How to Draw Anime Hands: The Easy Step by Step Way -

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Learning how to draw anime hands is one of the hardest parts for most aspiring anime and manga artists. Many artists struggle to draw them accurately.

When you really think about it, it’s no surprise people have such a hard time with hands. They can articulate in a near innumerable number of positions, and every one of these positions can be seen from a different angle. That’s tough stuff. Goodness, even experienced artists can mess up hands. I know I still do from time to time even though I’ve drawn hundreds, if not thousands, of the darn things.

For context, your forearm only has 2 bones in it, while your hands has 27 bones EACH! A totally unnecessary fun fact is that the 54 bones in your two hands account for one quarter of all the 206 bones in your body! No wonder hands are so tricky…

Like anything else in drawing, I’d argue the best strategy is to understand the fundamental pieces. If you just memorize some step by steps for a few positions you don’t really gain any flexibility or insight. Learn the building blocks and you can draw any hand in any position. That’s what I want to show you. Think of it like I’m trying to teach you how to fish rather than just HANDing you a fish ;3

First, I’m going to walk you through the basic anatomy of a hand and the proportions so you know how it all fits together.

Second, I’ll break down some hands so you can see all the pieces at work.

Finally, I’ll show you the process for drawing your own hands. Hopefully, through this guide, I can give you the tools you need to start drawing hands with confidence every time.

Hand Anatomy and Structure

Underlying Structure (Bones)

If you’re going to draw hands, you should know the underlying structure of hands. I’m talking the bones.

The bones in your fingers and thumbs are called “phalanges”. The bones in your palm are called “metacarpals”. The names aren’t super important, but knowing how bones are sitting under the skin is important. It can help a lot with creating new positions. Take a moment to look at one of your hands right now. Move it around, try to imagine the bones and how they are moving.

Main Structure

Next, what goes on top of bones? The meat! Exactly! So let’s look at a fleshed out hand.

On the back of the hand the main feature are the knuckles (denoted by the blue circles). The back of the hand’s surface doesn’t change too much no mater how you move your finger. It’s mostly the knuckles become more prominent as you make a fist.

On the front of the hand, there are 3 areas of the palm that we need to think about. Those pieces are the base of the thumb (orange), the base of the fingers (blue), and the side of the hand (green).

And here are those front hand areas viewed from the side. This might help get the point across that these are 3 distinct mounds.

Also, there is a little bump on the pinky side of the hand. There’s probably a scientific name for it. But I don’t know what it is. I think it’s the end of the Ulna? I don’t know which. What I do know is this is a nice flourish to include to show people you know your anatomy. It’s the most prominent when the palm is facing down. That little bump is how you show off to other artists that you’ve done your hand studies. It is, of course, optional. I like it though, so expect to see it.

Proportions

Like every other part of the body, there are some general measurements that hands follow. A hand is usually half palm, half fingers. The first digit protruding from the palm is about half of the total finger length. The remaining digits are about a quarter of the total finger length each, with the middle digit being slightly longer than the ending digit. The length of the pinky is usually equal to the length of the first 2 digits of the ring finger. That’s kind of a mouthful in text. It almost felt like math writing it, so it’s a good thing we’ve got a picture handy – get it?

Finger “Tips” ;3

Here are a couple tips to help you with drawing fingers.

First, when making fists or curling fingers, it can help to think of the digits as circles fitted against each other. This can be a useful visual or mental trick to make sure you aren’t combining or skipping digits when drawing a curled finger.

Second, the digits of the fingers aren’t perfect cylinders. They have a slight curve to them on both sides. This subtle curve is especially important to anime and manga.

Geometric View of a Hand

And since we’re artists and need to think in shapes, let’s look at the hand geometrically. The palm is a rectangular shape, with round sides. Each section of the finger and thumb is a cylinder. This knowledge is extra important when it’s time to shade and color your hands. Always always always think in terms of simple shapes when shading.

Palm Lines

When drawing the palm, there are 3 lines that are usually drawn. There’s a line that follows the thumb area, and 2 other lines that run across the hand. In palm reading they are called the life, head, and heart line respectively…I think. Don’t quote me on that. I do anime, not palmistry. In anime, these lines are not always visible. When they are present, there are usually small hints of the lines rather than 3 full lines across the palm.

Drawing Anime Hands That Look Anime

The key to anime is often simplicity. Remember that anime is essentially a cartoon. You don’t need to draw every single detail. Anime is more about the outline of the body parts plus some minor suggestions of detail.

So, despite having all this new information about hands, don’t get carried away with details. Anime hands are often very simple. There are some exceptions to this, depending on the character or era of anime. But again, in most cases, focus on an outline with the odd line for detail.

Second, and this is kind of an extension of the “keep it simple” point, when fingers are extended, draw them as if they had 2 equally long digits. As a general rule, only include the end digit if the character’s hand is doing an action where the end digits are important to communicating the movement. This includes movements like making a fist, gripping an object, emphasizing pointing, hand close ups, etc. You can see in the examples directly above (palm lines) and below that the fingers only have 2 digits. You can include a slight upturn towards the end of the finger to suggest the end (third) digit. Sometimes, if a finger is fully extended, it might not even look like 2 digits, but rather 1 smooth, continuous finger.

Also, fingernails are often completely negated from anime.

I’ll say it again. You want to draw anime? Keep it simple!

Breaking Down Anime Hand Gestures

Okay, now that you’ve got a handle on how a hand fits together, let’s look at some classic anime hand postures to see the individual parts of the hand in action.

Peace Sign

Here’s Kagome from Inuyasha throwing up a peace sign. I’d argue that it’s absolutely necessary for any half decent anime artist to know how to draw a peace sign. Don’t you think? Anyway, let’s break it down.

Fists

Fists are another critical part of a lot of anime. They are especially important if you’re a fan of any Shonen anime. Next time you watch some Naruto, One Piece, or My Hero Academia, imagine how sad it would be if nobody ever made a fist. We happen to have a great shot of Black Star and Soul Evans from Soul Eater showing us the front and back view of a fist. Very considerate of them to be so thorough.

Pointing at Camera

Pointing is another important anime gesture, whether holding the finger straight up or right at the camera. Let’s break down the camera point to take a glimpse at perspective in action. We’ve got Haruhi Suzumiya here to demonstrate for us.

For your own practice I suggest finding images of anime hand gestures that you like, then trying to break down their hands the way I have above. This will help you to build your visual library.

How to Draw Anime Hands Step by Step

In the last section, I just showed you how all the pieces of the hand fit together for different positions. Now let’s go over how to construct those positions step by step. And at the same time, we’ll cover some general principles and tips to keep in mind while drawing hands. Remember everything about anatomy from above to keep the proportions right.

Start Simple

As a guideline, especially while learning, the process is work simple to complex. Here, I start with a very simple placement guideline, then sketch in the shapes, then do the linework over top.

Let’s look at that peace sign step by step.

Start with a pentagon palm shape and some guidelines for the fingers.
Add in the structures of the hand we covered earlier.
Do your line work over your sketch, then erase or remove the sketch layer.

“Mittens”

Another technique that is very useful when drawing fingers, especially when curled, is what are sometimes called “mittens”. You draw the range of the fingers using a broad shape which looks as if the fingers were inside a mitten. Remember the tip about visualizing the curled fingers as 3 oval-shaped balls.

Here’s the mitten technique for a step by step of the fist.

Use Fingertips as a Guide For Perspective

If the hands and fingers are in a position that is slightly confusing perspective wise, you can start by drawing the end digit of the finger first. Then you work backwards.

Draw the positioning of the palm and the ends of the fingers. Don’t forget your “mitten”.
Sketch the rest of the hand.
Line art that bad boy!

Use references.

Another useful strategy if you’re unsure of how to draw it is find a reference! Do an image search, or just take a picture of your own hand if you have to. It’s a great way to learn.

Simplification

With more understanding comes the ability to skew reality. The key to good abstraction and simplification, like chibi for instance, is a thorough understanding of what you’re distorting. That is to say, the better you understand something, the more you can play with it.

If I hadn’t made it clear yet, there is a lot of simplification in anime and manga. It’s not uncommon during animation, say during action sequences, for the hand to only be a pinkish blob with little to no finger delineation. Other times, you’ll see the proportions skewed for a stylistic or comedic effect.

Example 1: The bumps of the knuckles aren’t rounded, but a single straight line across the top of the hand.
Example 2: Short, stubby, cartoonish fingers cuz Krillin is a cutie pie.
Example 3: The fingers aren’t fully delineated.

Additional Step by Step Anime Hand Guides

Why stop a good thing? The best way to learn how to draw anime hands is just practice. You have to sit down and put in the time. I’ll go over another 3 common types of hand gestures, waving, hands on hips, and holding things. These next 3 plus the 3 above should give you a good base for most hand positions in your drawings. Remember to follow the simple sketch, complex sketch, and lines process.

How to Draw Anime Hands Waving

For our waving reference we’ve got the lovely Mikasa Mikoto from Toaru Majutsu no Index. Note that we can see those palm lines we covered under the hand structure section of this guide.

Here is an example of the parts of her hand:

And here is the step by step process you could use to draw her hand. A “mitten” has been used to get the arc of the extended fingers correct.

How to Draw Anime Hands on Hips

Our next example is Keith from Voltron: Legendary Defender. I know some folks wouldn’t say it’s technically “anime”, because it’s american made. But, c’mon, it’s clearly in anime style. Plus, it’s my guide, and it’s a good learning reference. So deal with it.

First, we analyze the parts of the hand.

Now we draw it.

This is getting easy, right? I think so.

How to Draw Anime Hands Holding Something

Here’s a scene from Hakuouki with Chizuru Yukimura holding a sword. This is a great example that features both sides of the hand when gripping an object.

Let’s see the parts of these hands!

how to draw anime hands holding something

Ok! Let’s make ’em!

Beautiful!

Conclusion

With that, I hope I’ve managed to give you some hope that drawing anime hands isn’t all that scary. They just take time like anything else. Stop hiding hands in pockets or behind backs when you draw characters and embrace drawing hands. We only grow when we challenge ourselves!

Also, the newer you are, the more I suggest you go really slow in the early stage of the sketch. Really try to visualize all the structures of the hand and where everything goes. Be meticulous. The more you do this, the more it becomes second nature. And the more internalized it is, the sooner you can just draw a hand without thinking. Which is the goal, right?

Happy Drawing ;3