. And we'll separate that shape to form the other two. Okay, Then there's the basic outline. So now the fun part is the details. So let's take this sketch, lower the opacity, and then we'll go and trace over this new layer above it. This will be our finished line art. Draw in the knuckles here, followed by top of that. And then we'll move over here to the phone. Then we'll go on and do the pointer finger. Finally, we'll do a finger and start adding in some of the details of those crease lines and whatnot. And then finally we'll draw in the rest. As usual, the final step will be to thicken the line art a little bit. So that way we have that dynamic. Very lightweight. Okay, that just about does it. So as you can see from the beginning right off, the bat, might come across as a little bit tricky, but when broken down like so, it can actually be pretty simple and very enjoyable At the same time. So definitely, definitely practice this on your own. And also go out onto the Internet and find different handbooks. Ones that you think might be challenging. Because those are the ones that you definitely should tackle. Doing the ones that challenge you the most will allow you to grow the most. Just remember that and you will be fine. So thank you guys so much for watching. I really appreciate it again. And we have one more or less than coming up next horrible cover, a different hand pose. And then at the end, there's gonna be a bonus lesson thrown in there. So thank you guys again, and see you in the next video. 8. Lesson 7: Reach For It!: Hey guys, welcome to the seventh and final video lesson in my hand drawing tutorial series where we're covering an individual hand pose. So let's get started here. This is a bit of a different pose from the other images we've covered so far. There's a little bit of foreshortening involved as well, since the hand appears to get smaller as it goes from the bottom-left corner out towards the top right corner. And that's why the wrist and forearm appear to be a little bit bigger because of the foreshortening. Let's lower the opacity and do a little doodling over the reference photo. I'm going to show you my visual approach that I take. So first, let's just basically sketch in the forearm and the wrist. Just we have a nice base to start with. The next we're going to start pinpointing some gestural curves and lines. So what I see first here is a gesture line that goes from the tip of the thumb all the way around to the tip of the pinky finger to form a U-shaped curve. Next, I see another gestural curve going from that first joint of the thumb all the way to the opposite end of the poem. Like so. And now here the palm is actually going to be increasing horizontally from the point your fingers side to the pinky finger side. I'm going to just draw a line down the middle to show that there's gonna be a bit of a slight crease going vertically this way, and also in the opposite direction as well. So we're just going to draw the palm. So the palm essentially is going to be folding downward a little bit. That's why we don't see the middle part because it's being covered by section right here that the thumb connects to. Almost visualize it to as a bit of a wavy curve. We go from high to low and back to hi again. Now moving on to the fingers, we're going to just block the fingers into one shape. That we're going to create that curved gesture line to make sure that the tips of the fingers stay in alignment. And that way no one finger is too long or too short compared to the others. And then we'll draw the thumb. Then next take that solid shape and start splitting it to form the individual fingers. Then I'm going to draw a couple more curved lines to show where those joints are gonna be placed. Okay, so when we go and shut the reference photo off, you can kind of see it in It's more simplified form. So there we go. This one is not too tricky. Once you get the hang of it. It's really quite simple actually. So I'll shut that off and we'll create a new layer where we're gonna go and sketch this pose out from scratch. So like we did over here, tracing over the photo, I'm gonna begin with the wrist and the forearm. And then we'll begin by roughing out the hand by starting with that U-shaped gestural line. Going from the tip of the thumb all the way around, wrapping around to the tip of the pinky finger. Now we're going to draw that other occurred. Yes. Relied showing where the thumb like that a little more rough in the tip of the thumb here. Then we'll draw that line down the center to show where that palm crease is going to be. Then then we will. Sketch out the rest of that, followed by the fingers. I'm just going to move the thumb over it. How many bits? So it's not so pressed up close against the pointer finger. Okay, now let's take that shape and separated into the individual fingers. And as I've stated before, the middle finger is always gonna be the tallest. Your ring fingers are going to be about the same length and then the pinky is going to be the shortest. All right, there we go. Now I'm going to draw in those curved lines to show where the joints are in each finger. And then I'm just going to curve this part out a little bit here. And now since there's gonna be slight bends in each joint of the four fingers on top. I'm going to kind of define some of the curves in increases here a little bit to show that there's a little bit of a bend. Alright, there we go. Not so bad when she really break it down in a simple way. So now let's go and create the final line art. I'm going to bring the opacity down to about 24% and then we can trace over it. So first, I'm gonna begin with the forearm and the wrist. Then we're gonna go from there starting with the thumb. Then we're going to move to the right and go down the curb line here. That kind of outlines that section of the palm or the thumb connects to. And we're gonna kinda just go to the other side here and then go right into the pinky risks. And then we'll go over here to the pointer finger. Okay, now this is starting to take shape here. Then we'll go in with some of the grease details. Alright, and then we'll go around and just sort of thick in some of the lines. Were they need to be. Okay. That about wraps that one up. Hope you guys enjoyed this one. Personally, this is a hand pose that I really enjoyed drawing just because of the angle and the movement of the fingers and their placement. Some hand poses are more fun to draw than others. But to get better and better at drawing, you want to expand your horizons as much as possible and be as diverse as possible as well. That concludes this lesson. Thank you guys so, so much for watching. Greatly appreciate the support, and stay tuned for less than eight. Next, the bonus lesson in which I'm going to show you some hand poses in context with various character sketches that I've done. So thank you guys again and see you in the next video. 9. Lesson 8: Bonus! Drawing Hands In Context: Hey guys, welcome to the eighth and final lesson of my dynamic can pose tutorial series. I thought this would just be a nice little addition, like a bonus lesson, if you will, to add onto the other seven. That way, you can see some dynamic hand poses in contexts and inaction on several different characters that I took some time to sketch up. So I'm gonna go through each of these and just explain why I used these various hand gestures. So let's zoom in on this first character here. And I'm gonna kinda just draw over this top of the sketch with red, like I did in the other seven lessons to show you how I went about breaking down the structures into basic shapes. So here, this character is outstretched hand. This pose is very good to use whenever you're showing character who is speaking or trying to explain something. And they're being very expressive with their hand gestures. So I first went and established some of the lines of gesture that form the overall shape. As you can see, a few of these curved lines basically form the direction of the pointer finger, like this one here, for example, goes from the base of the thumb all the way to the pointer finger. And then this line goes from the knuckle of the pinkie all the way to the other side of the pointer finger. And then from there, I basically just visualize the gestural line that kind of keeps the tips of the fingers and alignment. So I basically just took the line forming one side of the pointer finger. And I sketched a couple more lines to form the other fingers. But I basically branched off this one central line right here. And then the thumb, I think it's pretty self-explanatory. But yeah, this is a very easy way to just break it down like I did in the previous seven lessons. And I'm going to go down here to his other hand that's on his hip. Same thing. Just try to visualize gestural lines that kinda go from one form to the other. Ring finger and pinky finger can be thought of as one solid shape. And then the other two fingers can follow a similar structure like so. Again, there are many different types of hand gestures that can be used when you're showing a character who is speaking has dialogue of some kind. But this is one of my favorite, favorite examples to use. Alright, next we're gonna go to this much of guy right here. And I guess be some kind of tough guy Sumo wrestler. But here he's flexing and we all know that. The vein hand gesture you use when you show a character flexing is a fifth. So I'm going to zoom in here a little closer because this particular angle can be tricky. We're showing the fists here from a bit of a lower angle. But much like the first example I explained in the other lessons, just follow the general gesture here. So there's that curved U-shape line. Again. We're gonna do the same thing on the other one. Then you basically take the palm and form the two sections here. And then from there, you just basically block it out with basic shapes. And then for the fingers are located, I've created one solid shape there, much like we've done prior to this. You then simply just separate that shape into the individual fingers. And then we're going to go up to the final character here. Strong female character is charging up some sort of energy blast in her hands. And now, this is a great opportunity to get really expressive with your hand poses. So her right hand, that's on the far side. You can see that the palm of the hand is creasing at the middle. So therefore, it's. Folding in half. That's why the positioning of the fingers is kinda fanned out. And you notice the pointer finger is pointing this way. And then you have the ring finger, I'm sorry, the middle finger. That is sort of angles this way and so on. But let's show you how I went about breaking down the shape of the palm. And I basically thought of it as a 3D square or rectangle that was holding down the middle. And then from there you can see there's a clear line of gesture right here. And I visualize the gesture from the top of the pointer finger all the way to the tip of the finger. These definitely take practice. Some hand positions are gonna be more tricky than others, but it's the ones that are the more tricky and difficult to draw. Those are the ones you need to practice more than easier ones. Then for other hand, is being shown from completely different angle. But generally the hand is in the exact same or similar position of the other one is just we're looking at it from another angle. So I'm going to outline the palm of the hand that 3D rectangles. And now it's gonna be angled downward a little bit. So I'm going to draw it like a 3D rectangles. And then here, just visualize the gesture of the finger. The pointer finger is going to be sticking up a little bit more to really be expressive. And then the middle finger, we won't see that at all. And because it's behind the thumb, then we're only going to see a little bit of the tips of the other two fingers. Because as with the other hand, the palm is going to be curved. So therefore, we're not going to see a good part of those fingers. We're just going to see the fingertips coming over the top of the pot and the base of the poem. The thumb will just kind of visualize that. The gesture like this. There we have it. So I hope this gave a little bit more insight into how different hand poses can be applied in context when you're designing a character or drawing a scene between two characters, interacting or trying to show the action of a character. This is a great opportunity to play around with hand poses and really capture the mood of that character and what they're trying to convey. So anyway, I hope this was a helpful little bonus lesson for you guys. Feel free to practice by drawing these examples here if you'd like, or come up with your own characters and hand gestures based on reference materials from the Internet. Um, but yeah, keep on practicing and have fun with it. That's the most important part. Don't lose that fun aspect of it and make it more stressful than it has to be. Just take a deep breath, exhale, and begin. So anyway, thanks so much again for watching guys Really appreciate it. And until next time, keep persevering. I'll also stay tuned for the very end as well, where I'm going to briefly explain the class projects that you guys will get to work on based on all of the information covered here in this course. So thank you again and see you there. 10. Class Assignment: Amazing work guys. Congratulations for completing this course. Now that you've gotten some more hands-on practice withdrawing dynamic hand poses. It's time to work on the class assignment. I'd like you to take what you learned from each of the video lessons here and draw your own dynamic hand gestures. Feel free to use references that we covered in the videos, or you can go online and search for new references. A couple of great resources that you can use. Our Pinterest, quick poses.com, or just simply Google Images. And then once you feel they've really gotten a handle on drawing individual hand gestures, you can take your project a step further and draw a character pose with an emphasis on the hands and their gesture. You can either draw your character from just the waist up or you can draw the entire pose. The choice is entirely up to you, but the important thing is to have fun with it. Then after you've completed your work, please upload it to the class project gallery. So that way I can leave tips and critiques for improvement. That way you can kind of get a sense of the areas that maybe you're struggling in and you can make the adjustments where needed. Please upload your work as a high resolution JPEG, whether you're working digitally or if you're working traditionally, just simply upload a photo of your work. Again, the choice is up to you. Once again, thank you guys so much for watching. I truly appreciate the support and I really hope you learned a lot here about drawing dynamic hand gestures. So keep practicing, keep working, and until next time, keep persevering.