I get a lot of tutorial requests, but today’s topic is hands-down the most-requested. Today, we learn how to draw hands.
My previous hand lesson explained the bones. Even if you’re not interested in drawing skeletons, the bones determine the proportions and range of motion. For the hand in particular, a lot of the forms of the bones are visible on the surface, so you gotta know them!
Muscles of the Hands
The hand muscles can be grouped into three teardrops: The thumb gets two teardrops and the pinky gets one on the palm side. Their teardrop-shapes are wider at the wrist and taper towards the fingers.
The one on the palm side of the thumb is the biggest and the one on the back of the hand is the smallest. They’re like the Papa Bear, Mama Bear, and Baby Bear…
But what about fingers? The fingers are made up of bones, tendons and fat… no muscle fibers in the fingers! All muscle bellies end before the metacarpophalangeal joint, (blue). That goes for the thumb, too.
As you can tell from it’s shape, the thumb is different from the others. There are a lot of muscles surrounding the thumb and it has a much larger range of motion.
Thenar Eminence
Let’s start with the thenar eminence. That’s a fancy word for the thumb mass on the palm side. It’s the biggest and most important muscle mass on the palm. It emerges from the wrist and attaches along the thumb bones. It stretches out when you stick out your thumb, but even then you can see how thick it is. It’s even more obvious when the thumb is brought towards the palm, and all the muscles bunch up into a big mass around the base. Papa Bear has a fat pot belly. You can think of it like a cone or a chicken drumstick on the thumb’s metacarpal. It changes shape as the thumb moves, which makes it a little tricky, but as long as you know its origin and insertion, you know the area it fits into.
To fully understand it’s form, you gotta know the layering of the muscles. I’ll explain all the individual hand muscles in-depth in the Premium version of this lesson.
Hypothenar Eminence
Next up, the pinky muscle mass, technically called the hypothenar eminence. This one is long and narrow, not quite as thick or wide as the thumb mass. It may look like these two masses meet in the middle of your palm, but the muscle fibers actually stop a little short with a tendinous gap between. It’s the fat sitting on top that blends them together.
Don’t go overboard with the hard edge between them or you’ll end up with hand-butts! In general, it’s better to shade it with tone than mark it with a black outline. Unless the palm is squeezed together, bringing Papa Bear and Mama Bear in for a hug. In that case hand butts are totally acceptable.
The pinky mass starts at the base of the hand. It actually travels over the side of the hand and attaches to the outside of the pinky metacarpal. This is why the ulnar side of your hand is kind of squishy when you poke it, while the radial side is hard and bony.
This pinky mass has a weird muscle on top of it that’s kinda unique. It runs perpendicular to the other muscles of the pinky. This muscle is called the palmaris brevis. Sound familiar? There was that palmaris longus muscles we learned in the forearm lesson that had the wide palm aponeurosis at the end of it. Well, the palmaris brevis originates on this palmar aponeurosis. It inserts on the skin along the pinky border of the palm. Ok, interesting… What does this muscle do? It pulls the skin inward and helps to improve grip. Go ahead and try it. Squeeze your hand together like you’re gripping something. Notice that interesting indent it creates along the pinky side of the hand. That’s the skin being pulled. The skin and palmar fat bunch up on top of the muscle belly. I bet you’ve seen that indent a gazillion times, but never really understood it. Now you know.
First Dorsal Interosseous
The final teardrop shape is the first dorsal interosseous. It’s the Baby Bear teardrop on the dorsal side of the thumb. It creates an egg-shaped bulge between the thumb and index finger metacarpals, filling that v-shaped gap between the bones. Since it’s between the two bones, the dorsal surfaces of those bones are still subcutaneous. That means you can feel the back of the bones and the soft squishy muscle between. Go ahead and find it on yourself.
When the thumb is out, this muscle mass is stretched out. When the thumb is squeezed in, it pops out as a big round egg form. It’s not as thick as the palmar thumb mass. It’s shorter, too. The dorsal thumb mass only reaches the metacarpals, while the palmar thumb mass starts way up at the wrist.
Ok, so those are the muscles of the hand! You can find the assignment and photo reference images for the assignment here.
There’s 2 more lessons and a few demonstrations coming soon, so keep your eyes open. And as always, there’s a lot more content in the Premium version of this lesson.
