Page:Drawing for Beginners.djvu/62

 CHAPTER IV

Drawing Hands

HANDS are excellent things on which to practise drawing. Firstly, because they are difficult; secondly because having two we can always spare one and draw that. And we can draw hands early and late. We shall never draw hands too often nor study them too much. It is often said that we can judge an artist's work by the drawing of the hands. If the hands are good the rest of the work is good and if bad, then so is the rest.

It is not wise to make hard-and-fast rules; still, there is a good deal of truth in the saying, as we shall very soon discover.

When first drawing hands we must apply the same broad rules&mdash;of simplicity. We must choose simple positions.

For instance, that hand with finger pointing, with which we are so painfully familiar; that ugly, ill-drawn hand&mdash; "This way to the Menagerie," "This way to the Performing Bears," "This way to the Cricket Pavilion," "This way to the best Teashop in the Town." "This way," we might add, "to our first drawing of a Hand."

Having the offer of our left hand, we can begin without delay. Let us sit squarely at a table, resting our left elbow on a book and pointing the index finger straight in front of us.

Observe the whole shape carefully; block in the strong square angles and proceed from the beginning of the wrist to the upper knuckle&mdash;then along the forefinger to the more or less square block of the inner finger and on to the sweeping curve of the thumb.

Now open your hand, spreading out your fingers. As you