Drawing hands takes much practice. Hands are typically quite complex with many smooth transitions between darks and lights. Shapes overlap and need to be studied very carefully to yield acceptable realism. There are also lots of edges, crevices, and creases.
It is imperative that you do not ignore the many angles that are present in the hands. Hands are much more angular than our ingrained memorized image would suggest. Therefore, it is very easy to make the mistake of portraying the hands too chubby and rounded which leads to an unnaturally rounded.
Here are a few pointers that will give you the basic memory pack for drawing hands. When I say “memory pack”, I mean a set of memorized issues about drawing hands that should be in the foreground of your thinking whenever you draw hands. This is a facility you should develop with each feature of a portrait such as eyes, ears, etc.
* Simplify
Generally, any kind of photographic subject will have so much detail that it becomes necessary to simplify, i.e., leaving out much detail. Of course, you must develop a facility to leave out the right details and keep the important ones. This is where your artistic sensibilities play a major role. Making the right choices makes all the difference.
It is a good exercise to look at pictures in magazines and practice the simplification process. Ask yourself the question: What can I eliminate in this picture while still retaining the essence of the subject? In fact, as you get more experienced you may ask yourself the question: What should I add to obtain an even more convincing rendition of the essence of the person I am portraying?
The same is true with drawing hands. The hands have usually so much detail in them that you must discard the unimportant details. At first, keep your eye on the major shapes, the so-called large masses. You do not want to miss those.
