This is a wonderfully illustrated little instruction book about drawing the hand.

The text is clear and you can see by the examples, so are the illustrations.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION
Section I. IN RELATION TO THE HEAD AND FIGURE
Section II. SHAPE, FORM AND STRUCTURE
The Open Front - Its Shape
Its Form
Pads and Cushions
FIRST ANATOMICAL INTERLUDE
The Framework of Bones
The Open Front Concluded
The Moving Front
SECOND ANATOMICAL INTERLUDE
The Joints
The Knuckles
The Ball of the Thumb
The Palm and Wrist
Wrist to Forearm
The Closed Fist - Front View
Other Aspects of the Hand
The Thumb Side - Open
The Thumb Side - Closed
The Back of the Hand
The Open Hand - Back View
The Back of the Closed Fist
The Little Finger Side
The Open Hand - Little Finger Side
The Closed Fist - Little Finger Side

Section III. ACTION AND FORESHORTENING
This Foreshortening Section IV. AGE, SEX, CHARACTER
Men's and Women's Hands
The Hands of Infants
In old Age
Section V. A STUDY OF A HAND LIST OF PLATES Plate I The Open Front
Plate II The Moving Front
Plate III The Closed Fist - Front View
Plate IV The Thumb Side - Open
Plate V Closed
Plate VI Continued
Plate VII Anatomical
Plate VIII The Back of the Hand
Plate IX The Back of the Hand Anatomical
Plate X The Back of the Closed Fist
Plate XI The Little Finger Side
Plate XII Hands in Action
Plate XIII Action and Foreshortening
Plate XIV Action and Foreshortening
Plate XV Men's Hands
Plate XVI Women's Hands
Plate XVII Babies' Hands
Plate XVIII Study of a Hand

From Chapter 1.
I. IN RELATION TO THE HEAD AND FIGURE

Make them big enough.

The front of my hand from the tip of the middle finger to the first line across the wrist, is eight inches long.

The back, because its form appears to include or overlap more of the wrist, is eight and a half inches long.

My head from crown to point of chin,, measured in a line parallel to the facial angle, is nine inches long.

In contact with my face the front of my hand covers the whole of its length from point of chin to top of forehead.

Try yours.

Your first care in drawing hands associated with the head or figure should be to make them, proportionately, the right size; and, with beginners, this instruction invariably resolves itself into exhortations to make them bigger.

Regarding them, I must suppose, as an insignificant detail, the novice always makes the hands (and feet) of his figure drawing much too small; or even neglects them altogether.

This is not a book about drawing the figure; but instruction in drawing hands cannot be better introduced than by a repetition of the most useful four words of advice ever given to me* as a student of figure drawing: Keep your drawing back.

Cram, that is, more observation, comparison, calculation, response, into each stage, even into each line of it. Let it include indications of hands (and feet) from the first general layout of pose and proportion; and let these march together with the rest of the drawing through every stage of its progress to completion. Don't leave them to be stuck on at the end.

So shall your attention be directed to first things first in drawing the hand; to the manner of its attachment to the forearm; to its relative size; to the lines expressive of its action in conjunction with the action of the figure; finally, to its own characteristic formation in detail.

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-David Beneke

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