Drawing Hands #3: Finger Bundling

Hands are complicated. Here's a way to simplify them.

As we all know, hands are hard to draw because there are many moving parts, all of which work independently. However, there are ways to simplify them for drawing purposes by using a technique I call finger bundling.

Here’s the background of this method. One way you can simplify hands is to remove a finger. This is an animation trick because three fingers are a lot easier to animate, and are easier to “read.” Take a look at this page from Preston Blair’s animation book:

This works really well for anthropomorphic characters who never had any hands to begin with, so who’s to say that three fingers is wrong?

However, three fingers tends to look strange on humans because we are used to seeing four. Even the simplest of characters tend to have four as a result.

So in most cases, the three finger solution won’t work, especially if your style is even less cartoony than Linus, Sluggo, and Little Lulu above.

But what works is to bundle fingers together to simplify the shapes. Here are some examples from Checkups, Shots, and Robots, my graphic novel that comes out on November 12th.

Frequently what I will do is bundle the middle finger and ring finger together so that they are parallel and work as one unit, as if the character only had three fingers. Look at the hands of the guy on the right (who happens to be Anton Van Leeuwenhoek). You’ll see four fingers, but they are operating as if they are three.

Another thing you can do is bundle all of the fingers together, making a “mitten” of sorts. Then the fingers become one unit instead of four separate digits. And you’ll see how I bundled the two middle fingers on the right hand of Leeuwenhoek as well.

Here’s another example of both techniques on his assistant. Single bundle on the right hand, middle fingers bundled on the left hand:

You’ll notice in each of the flat palm examples I hid a finger behind the others, also simplifying the shape that way. (And this is how hands behave in real life).

I also want to take a close look at one of the hands and show you how the anatomy lessons from the first post apply here. Notice the suggestion of knuckles and the palm:

And you’ll also notice another simplification technique: the elimination of one knuckle, which I discussed in the previous post with Uderzo. He draws realistic hands, but with one knuckle missing to simplify it. Somehow it works. You don’t notice the missing finger, because they still look enough like real hands to fool you. But even here you’ll notice that Uderzo is bundling three fingers together on each of Getafix’s hands to simplify the shape.

Even when I’m drawing something with less knuckle definition, I still keep in mind the two knuckle structure and use it as a guide. Look at the guy on the left:

You’ll notice that there’s a suggestion of joints, even though the hands are more like hot dogs.

Of course, another strategy is one used by Virgil Partch: completely ignore the rules of fingers.

Any other hand drawing tips? Let’s start a conversation!