How to draw a hand holding something, step by step

A hand holding something usually goes wrong in the same few ways. The handle runs level across the palm, the four fingers come out as a row of equal sausages, the fingertips stop on the handle's edge, and the thumb wraps around like a fifth finger. This guide measures one real grip: Lincoln's right hand, from the plaster cast Leonard Volk made in 1860, closed around a short piece of broom handle. It is one of the hands in hands and feet, volume 1, drawn at sixteen angles; the numbers here come from the palm side, the front view.

Everything is measured against the hand itself: the width of the fist across the fingers, and the width of one finger.

The handle slants across the palm

The handle's middle line rises a little under 30 degrees from the little-finger side up toward the thumb. The wrist stands within a few degrees of upright in this view, so most of that slant belongs to the grip, not to how the hand sits on the page. Its low end comes out beside the little finger, and its high end comes out between the thumb and the curled index finger.

Only the two ends show. Judge the slant from the ends, and draw the hidden middle as a straight line between them.

How thick the handle is

Across its ends, the handle is about one and a third fingers thick, and about a quarter of the fist's width. Compare it with the width of a ring or middle finger in your drawing.

This is a firm grip on a thin handle. A sword hilt or a tool handle is held with the same closed fist; a cup, a phone or a pen opens the hand, and needs its own reference.

Four bands of different widths

The fingers cross the handle as four bands. They aren't the same width: the ring and middle fingers are about as wide as each other, and the little finger is about four fifths of their width. The index finger shows only as a strip, since the thumb covers most of it.

Each band leans with the handle. The fingers cross it close to square, between about 75 and 80 degrees, so when the handle slants up toward the thumb, the fingers lean the other way to meet it.

The fingertips tuck under the handle

Carry the handle's bottom edge on under the fingers and every fingertip comes out below it. The fingers wrap over the top of the handle, down its near side and back in toward the palm.

How far past changes from finger to finger. Measured against the handle's thickness, the index tip comes a little past the edge, about a seventh. The middle tip comes a little under half past it, the ring tip about half and the little finger's about a third. The tips step down from the index to the little finger: steeply at first, then hardly at all between the ring and the little finger.

The thumb closes over the front

The thumb comes up from the heel of the hand on the thumb side, crosses the front of the handle and rests on the curled index finger, above the handle's top edge. It doesn't wrap around the handle the way the fingers do. Its tip stops short of the middle finger, leaving a strip of index finger a little over a quarter of a finger wide between them.

The wrist

Below the fist, the wrist is about two thirds as wide as the fist across the fingers. A wrist drawn as wide as the fist makes the hand look like a mitten.

From the side and from the back

From the thumb side you look almost along the handle, so its end shows nearly round, a little wider than it is tall. It sits near the top front of the fist, about a quarter as wide as the fist is deep at that height.

From the back the knuckles make a ridge across the top. The index and middle knuckles sit about level, the ring knuckle lower, and the little knuckle lower again, by about twice as much. The fingertips on the palm side do the opposite: their biggest drop is at the index end.

How to draw a hand holding something, step by step

1. Draw the object first. Here a cylinder, slanted a little under 30 degrees, low on the little-finger side.
2. Block in the fist around it, about four times as wide as the handle is thick, with the wrist two thirds of that width.
3. Mark the finger bands across the handle, close to square to it. Along a level line, make the ring and middle bands each about a fifth of the fist's width and the little band about a sixth, and leave a little under half on the thumb side for the index finger and the thumb.
4. Curl each band over the top of the handle and down its near side.
5. Carry the handle's bottom edge on lightly under the fingers and put the fingertips below it, stepping down from the index to the little finger, with the index tip the highest.
6. Bring the thumb up from the heel of the hand, across the front of the handle, to rest on the index finger above the handle.
7. Let the handle's ends show: the low one beside the little finger, the high one between the thumb and the index finger.
8. Add the palm, the wrist, the nails and the creases last.

Common mistakes

• A level handle. It slants up toward the thumb.
• Four equal fingers. The little finger is narrower, and the index is mostly hidden under the thumb.
• Fingertips stopping on the handle's edge. On this thin handle all four come past its bottom edge, in toward the palm.
• A thumb that wraps like a finger. It crosses the front and rests on the index finger.

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, closed around one thin handle and seen without perspective. A thicker object, a looser grip or a different hand changes them, so take them as one example, not an average. The finger widths were measured along one level row while the fingers lean a little, which makes each one slightly wider than a width taken square across it; they lean by similar amounts, so the comparisons barely change. The tips are measured against the handle's bottom edge carried on in a straight line where the fingers hide it. The side view was measured only for the handle's end and the fist's depth.

A short exercise

Hold a pencil in your fist and look at your hand from the palm side. Check the slant, which fingertips come past the bottom edge and where your thumb lands. Then draw the grip three times, about five minutes each, following the steps above. Check each drawing against your own hand.

For the bones and joints of each finger, see how to draw fingers; for the open hand from the palm, how to draw the palm of a hand; and for the hand turned all the way around, how to draw hands at different angles. An empty fist, measured on Lincoln's left hand, has its own guide, how to draw a fist. For the same way of measuring applied to the head, start with how to draw the head at any angle.