I just noticed this!
Mar. 17th, 2014 08:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
I've seen this cool hand reference floating around Tumblr before:

But tonight's the first time I thought "wow, that diagram showing where the thumb lines up to the other fingers looks kind of weird; does it really look like that?"
Quick comparison to my own hands says: nope! When rested on a flat surface, the tip of my thumb is waaaay above the palm/finger knuckle joints! It's pretty close to being even with the first finger hinge joint of my pointer finger. o.O
Either this guide was drawn by someone with weird hands, or I have weird hands, or (possibly) this is one of those subtly gendered proportion things.
How do YOUR hands line up?

But tonight's the first time I thought "wow, that diagram showing where the thumb lines up to the other fingers looks kind of weird; does it really look like that?"
Quick comparison to my own hands says: nope! When rested on a flat surface, the tip of my thumb is waaaay above the palm/finger knuckle joints! It's pretty close to being even with the first finger hinge joint of my pointer finger. o.O
Either this guide was drawn by someone with weird hands, or I have weird hands, or (possibly) this is one of those subtly gendered proportion things.
How do YOUR hands line up?
no subject
Date: 2014-03-18 02:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-18 02:28 am (UTC)Funny, I was observing someone's drawing and saying something to them about the fingers on the hand they were drawing (their own), when I took a quick glance at the person's fingers and realized they were much shorter than mine, so what I was saying wasn't true.
no subject
Date: 2014-03-19 01:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-18 03:06 am (UTC)Also, I literally cannot get either of my hands into the position shown in that comparative finger length diagram. My thumb won't do it unless I contort my palm such that my thumb is no longer resting flat against the surface in question and there is a noticeable bulge and line where it's jammed uncomfortably tight up against my palm to get the tip that close to my index finger... and even then, it's tilted half onto its side instead of having the nail facing straight upward.
In summary, hands are weird and everybody's are weird in different ways. :-)
no subject
Date: 2014-03-18 03:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-18 03:56 am (UTC)Like
The third drawing (first one of the "clawed" hand), it looks like the artist made the middle joint of the fingers too long. They look almost more like spider legs than fingers. Also, I don't think the artist implied the hollow created by the hand when holding one's fingers in that position very well. Alternately, they're holding the first joint straight up and down, in which case the inward curve of the fingers is far too extreme. For a third option, they could be reaching farther down the palm, but according to my hand, the nails are in the wrong position for that, and it's a very uncomfortable position to hold the hand for long enough to draw it. It's also an unnatural pose; possibly because it's so uncomfortable, I can't think of a single reason to hold one's hand that way, or what one would hold in one's hand that would force it into such a position.
Hands are among the harder body parts to draw, not least because of how expressive they are; even so, I'm really not impressed by this work.
no subject
Date: 2014-03-18 04:47 am (UTC)I think the reference aims to correct some common beginner errors, and it is decent for what it's aiming at, but it's...odd.
no subject
Date: 2014-03-18 07:20 am (UTC)So yeah, as you say, these diagrams give reasonable advice in the abstract -- hands are bony, fingers arc, etc. -- but the fine details are very iffy.
no subject
Date: 2014-03-19 01:36 am (UTC)Perfectly valid (see: manga!) and doesn't ping me as "wrong", except for the super-short thumb! :D
I didn't spend much time looking at the curved/"clawed" hand, really; I read the text, went 'yeah, fingers do that' and thus basically skipped over it. You probably have a point, though.
no subject
Date: 2014-03-19 01:38 am (UTC)(The better to form a flat "airfoil" and swoosh through the air. Because the child of a pilot learns about lift and drag at a pretty early age.) :D
no subject
Date: 2014-03-18 04:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-18 05:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-18 06:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-19 04:10 pm (UTC)also, the last drawing, no matter how I postition my hand, the wrist does not achieve this angle. However, the last drawing is not about the orearm, it's about boniness/softness and there I find it pretty accurate. well, my knuckles are bigger and therefore rounder.
why did I even spend so much time looking at this and then my hand wth.