Hand studies #195-209 here – crossed the halfway mark! (400 is the final goal)
Almost starting to believe I know how to draw hands... 🤔 – Must be a temporary delusion.
#400hands
Conversation
Silly question, are these all from imagination or are you referencing existing images?
I need to know because it’s melting my brain 🤯
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Not at all a daft question! I’m 100% using lots and lots of reference when drawing these - both photo reference of actual IRL hands, AND (more importantly) reference of drawn hands in animated films and classic illustrations/comics to study how they simplify and stylise shapes
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The myth that illustrators draw everything out of their head is such a strange urban legend 😆 - Would be like a reporter not doing any reading, research or interviews before writing their articles.
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Cool, thanks for answering. I was just interested if having drawn as many as you have meant that you’d now got hands totally down and didn’t need references anymore. Interesting to get your take on it. I’m all for references when/if I draw (which is very rare these days)
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Replying to
It’s definitely easier to loosely sketch a hand without reference when im just playing around and doing first drafts. Have a much more robust ‘visual library’ of memorised hand gestures now. But for final work I’ll always photograph my own hand in the position I need.

