How to draw fingers: where the tips land and how each finger splits

It's tempting to draw fingers as four tubes of about the same length, each cut into three equal pieces and all starting from one straight line. The open hand measured here is drawn differently. The tips step down in a set order, the piece of each finger nearest the hand is the longest, and where a finger starts depends on whether you see the back of the hand or the palm. This guide measures one open right hand from hands and feet, volume 1, from the back and the palm side. It covers straight, spread fingers. Gripping fingers are measured in how to draw a hand holding something.

Everything is measured against the hand itself: the middle fingernail, the joints, the webs between the fingers and the width of a finger. The joints and knuckles are the ones the drawing marks: creases and a curved knuckle line on the back, and box lines on the palm side.

Where the fingertips land

The middle finger is the longest. Check the other three against the end of it:

• The ring fingertip reaches about two thirds of the way down the middle fingernail.
• The index fingertip reaches about the base of the middle fingernail, so it sits a little lower than the ring, by about a third of that nail's length.
• The little fingertip reaches just below the first joint of the ring finger, the one nearest its tip.

The dashed lines show the four tips at the same heights from the palm side as from the back. The nails and creases are drawn only on the back, so make these checks there and carry the heights across.

Each finger splits about three, three and four

Split the middle finger, from its tip to its knuckle, into ten equal parts. The end segment takes about three, the middle segment about three, and the segment nearest the hand about four. The ring finger splits the same way, from the back and from the palm, and so does the index finger from the palm. The two outer segments come out close to equal, and the one nearest the hand is longer than either, by about a quarter on average.

The index and little fingers follow this loosely from the back. Their segment nearest the hand comes out longer, close to half the finger, because the knuckle line drops toward both sides of the hand. From the palm, the little finger's end segment is about as long as its segment nearest the hand.

From the back, the upper joint shows as one or two short crease lines and the lower joint as a small oval of skin.

The nail

From the back, the nail sits at the top of the end segment and takes up about half its length. On the index, middle and ring fingers a thin band of finger shows above it; on the little finger the nail reaches the outline of the tip. The nail is narrower than the finger: between three fifths and three quarters of the finger's width at that height.

Width and taper

From the back, each finger is about five of its own widths long from the tip to the knuckle, with the width taken across the middle segment.

The fingers narrow toward the tip. At the nail, the middle finger is about a fifth narrower than near its knuckle, the ring finger about a third, and the index and little fingers about two fifths.

Where the fingers start

The webs between the fingers sit at the same heights from the back and from the palm. The web between the middle and ring fingers is the highest, the one between the index and middle fingers a little lower, and the one between the ring and little fingers the lowest. The web between the thumb and the index finger sits much lower than the others, about one and a half index-finger widths below the index knuckle.

From the palm side, the middle finger starts about level with its webs, and the ring finger between the heights of its two webs. The index and little fingers start about half a finger's width below the web beside them.

From the back, every finger starts lower than from the palm side. The middle and ring fingers start about a fifth to a quarter of a finger's width lower, and the index and little fingers about half to three quarters of one. On the back, the middle knuckle sits a little below both its webs, the ring knuckle about level with the web on its little-finger side, and the index and little knuckles about a finger's width below the web beside them. So the same finger, measured from where it meets the hand, is a little longer from the back.

How to draw fingers, step by step

1. Draw the palm and its knuckle line first, as in how to draw hands at different angles.
2. Mark the webs at their three heights, the one between the middle and ring fingers highest.
3. Draw the middle finger about five of its own widths long, split it into about three, three and four parts out of ten from the tip, and add its nail in the top half of the end segment.
4. Place the ring and index fingertips against that nail: the ring about two thirds of the way down it, the index at its base.
5. Split the ring finger the same way, then place the little fingertip just below the ring's first joint. Split the index and little fingers loosely, with the longest piece nearest the hand.
6. Narrow each finger toward the tip, the index and little fingers more than the middle.
7. Add the other nails, about half the end segment long and narrower than the finger.
8. On the back, start each finger lower than on the palm side, most of all the index and little fingers, and add one or two short creases at each upper joint and a small oval at each lower one.

Common mistakes

• Cutting each finger into three equal pieces. Here the piece nearest the hand is the longest, on the middle and ring fingers by about a quarter.
• Putting the index and ring fingertips at the same height. Here the ring fingertip is a little higher.
• Drawing the nail as wide as the finger. It's narrower, three fifths to three quarters of the finger's width.
• Drawing each finger as a straight tube. Each one narrows toward the tip, the outer fingers most.
• Starting the fingers at the webs on the back of the hand. From the back, the fingers start lower, most of all the index and little fingers.

What this does and does not cover

This is one drawing of one open right hand, seen from the back and from the palm side. Other hands have other proportions, so take the numbers as a description of this drawing. The joints and knuckles are where the drawing marks them, and the splits and starting points move if those marks move. The palm-side drawing is turned 22.5 degrees, so we compare only heights between the two views and take widths from the back. On the back, the knuckle line is a drawn curve; where it crosses the index and little fingers it sits low, which is why their segments nearest the hand come out long. Bent, curled, crossed and gripping fingers, the edge view and the thumb beyond its web aren't measured here.

A short exercise

Hold up your own hand with the back toward you, fingers straight and spread. Check where your ring and index fingertips land against your middle fingernail. Draw the hand from the back. Mark the middle of each joint's creases and the knuckle at the base, and compare the three pieces of each finger. Then turn the hand over and draw the palm side. Where does each finger meet the palm, against the webs beside it?

The open hand in this guide is one of the hands in hands and feet, volume 1, each drawn at sixteen angles, 22.5 degrees apart. The whole hand at other angles is in how to draw hands at different angles, the hand the fingers start from in how to draw the palm of a hand and how to draw the back of a hand, the fingers edge on in how to draw a hand from the side, and the volume's standing foot in how to draw feet at different angles. For the same way of measuring applied to the head, start with how to draw the head at any angle.