One of the most difficult things to draw when drawing people is the hands, and truthfully I always used to hide the hands somehow! Of course a much better idea is to really understand the structure of the hand, which will make drawing hands so much simpler. What is the structure, well the skeleton of course, but not studied in a spooky way, but rather in an anatomical way. Drawing skeleton hands might seem daunting, especially considering that each hand has 27 bones, which you must draw to be symmetrical and proportional. However, even with little to no training, you can easily learn how to master this technique by following this simple beginner-friendly guide! And it just so happens that some children might not be interested in drawing typical subjects, but just might be very interested in learning to draw a skeleton hand, which is a win win, as working on drawing skills is a huge plus for any age. Okay, shall we learn some hand anatomy?
5 Steps to Draw a Skeleton Hand
Since this drawing a hand skeleton guide is meant for beginners, we will break the hand down into simple forms and draw each individually. This way, sketching a skeleton hand won't be as challenging as it first appears!
We will walk you through these steps:
- Draw the palm bones
- Draw the finger bones
- Finalizing bone outlines
- Adding the last touches
- Shading the Drawing
- Draw the palm bones
The first step in designing a skeleton hand is to sketch the base of the palm.
This is where the carpal bones are located. They link your hand and forearm.
Draw an oval shape as a preliminary drawing of the carpals.
- Draw the finger bones
Next, we will be working on the metacarpal bones. "Metacarpal bones" refers to the longest bones in your fingers.
You want to start with five circles of about the same size to the top of the oval form. These are the metacarpal bones' bottoms. Every circle should have the top line of carpals passing through its center. The shape of the carpals with the bottom of the longest finger bones resembles a paw. Each finger contains three bones (except the thumb, which has two).
To begin, measure the length of the metacarpal bones and draw additional circles to indicate the top of each bone.
The longest metacarpal bones are found in your index and middle fingers, so keep this in mind while adding joints.
Draw five more circles, parallel to the ones at the bottom.
Continue to add circles to your sketch. Connect the circles to make the metacarpal bones.
The top and bottom circles are joined with straight lines to form the shape of the metacarpal bones.
Next, sketch proximal phalanges. These are your finger's middle bones.
Again, the simplest approach to draw the bones is to note where they begin and stop, then join the two ends.
Draw five more circles on top of the metacarpal bones.
Begin constructing the central bones by sketching circles. To complete the shape of the proximal phalanges, add circles to indicate the top of the bones.
The middle finger has the longest proximal phalange, followed by the pointer finger, and so on. Now connect the circles.
Next, sketch the middle phalanges. Repeat the steps from the previous section. The hand is gradually taking form!
Finally, the distal phalanges, which are the smallest of all of them, appear in the outline!
To draw them, simply use short, straight lines. The initial drawing of a skeleton hand is finally complete!
- Finalize the bone outline
Once you've positioned the bones and determined their lengths, you can outline them. Start with the metacarpal bones. All you have to do is join the circles at the top and bottom.
Use rounded edges and make the bones thin toward the center. Outline the metacarpal bones first, followed by the proximal bones. Draw without any sharp edges, and make sure the bones are smaller in the middle than at the ends. Don't worry if your bone sketches aren't flawless.
Some lines may not appear symmetrical, and some may not be as curled as the others — and that's fine!
Next, you want to outline the middle phalanges. You may skip the thumb for now; you'll return to it in the following stage!
Finish defining the fingers by adding the distal phalanges. These little bones have a broad bottom, a narrow center, and a mushroom-shaped, oval top.
The final stage in outlining bones is to draw the carpal bones. You could draw them as rocks of roughly the same size.
And the hand is done!
- Add the finishing touches
Now is the time to add some final touches and begin shading the drawing.
For starters, draw a few small lines at the base and top of each bone. That indicates the bones are not smooth but have a roughness visible to the naked eye. Once you are satisfied with the details on your drawing, you can continue to shading.
- Shade your drawing
To make your skeleton hand design more lifelike, shading it is the way to go.
You don't want to overdo the shading. Start small and go back where you feel like you need to. Better to add than to have to start again.
You may go over the outline to make the lines more obvious, then gradually darken the top and bottom of the bones, as well as the sides.
Conclusion
There is an old saying stating ’Everything is easy, if someone shows you how’. Well, hopefully, this extremely beginner-friendly guide showed you that you don’t have to be afraid of drawing a hand skeleton! All you need to know how to draw is circles!
And everybody knows how to draw circles. Even you!
Good luck!
