Page:Drawing for Beginners.djvu/63

 move each finger up the knuckles loosen and dimple the skin; as you clench them once more together the knuckles curve into clean sharp forms. Each finger is based in a good strong knuckle, remember that. Young artists are too fond of crowding knuckles together, and if hands grew as their drawings indicate they would have a poor chance of gripping an oar, a handle-bar or even the useful knife and fork.

Having noted that the biggest mass is composed of the doubled fist and that the angles of thumb and forefinger bear away from each other, we see that the line of the wrist forms yet another angle.

Of course it is quite probable that your hand may not resemble mine, but the general principles hold good. My thumb is large, my fingers are long; yours probably will be shorter and the thumb more slender.

Look at the sweeping line as it proceeds form the back of the wrist to the knuckles, and notice the swelling curve of the thumb beneath and the manner in which it bends back. We will now give our attention to the forefinger. How straight and determined it is, pointing and almost speaking its command, how thick it is at the root, and how it tapers to the tip!

We now begin to search for more details. We draw the finger more carefully, marking the wrinkles on the upper part, and the corresponding curves on the lower; then we notice the way in which the loose flesh folds in springy curves, joining thumb to forefinger in a useful hinge.

We mark the clean sweep of the thumb and the wrinkles on the back-curving knuckle, also the shape of the nail, a square-cut, important-looking nail, curving on the outer edge and following the curve of the thumb-tip. Then back we trace the thumb and note the wrinkles on the largest swelling curve; back to the wrist we go until we meet its firm tendons.

From thence we might jump to the knuckles once more, noting the deeply cleft wrinkles in the bend. We should