Long Drawings and Hands

I was able to get a lot of in class drawing time this week, which was nice because lecture and building clay muscles can sometimes limit on how much I get to draw.  The first part of the week I continued working on the arm and forearm, and the second half was spent drawing hands.  I was able to do an hour long drawing both days this week.  In my first long drawing, the model was facing me, and I was having some issues with foreshortening, but my instructor Any Fichter helped me resolve my problem of not making the knees large enough.  They needed to be larger then I expected because they were closer then the rest of the body.

 The human hand is made up of 27 bones!  The carpus is commonly referred to as the wrist accounts for 8 bones.  The metacarpals or palm is made up of 5 bones, and the remaining 14 bones are in the fingers and thumb.  Without this complexity, we wouldn’t be able to operate such a wide variety of tools, nor be able to achieve unique hand gestures. The ulnar and median nerve are the two major nerves in the hand.  These nerves transmit electrical impulses to the brain, which create sensations and allow movement.

Prior to learning the details about the hand and building the clay muscles throughout the forearm, wrist, palm, and fingers I had no idea how complex the hand is.  I cannot believe how many muscles are in the hand and fingers.  I really noticed this when I was creating the extensor digitorum and flexor digitorum profundus on my manikin.  Although the hands and feet have a different appearance they are actually similar in bone construction.  I found it more challenging to draw a hand compared to the foot.  I believe this is because the fingers are longer then the toes and have the ability to create unique gestures.