Artists & Illustrators - UK (2019-10)

October

TIPS • ADVICE • IDEAS

sketchbook

This

Hes

Club

byT

£

1

THINKINTERMSOF‘MITTENS’

Fora veryquicksketch,ratherthanleaveouttheextremitiesall

together,seethearrangementofthehandasa blockyshape,and

evenif thefingersaresplayed,pretendtheyareina mitten,albeit

a stretchedone.Depictthethumbasseparate,asina mitten.

Thisis a perfectlyadequateoptionfora quickpose– it is

preferabletohavesomethingsimpleandwell-formedthan

somethingdevelopedbutinaccurate.

2

ADDTONETOPROVIDEDEFINITION

Thenextsteptobreakingdownthehandshapeis tocreate

constructionlinesthatcorrespondtothejoints.Thiswillgivean

indicationofthepositionofthefingerswithinthemittenshape.

If youhavetimetoaddsomebasictone,youwillcreatea

convincingthree-dimensionalrepresentationofthehand.

LeonardodaVinci’shandstudiesshowhowtoneis effective

insimpleanddetaileddrawings.

3

DELAYSEPARATION

OFTHEFINGERS

Onlyafterhavingdonealloftheabove

wouldI considerseparatingthefingers,

andpossiblynotif theyareveryclose

together,withouta darkocclusionshadow

todistinguishthemfromeachother.This

levelofdetailis onlyneededinlonger

poses,perhapsofhalfanhourormore.

Whenyoudodividethemitteninto

fingers,draweachindependently,rather

thansplitthehandintofourequalparts.

Nowthateachfingeris a basicshape,it is

possibletorefinetheoutlineandaddtone.

HELPING HAND

HESTER BERRY shares a three-step plan for drawing that trickiest of subjects: the hand

Check angles,

heights and

distance if possible