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Hands and feet to yourself : learn how to draw hands and feet

How to draw hands and feet by Sandrine Pelissier on ARTiful, painting demos
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Hands and feet to yourself : learn how to draw hands and feet

drawing hands

Drawing hands

It might have happened to you, you are at a life drawing class and feel relief because for the next pose you won’t see the model’s hands or feet, and even better not his face. Then start to wonder what is the point of avoiding difficulty and what would be the best way to improve that particular skill.

Hands and feet to yourself : drawing hands and feet

Hands in particular are one of the most expressive part of the body, essential to body language, so very important in life drawing. One of the best advice I read in a drawing book was to draw hands and feet as much as you can until you feel comfortable with it. Draw them everyday, and do so for a long time.

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As I believe sometimes the best way to overcome a difficulty is just to practice,  I started trying to draw at least a few hands and a few feet watching television in the evening, either mine or my kids and I think I am starting to see improvement just after 2 weeks, at least I draw them with more confidence at the life drawing classes. Here is a selection of those hands and feet (click on the pictures to see a larger version) :

learn how to draw hands and feet
learn how to draw hands and feet

 

learn how to draw hands and feet
5/5 - (2 votes)

Comments (6)

  1. As students,we were told to draw our body parts as much as we can, models being very expensive. Once in a while, we were having 15 minutes sketches competitions to see who improved their skills.We were also having a lot of fun.

    1. Thanks Monica, I think that is a great exercise , plus you get quite a bit of foreshortening when drawing yourself 🙂

  2. I think we were reading the same life drawing book…:) “The Natural Way to Draw” by any chance?

    Awesome sketches, by the way.

    1. Hello Yevgenia,
      I was reading ” Drawing from within” Nick Meglin with Diane Meglin :
      http://www.drawingamerica.org/2010/07/drawing-from-within.html
      , but will check out ” The Natural Way to Draw” too.
      Thanks for your comment 🙂

  3. Beautiful drawings of hands and feet, Sandrine. I remember practicing and practicing, too. The biggest step, for me, was learning where to take my pencil line into the foot or hand to describe a cross contour, often where the hand bends or the foot takes a turn around the ball or heel of it.

  4. great post – lovely to see all the different positions hands and feet come in… I am sure there are a thousand more.

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