• Tutorials, How-To’s and Step-by-Step’s
• Videos
• Anatomy
• Books
• Poses
• Photo Reference

Tutorials, How-To’s and Step-by-Step’s

It’s often useful to have a step-by-step guide, tutorial, or “recipe” on how to accomplish a certain task.  I’ve found that following steps is good to grasp basic concepts before going on to experiment and expand one’s understanding.  Tutorials on drawing hands are no different, and the tutorials and how-to’s listed below should be a good starting point.

J. Peffer created some nice step-by-steps for about a handful of hand poses.

Nice little tutorial by Ron Lemen.

Tom Richmond’s site is a must-go for any aspiring cartoonist and caricaturist and has a wealth of information.

Joumana Medlev has a superb introduction on the anatomy of hands on DeviantArt; also check out her work on cedarseed.com.

Quick hands and feet tutorial on Scribd by unknown author.

This tutorial is a bit different in that it’s more focused on how to draw using a graphic tablet as opposed to a hand per se. Nonetheless, it’s never bad to learn two things at once, so check out Whyball’s “How to Draw a Classic Hand using a Graphics Tablet” over on GoMediaZine.

Short and sweet hand drawing tut by uchuucacahuate on deviantart.

(Very) short but good tutorial by nk-chan on deviantart.com.

Excellent hand tutorial by alexds1 on deviantart.com – I really wish I could executive cartoon hands like that!

Good step-by-step tutorial by vashs-angel on deviantart.com: simple illustrations and descriptive text.
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Videos

Often it’s helpful to see someone else do something, not just in pictures, but in real-time.  Here are some videos that show hands being drawn:

For you all you manga heads out there, you wanna go check out Mark Crilley’s channel on YouTube on how to draw manga. Among those the video above on how to draw a hand holding a sword and how to just draw a hand.

Nice demonstration on how to draw a hand by cattusOK on YouTube.

Here we have another tutorial on how to draw female hands, also executed in Photoshop, via WonderHowTo.
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Anatomy

As one of the more complex instruments of the body, a sound understanding of underlying anatomy of hands can help considerably when trying to render realistic and convincing hands in your drawings.  Below are resources that should help you begin to understand how hands truly work.

The Wikimedia Commons continues to be a great place to find reference material, such as the hand anatomy plate from Gray’s Anatomy of the Human Body pictured above.

Drawing and Anatomy by Victor Perard has pretty in depth coverage of human anatomy even though the drawings aren’t the best I’ve seen.  Nonetheless, very useful for the artist seeking to deepen their understanding of anatomy.

A more comprehensive discussion on drawing hands and feet which (I believe) originated on WetCanvas by JayD and then ended up on document form on Scribd.

Great mini-tutorial on hands by T. Arthur Smith on DeviantArt, looking to go beyond a tutorial on simply the idealized form of the hand.

I’ve mentioned him before in the post on skulls, and I’ll mention him again here: check out Michael Hensley for some great anatomical drawings with a distinctive style.
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Books

Perhaps the ultimate “tutorial” on drawing hands, “Drawing Dynamic Hands” by Burne Hogarth is a must-have reference book in your library. You can buy it here on Amazon.

Mr. Hogarth has more hand material in that most amazing work, Dynamic Anatomy.  You can buy it here on Amazon.

Thankfully there’s a copy of “Drawing Head and Hands” over at Scribd, by that other master of drawing, Andrew Loomis. The section on drawing hands isn’t as comprehensive as that on heads, but a great resource nonetheless, especially when trying to draw non-male hands (female, baby, etc.).

George Bridgman is the author of yet another treasure of a book on drawing.  Above you can see a plate from his the chapter on hands in the book Constructive Anatomy, available at the Internet Archive (or here via Scribd).
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Poses

Here’s a list of resources that display hands from many different angles.  It’s truly remarkable just how many poses the hand can be seen in.

Useful collection of hand poses by Chrissy Fellmeth.

More hand poses by what-i-do-is-secret on deviantart.com.

A nice little collection of female hand poses by artrush73’s hub page.

Mickey Mouse Hand Model Sheet by Les Clark

The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive has some true gems when it comes to old drawings, such as this hand model sheet of Mickey Mouse by Les Clark from 1932.  Lot of other great stuff too, check it out. Found via this post on Animopus.

Another hand model sheet can be found on the Ultimate Iron Giant website, this one in particular being of Hogarth’s hand.  There’re literally a ton of other drawings on sketches related to the Iron Giant, you’ll find the hands in about the middle of the page.

Nice little reference on drawing animal hands/paws provided by Kelly on drawfurry.com.

Great study of the hand in its many incarnations – love the minimal style here.  By jimmymcwicked on deviantart.com.
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Photo References

Although you’ve got a pair for easy reference, it can help to look at a photo of a real hand, especially for awkward angles.  Here are a few sites that should give you ample hand pose pictures for hours of hand-drawing fun.

Nice collection of hand poses taken by Thomas A of Ander’s hands, via elfwood.com.

This site is certainly something out of the ordinary: Hands for Drawing by Pose Maniacs allows you select various hand poses and then turn them in 3D (select one of the numbers in the right-hand menu).  Great when you can’t find a proper reference at just the right angle.

Nice collection of both male and female hands in various interesting poses.

Female left hands by WindsweptSummer on deviantart.com.

Hand holding pencil by dragyourstock on deviantart.com.

Related posts:

1. How to Draw a Skull: 50 How-to's, Tutorials, Studies, Photo References, Videos, and Inspirational Skull Illustrations
2. 7 Tutorials on How to Draw the Human Anatomy / Body / Figure
3. Drawings and Tutorials by Brian Ewing

Decomposition of Memory by Colin Harbut

Colin Harbut is definitely one talented artist.  In his many portraitures, I feel that the essence of the subject is really conveyed and comes across in his works.  The above “Decomposition of Memory” is fascinating and tackles a topic unfortunately taboo in our society: old age.  He’s also made a statement with his work “24,000″ in which he literally drew 24,000 circles to visualize the number of people who die each day of hunger-related issues.

You can find much more his work on his website, ColinHarbut.com.

3 more images below the jump.

Decomposition of Memory II by Colin Harbut

Portrait Study (Old Man) by Colin Harbut

Self Portrait: Deadlines by Colin Harbut

Related posts:

1. "Tower of Babel" by Colin McAllister
2. Untitled by Antonia Franck
3. Self Portrait Sketch and More by Shawn Barber

Whatever the case, at the end of day, skulls are pretty cool! Which is exactly why I set out to put together of a haphazard list of drawings, photos, tutorials & how-tos, videos, and illustrations dealing with the human skull.

I hope it proves useful to you and inspires you as it has me. So without further ado, categorized by what seemed to make sense, skulls:

• Anatomical Studies of Skulls
• How-to’s and tutorials on drawing skulls
• Stylized Skulls
• Photo references of Skulls
• Websites devoted to skulls

Enjoy!

Anatomical Studies of Skulls

Skull Left Lateral Index from Gray’s Anatomy of the Human Body

Skull Plate by Dr. Bock

Human Skull Engraving by William Miller

Human Skull Side from David Darling’s Internet Encyclopedia of Science. Great resource for the anatomy of the human skull.

Skull Drawings by Paul Doeman

Skull Drawing by Ha Young Lee

Skull Sketches by Nadine Gorham

Idealized Proportion Human Figure, The Human Skull, Plate VII by Michael M. Hensley. You’ve got to check this guy’s website out, Human Anatomicae: he’s got fantastic reference drawings of the human bodies. Especially useful is the section on hands and feet – but that’s another post

Skull – Front and Side View by krisheding

Skull Drawing by Nicole Breedyk (via Flickr)

Skull Page by Steven Russell Black (via Flickr)

How-to’s and tutorials on how to draw skulls

How to Draw a Skull on 2d-Digital-Art-Guide

How To Draw A Skull And Crossbones on Drago-Art

Discover Easy Steps To Have Your Pencil Drawing Of A Skull on Pencil-Drawing-Idea.com

How to Draw a Skull on ExpertVillage.com

Drawing the Human Skull on draw23.com

Draw a Skull with a Wacom Tablet from Go Media on Vimeo.

Stylized Skulls

Skull Reference by Matthew Amey. The image above is one of 151 drawings of the human skull Matthew Amey did in 2003. Those along with skull drawings by 150 artists can be found on the website: this is definitely for all the skull lovers out there. Here’s another one from the book (which you can buy here):

Skull by Ron Domstead

La Coka Nostra by Brian Morris. This guy has some real dope drawings and illustrations. You can get the above image on a T-Shirt over at shopbenchmark.com. One of his tees is also featured on Threadless Select.

Pinstripe Skull by Rob Schwager. Above available as print Schwager’s online store.

Skull by hydro74 and another one by the same artist:

Skull Illustration by hydro74… siiick.

Machine Skull by Eliot Flores – When I first stumbled upon this picture I thought it’d be from hydro74, they look somewhat similar… can’t decided which one is sicker!

Scaphocephaly by R. E. Wolf (via Flickr)

Trophy Skull by Danny PiG (via Flickr)

Snake and Skull by Joe_13 (via Flickr)

Pumpkin Pattern – Skulls by Chris Rushing (via Flickr)

Skull by b.media (via Flickr)

Skull Head72 by ceroakb1 (via Flickr)

Metal Skull by Marcus Tegtmeier (via Flickr)

Skull & Lotus by Usugrow – this guy is incredible, and he loves skulls. You can also check out this bit on an Usugrow art opening on Fecal Face.

Alien Biker Skull by Von R. Glitschka

Grunge Skull Illustration by Chad Lonius. Chad’s got some sick illustrations and gives away free vector illustrations from time to time, including the one shown above!

Another Skull by Shane from ShanesArt.com – dude’s got some sick skills.

Tribal Skull by Ty Lombardi

Skull Tattoo by Bazaar

Photo references of skulls

Human Skull by David Liittschwager on California Academy of Sciences Skulls website – great resource for all kinds of funky skulls.

Human Skull by DeLoy Roberts – Granted this picture is kind of crappy, but his website has tons of animal skulls as well.

Azibaza has some crazy items for sale – unfortunately this Tibetan carved human skull is sold out. Definitely check out some of their other items, including their kapalas (skull caps).

More crazy skulls can be found over at tribalartasia.com, including this Naga Headhunting Human Trophy Skull.

Cradleboard Skull from bmezine.com. Although retired, you can still look at the pictures of skulls – this one in particular from the “Deformation and other Unique Defects” category.

You can find skull replicas of all kinds of hominids over Skulls Unlimited (in the Fossil Hominids section), including this Homo neanderthalensis skull.

More ostheological reproductions are available from Bone Clones, including this skull with brain… cool

Human Skull with Horns from subversiveelement.com. According to this most entertaining site, this skull was found in 1880’s in Pennsylvania, USA, but was subsequently stolen. Sitting on top of male skeletons 7 ft. tall, these would have made for some scary fellows.

For more bizarre skulls check out this skull of a supposed fishman; apparently quite a few of them have been found according to dominorus’ site.

Websites Devoted to Skulls

For those of you who haven’t gotten their fill, here are more websites devoted to skulls exclusively:

Skull-A-Day – the blog of artist Noah Scalin. Not too long ago he decided to make a one skull a day for a year, and so he did. Recently completed, the blog lives on with user contributed skulls and spawned a book that you can find through IndieBound.

I Want Your Skull – great site that also publishes its own little sweet zine. Great skull art and plenty of inspiration here.

Sweet Skulls.com – Examines the skull in pop culture. You’ll find a lot of old b-movie posters and other assorted trash art.

Stuff to buy

The End, almost

No post on skulls would be complete without a nod to Skullface himself, Ghost Rider:

Ghost Rider cover by Marc Silvestri

… but the last laugh goes to the ultimate bonehead:

Related posts:

1. How to Draw Hands: 35 Tutorials, How-To’s, Step-by-Steps, Videos, Studies, Poses and Photo References
2. Drawings and Tutorials by Brian Ewing
3. 7 Tutorials on How to Draw the Human Anatomy / Body / Figure

Los Angeles, Self Portrait Sketch by Shawn Barber

If you like tattoo art, you’ll love Shawn Barber.  As his website states: “Shawn Barber’s body of work focuses primarily on painting, portraiture and documenting contemporary tattoo culture.”  Barber’s many paintings focus on artists, specifically artists with tattoos.  He goes around the world to meet and document them, an experience which he later turns into the painting.  If you’re looking to get a tattoo, you might find some inspiration here!  Also don’t forget to check out “Studio Visit: Shawn Barber and Henry Lewis” over at Fecal Face.

More below the jump.

Shawn Barber Studio Visit by Art Adventures.

Mister Cartoon’s Hands (Collaboration with Estevan Oriol) by Shawn Barber

Sketch of Henry Lewis as seen in Forever and Ever: New Works by Shawn Barber

Portrait of the Artist, Gregory Mocilnikar by Shawn Barber

Related posts:

1. Untitled by Antonia Franck
2. "Decomposition of Memory" and Others by Colin Harbut
3. Self Portrait (No. 23 / B5 Series) and Others by Matt W. Moore

“February” by Jason D’Aquino

“Wrong” by Jason D’Aquino

I gotta say that I love Jason D’Aquino’s drawings – it’s like the 50’s on a bad acid trip: vintage psycho.  Jason definitely has a vision of his own that remarkably show through in all of his drawings.  The materials he chooses to draw on add a subliminal quality to the final work, and his subjects seem a study of the subconscious.

In a weird way some his drawings remind me of Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun” video.  Do yourself a favor and check out more of Jason D’Aquino’s work.

More pics below after the jump.

“Dirty Dan the Hot Dog Man” by Jason D’Aquino

“The Server” by Jason D’Aquino

“Lust” by Jason D’Aquino

“Abduction” by Jason D’Aquino

“Death” by Jason D’Aquino

“The Wrong Way” by Jason D’Aquino

“Suffragette” by Jason D’Aquino

“October” by Jason D’Aquino

“Cthulu Can You Come Out and Play” by Jason D’Aquino

Related posts:

1. “Mom” by Jason Chan
2. Untitled No. 33 and Others by Richard Colman
3. Godmachine