HAND & FEET TUTORIAL

This tutorial will teach the basics about human hand and feet proportions. Although it might not be really professional, you will find here some useful tips to draw well proportioned anime hand and feet ^_^
Someone says "draw feet", and you go running and screaming like crazy. Well, it won't happen again. With this easy schems of the human feet, you will have now an idea of what is that part of your body that supports your full weight ^_^U

MATERIAL:
- A sheet of good paper (obviously ^_~)
- A 0.5 mm propeller pencil (I use a Staedtler) with blue graphite (if you don't have blue graphite, you can use regular ones [I recommend HB]) - See pic
- If you like, you can use a regular pencil (I recommend a HB or F graduation)
- An eraser (with enough practice you maybe won't use an eraser anymore)

FOR INKING:
- Any of these pen nibs: spoon pen or quill pen (even both) - See pic
- A pen holder
- Black ink
- You can substitute all of the above with a disposable rapidograph (if you can't afford a normal one). I use right now a Sakura Micron 01, with a line width of 0.25 mm - See pic

I highly recommend you have some experience in anime/manga drawing style, it will be more easier for you. Little by little you will make your own style of drawing, and soon, you won't be needing tutorials or complicated methods (like this one) to draw pretty pics ^_^

Basic hand proportions

Well, here we have an almost standart human hand. You can roughly see that a full opened hand almost fits in a circle. I mark here in blue basic figures that will help you draw more easily a hand. A central circle for the palm, two ovals for the thumb, and three ovals for the rest of the fingers.

I remind you, that the other four fingers have THREE bones, because I've seen some artists draw them with just two of them... and that looks weird. If you do this, please correct this little but significant problem, ok? ^_^


Basic foot proportions

Why is that the feet is soooooo hard to draw? Simple... lack of practice and bone proportions. I have never realized how complicated a foot can be, so please excuse me if I don't explain myself quite clearly, ok?

First of all, the foot has four main parts: the heel,the ankle, the arc and of course, the toes. To begin with, the foot has a triangular composition. You can see that in the left drawing. Now, it has also three main oval figures in it, you can roughly see them in blue. Is very simple really, try they make the triangle, also marked here.

The toes are made by three bones, but the ones at the end of each toe are insignificant. The metatarsum are the long bones that conform the arc of the foot. I really recommend you find the anatomic model of a foot, and a hand, it will help you lots! In the drawings courses I took at college, they told us to at least know where the bones are, so we won't make any deformed part of the body.

In the second drawing you have the foot seen by the front. Now this is a very, very difficult drawing view. It took me years to make the perspective look more real, and I think I still need more practice. The main figures here are to ovals that are suposed to be the ankle.

But I will give this important advice once again: KEEP PRACTICING! ^_^

You will obtain better results by practice, I also recommend to try to draw your own hands and feet, look at a mirror, then draw. It's by far the best way. Remember, all I'm doing is give you some tips for proportions. If you still have questions, you can always e-mail me.

 

IMPORTANT! After finish inking a drawing, don't forget to clean your pens and recipients you used for the ink. They will become useless when the ink dries, and you will never be able to remove it totally.

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