One of the most challenging subjects of drawing and painting is the human hand. There are the old masters who from Renaissance on never stopped amazing us with their fine art studies on hands.
There are styles in iconography for instance which differ so much in rendering human hands as they are mostly governed by canons(byzantine art, gothic art).
Some of the finest artists specialized in rendering some of their concept of hands like El Greco.
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There is no generic hand(unless you are doing illustration);there are old hands, baby hands, rustic and noble, elegant hands all immortalized on canvas for centuries to come and learn from the masters.
Some drawing books have anatomy lessons on how to draw hands realistically.That could be helpful in grasping the concept and having the awareness of anatomy beyond flesh or the flatness of photographs.

But to me the fascination of hands is the real life hand.

As i have only one pair i cannot have variation and I can only try to change the position of my hand.Some of these sketches i did last summer in Kay's thread for handscapes.

But i challenge you to observe and sketch, draw one of your hands and see for yourself the satisfaction and beauty of this exercise.

Before joining drawspace, that is before learning value drawing, i attempted my first hand drawing holding a flower(dry and fresh rose). here it is my early approach to my hand in March 2008.

very nice hands Elena, though i find el greco hands to all look exactly the same, all feminine, same placement on chest, same hand pose..

I notice that as well, as if he was just coping from one painting to the next. Guess hands were hard for him too

The style in El Greco painting is called Mannerism and this refers to an artificial rather than natural anatomy with elongated faces, limbs oriented towards a religious and spiritual message.This style erupted just after high Renaissance and was embraced by other Italian artists but none achieved this elongated anatomy like El Greco.
Is important to mention that he was a Greek painter from Crete, and familiar with byzantine iconography, which might be a factor in his later development of mannerism.

Anyway try your own hand in your own style, let's see the diversity of hands and styles we can produce in this thread.

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great hand steve, very masculine and a workers..

Yes but I have a very soft touch!

Excellent, Steve. You only need a manicure. But at second thought the guitar requires long nails.

Not on that hand!

You know, that my grandmother tried to teach me playing the mandolin and I kind of learned something but not as good as she was. The mandolin is the opposite of guitar when it comes to nails. You really need them short (on the hand that presses the strings.)For the other hand you use a plectrum.

Here is a drawing from july 2008.

that is a great drawing..

I took guitar lessons, acoustic, but being deaf in one ear and OMG...I had to cut my nails as they are generally very very long, and I hated that, and my fingertips hurt me sooo bad, that I simply couldnt tough it out..

I found it difficult, kay, playing an instrument. requires a lot of determination for hard work and practice.You are like an athlete who needs training and maintainance.Besides my grandmother had a teacher when she was nine years old.I was 16 when she attempeted to teach me. She had a wonderful voice and accompanied herself with the mandolin; mostly Italian neapolitan songs. Delightful.I couldn't be like her. I have a beautiful voice too, but couldn't sing and play at the same time.

Anyway, this is about hands and what we do with them.
You can hold a pencil or any other object and observe how tour hand shows "motion" or the hand gesture.

This is the kind of hand I like to draw!


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And very good one Steve...

Steve your hand was trembling when you drew this Your lines are showing your emotion to have such a good hand

Here are mine from last summer.

sanguine and sanguine + sepia.

Two sketches both done at about half an hour each. I was very happy with these, not because they were really realistic but because they are the first real life ones I've ever done

Yes I know- I have girly hands.

both sketches excellent, nap.Now i see you are left handed and this is interesting for our thread.
I told you this exercise gives satisfaction when completed.You really showed you drawing muscles in this.Bravo!

Thank you.

Speaking of muscles, I'll be glad when I learn to sketch those a little faster. Trying to keep my hand still for 30 minutes trying to hold that same pose is exhausting

You will. It's a matter of practice.Nap you don't need to start with a complete value sketch but just outline your hand. This develops your eye hand coordination and the more repetitive you go with these quick sketches the more speed you will get.
You can try holding a pencil, a brush or another small object for the shape your hand takes in these poses.

Also for all I suggest a different challenge: try to draw with your left hand for right hand people and viceversa.

I don't quite understand what you mean, should I try to draw my left hand?

If you are right handed then your drawing is of your left hand.Right?
If so try to draw with your left hand your right hand. And for those left handed, try to draw your left hand with your right hand.

Ah now I understand.

Don't expect anything decent though, I'm horrible with my right hand It's like a useless piece of meat

precisely for that you need to test your skills.It will take longer than the other sketches but it's important to teach you hand to work.
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Well, in the meantime. Here is another one, holding an object (one you're all very familiar with, I'm sure)

absolutely wonderful and the pencil is great realistic draw.You are doing pretty good with hand drawing, Nap. That means that your life drawing skills are well developed and you should use as much as possible sketching from real life.
You can assemble on a small table everyday objects from your household, cups, jars, bottles, fruit, vegetables, pots and vases and sketch them with attention on light and shadow and cast shadow.Try to shade well your sketches, go dark for darker areas, eventualy a layout pencil will help, but surely charcoal is the best way to learn sketching from life.So you can get a 3D effect.The difference between drawing from pictures and drawing from life is that photos are flat and won't teach you the 3 dimensionality that life and realistic drawing is all about.
I guess that 30 minutes sketching from life everyday will develop rather quick your abilities to draw well with confidence and great results.

this is a superquick 5 minutes sketch of my right hand drawn with my non dominant hand.

It's funny how I always spot the obvious mistakes in my drawings when I look at them the day after. The pencil in my drawing looks like a banana

My quick sketches.

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Very promising sketches, Sipsik.Your sketches really have life in them.