How to draw a loose fist, step by step

A drawn fist usually goes wrong in a few familiar ways. The top comes out flat, the four fingers come out as equal sausages, the nails sit in a level row, and the wrist is as wide as the hand, so the whole thing reads as a mitten. This guide measures one real fist: Lincoln's left hand, from the plaster cast Leonard Volk made in 1860, closed loosely with the thumb standing up beside the index finger. It is one of the hands in hands and feet, volume 1, drawn at sixteen angles; the numbers here come from the palm side, checked against the back. Take it as one worked example of a loose fist, not a rule for every fist.

Everything is measured against the hand itself: the width of the fist across the nails, and the width of one finger, taken from the middle finger.

Red: the top of each finger and of the thumb, against the middle finger's top. Grey and blue: the thumb and the four fingers across the nails. Green: the fist's width, the wrist's width, and the height from the middle finger's top down to the wrist.

The top of the fist is an arc

The middle finger reaches highest. The index and ring fingers sit about a fifth of a finger lower, level with each other, and the little finger drops much further, about three quarters of a finger below the middle. The thumb's tip comes up about level with the top of the index finger.

So the top isn't flat or an even dome: it rises a little to the middle finger, falls the same little to the ring, then drops off.

Five bands across the nails

On a level line through the nails, the fist splits into the thumb, the four fingers and a strip past the little finger. The thumb, seen from its edge, is about a fifth of the fist's width, a little wider than any finger. The index, middle and ring fingers are about a sixth each, the index the widest of the three, and the little finger is a little narrower.

On that line, about one more finger's width lies between the little finger's side and the outside edge of the hand. That is the side of the hand rolling away from you, so leave room for it; a fist that ends at the little finger's nail looks cut off.

The fingers bend toward the little finger above the nails

Beside the nails, the lines between the fingers stand nearly upright. Above the nails they bend toward the little-finger side, more with each line. About a finger's width higher, the line between the index and middle has moved over by about a fifth of a finger, the next line by a little under half, and the line between the ring and little fingers by about three quarters. The tops of the fingers end up toward the little-finger side of their nails.

The nails step down from the index

All four nails show from the palm side, and their upper edges don't sit level: the index nail starts highest, the middle nail about a fifth of a finger lower, and the ring and little nails a little lower again, each by a small step.

From the index to the middle finger, the nails step down while the tops rise. From the middle to the little finger, both go down.

On the middle finger, from its top down to the crease above the nail is about one finger's width, and from the crease down to the top of the nail is about one more.

The wrist and the height

The narrowest part of the wrist is about two thirds of the fist's width.

From the top of the middle finger down to that narrowest part of the wrist is about as far as the fist is wide.

From the back and from the thumb side

The tops arc the same way from the back: the middle finger highest, the index and ring a little lower, the little finger well below, and the thumb level with the index.

From the back the tops come out at the same heights as from the palm side: turning the hand doesn't change how high each finger reaches. The thumb stands outside the index finger, and the wrist is again two thirds of the fist.

From the thumb side the thumb's nail faces you, and its tip reaches nearly to the top of the fist.

The thumb lies along the curled index finger. The cast leans over at the wrist in this view, so only the thumb is described from here.

How to draw a fist, step by step

New lines in red, earlier ones in grey; dashed lines are guides to erase.

Block in a square as wide as the fist across the nails, from the middle finger's top down to the narrowest part of the wrist. Make the wrist about two thirds as wide, set a little toward the little-finger side.
Arc the top: the middle finger highest, the index and ring a fifth of a finger lower, and the little finger about three quarters of a finger lower.
Draw a level line through the nails a little over a third of the way down the square. Mark about a fifth of it for the thumb and about a sixth at the far end for the side of the hand, then split the rest into four bands: the index widest, the middle and ring about equal, the little finger narrowest.
Bend the lines between the fingers toward the little-finger side above the nails, a little for the first line and most for the last, then outline each finger up to the arc.
Place the nails at the bottom of each band, the index nail highest and the others stepping down a little each.
Copy the crease above each nail from your reference; on the middle finger it falls about one finger's width below the top.
Stand the thumb up beside the index finger, its tip level with the index top.
Add the palm, the side of the hand and the wrist last, with their creases.

Common mistakes

A flat top. The middle finger is highest and the little finger drops well below the others.
Four equal straight fingers. The little finger is narrower, and above the nails the fingers bend toward the little-finger side.
Nails in a level row. They step down from the index to the little finger.
No room past the little finger. The side of the hand adds about one more finger's width.
A wrist as wide as the fist. Two thirds is closer.

What this does and does not cover

These measurements describe a line drawing of one hand, made from the Smithsonian's 3D scan of Volk's cast of Lincoln's left hand, closed loosely and seen without perspective. A tight fist, with the thumb folded across the fingers, a punch, or another hand changes them. The widths were measured along one level line through the nails, where the lines between the fingers stand close to upright. The bend is measured on the lines between the fingers, not on the finger tops, since the index top is nearly flat. The knuckles-on view of a punch and the side view were not measured.

A short exercise

Close your own hand loosely, thumb beside your index finger, and look at it from the palm side. Check which finger reaches highest, how the nail tops step and how far past the little finger your hand goes. Then draw the fist three times, about five minutes each, checking each drawing against your hand.

For a fist closed around something, with the thumb across the front, see how to draw a hand holding something. For the joints of each finger, see how to draw fingers, and for the hand turned all the way around, how to draw hands at different angles. For the same way of measuring applied to the head, start with how to draw the head at any angle.