Japanese pro Advice to students – How to draw hands

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Hello everyone,
Many people have the same problems when they draw. Let’s learn about drawing techniques again, this time by referring to advice given by a professional Japanese teacher in response to a question from a real student. Let’s use it as a reference when you draw illustrations and manga!

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How to draw hands

Student
Hello sensei,
For this practice I prepared my own character and made some combinations of facial expressions and hand gestures. I am not sure about wrist proportions. And also I had some struggles with drawing elbows. Please check let me know how these 2 parts could be improved.
Thank you.

Teacher
Hi!
Well done! You’ve had a really great go at a difficult lesson! First of all, it’s wonderful that you prepared and drew the characters! I also love how each pose and face is unique! I especially like the face and pose on the right in the attached image.

To draw the wrists well, it’s important to get the orientation of the hands right. In most of your current drawings, the hands are facing the screen in the same orientation. By using a simple box to angle the hands, it becomes easier to determine the direction of the wrists. Try practicing with different hand angles using a simple box!

The elbows are almost always well drawn! The key is to be aware of the bones, but this will be explained in detail in the upcoming arm lesson, so please refer to that as well.

For poses that can be observed, such as the peace sign pose, make it a habit to draw while observing your own hands. Most professionals also draw while observing their own hands. If you draw solely from memory, you might feel like you did a good job at the time, but it won’t lead to lasting improvement.

Keep up the good work!

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Anime Art Academy is an online course with video lectures and personalized advice from Japanese professionals as described above.
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