All right, guys, welcome back to the "Hand Critiques."
This is part two.
And your watching the free version of the critique session.
In this one I'm gonna focus on one problem, which was designing fingers.
I felt like you guys could make your fingers look a little bit better.
So I'm gonna talk a little bit about a few tips, on designing fingers.
If you wanna watch the full premium version, go to proko.com/anatomy.
And you'll see all the critiques, for everybody that I did.
Ok, let's do it.
So let's talk a little bit about finger design.
In this case, like let's just take a look at the pinkie.
What I'm noticing you're doing is a lot of the same curve over and over again for the
fat pads at the bottom.
So you got one, two, three curves.
I mean, you got the same thing going on all the other fingers, just the same curve over
and over again.
I wanna see a little more variety, and I want you to put curves in when you feel like the
curves will help the gesture of that part of the finger, and put more straights where
you think it'll help the gesture.
You know, a straight would be better or an S-curve and how much of C-curve is gonna be
there.
For first of all, variety and second, you know, try to find a gestural flow through
the whole finger.
You kind of have one on the back, I kind of see like a subtle S-curve.
So that's good.
But then you don't really follow that same gesture on the front, and you should a little
bit.
So let's redraw that finger.
So I have kind of an S-curve and then I exaggerate that a little bit, actually.
I kind of like how this swoops back this way at the tip of the finger.
And I'm showing knuckles, knuckle indications over here.
But overall, it is kind of an S-curve shape.
Okay.
So, tip of the finger.
And I'm not gonna start with those three curves of the different segments.
I'm gonna start with the gesture.
So that's the flow I want the pinkie to go in.
Now, I can add curves depending on where I wanna show more bend.
I feel like this first segment has the most bend.
You know, if I put this crease in, I'm gonna show a pretty strong crease, maybe even a
combination of two lines.
You don't have to.
I mean, that's just a choice, but maybe I'll do that with this one.
And then curve here, showing a little bit of a pinch.
Then in the middle segment, I'm gonna do more of a straight.
And then in the last one, it's more of a swoop back this way to a point on the finger.
And the crease in this area between the second and third segment, I'm not gonna put as deep
of a crease because, you know, this finger is bending or this segment is bending back.
You know, it's not pinching as much as the second segments are.
So I'm gonna still add that little crease, but I'm gonna put it real subtle like that.
So now I'm showing more tension and action in this area, less in this area, and I have
variety in my contour, curve, straight, and then swoop back this way.
So the swoop in here is a different shape than this one here.
And then also I have gesture in the back.
So overall, just a much more interesting shape, much more dynamic shape.
There's more variety.
I'm not, you know, falling for that snowman trap where, you know...you guys know the snowman
effect.
You don't do that.
Now, I don't think you are doing that.
You are adding some good variety on the back plane, but you kind of have half of a snowman
effect where you have that same shape over and over again on the fat pad.
Okay, let's take a look at one more of your drawings.
So with this one, I have a side-by-side comparison.
Left one is yours.
The right one is my example.
This was just, I think, the quickest way for me to really point out the key differences
that I want you to start thinking about.
So you have details in yours, right?
You have crease, crease, crease, crease, crease.
You have these little wrinkles in here.
You know, you're starting to throw in all of these little details throughout the surface
of the skin.
I have them too.
I probably actually have more details, but those details that I'm putting in don't hide
the main structure.
For example, look right in here.
You can feel very obvious a very obvious box or a side plane right there online.
Even with all the little creases going across it, I still have a very obvious core shadow
that you can see the direction.
Yours is a lot more broken up.
So let me erase my lines just so you can actually see the drawing.
I started with that line going across the side plane and then I broke it up with some
creases, and you can still see that side plane.
The other thing is that your creases, like on the fingers, they don't show either the
gesture or the structure.
They're just flats, just divisions of the segments, like if you look at this pinkie
again.
What you drew is more like you maybe started with a flat outline and then you divided it
like that into these segments.
What I'm thinking about is first kind of this.
You know, the same thing as you.
It's just kind of an overall shape, but I'm thinking of exaggerating the gesture a little
more.
There's that pinkie shape, the gesture of the pinkie shape.
And now, when I add the divisions of those creases, I'm gonna think of the volumes and
how they overlap.
So the overlap of the creases or the overlap of these different segments on the contour
is more important than the crease itself.
So right there, you see that overlap?
This part overlaps this part.
And then in the middle, it gets much lighter.
Even in here, if you look at mine, it almost disappears.
I mean, you can see some tone in there, but it's not a sharp line like what you did on
yours, very sharp crease.
Mine kind of softens out, gets much lighter, and then you can kind of see a little bit
darker in there as it creases.
It's a lot more obvious actually in the second segment where I have overlap here, gets a
little lighter and softer, and then again overlap here.
Okay, so started with the gesture, figuring out my flow, and then going in and getting
in the overlaps between those creases, because this finger is coming at us.
And you have to show that there's depth.
One really good way of showing depth is overlap.
We have three segments.
So, okay, the first segment, one that's closer to us has to be in front of the second one,
the second one has to be in front of the third one.
So the best way to show that is with these little overlaps on the side.
The stuff in the middle, the creases of the skin, the ones that are permanent, those can
be much lighter.
They don't really show the motion very well.
If I go real deep in there and I put that in, that flattens it out.
You know, the finger is not bending.
I'll do it with the one without the glove.
If I bend my pinkie, then these creases become folds and they become much deeper, and then
that actually does show the gesture.
But when it's straight like that, putting creases in here doesn't help to show anything
about the motion of that pinkie.
Okay.
So this is flat, whereas this is three-dimensional, and at the same time, it's dynamic.
Those are like two competing things.
You have more motion and more structure when you do it this way.
And in here, you have less motion and less structure.
Another little area on this hand to point out that same concept where I'm thinking about
the motion of the hand and I'm designing the folds to show that motion is in this area
here.
Notice, on yours you have, you know, a few little creases here and there.
They're just really small spots.
Whereas, on mine, I'm showing this this motion how the pinkie is pulling the skin away from
the ring and middle finger, and it's kind of stretching between those fingers.
So I mean, erase that so you can see it again there.
You can feel that skin stretching, and that's exactly what's happening the pinkie's pulling
the skin.
And then in here, it's pinching in this area, because the pinkie is getting closer to the
side plane of the palm, and the skin in between those is actually getting closer together,
and it's creating that pinch.
So stretch here.
Pinch here.
I'm always thinking of that.
I mean, these are concepts we learn in the figure drawing class with the bean, right?
One side stretches, the other side pinches.
This applies to everything.
Okay.
So that's it for Nicolas.
Let's move on.
Okay.
These are for Neville Harvey, pretty good, actually.
You're getting closer.
You're thinking about the way the skin is folding.
You're adding variety to finger, pads, and all that.
I guess just a few subtle things here and there, like the creases that you're putting
in here, a little messy.
The way you design all the creases and the shadows on the side of that thumb could be
way better.
It could be much more cleaner.
You've lost the side planes, the front plane.
You know, you lost the corners of the planes, because you have so many creases in that.
Let me bring in my example, there.
So if you look at how many creases I put in my thumb, and then how many you did in yours,
you could feel how...I still have kind of the important ones, like right in here, right
where, you know, the segments are pinching.
I have that real big crease and then right under that, I have another one and then they
kind of soften out as they go down from there, and then everything above and below that is
just to show the corner of the side plane and top or back plane.
And then I also show the creases in here.
You know, that's not a core shadow.
So that's different.
But see how much cleaner it is.
You know, my core shadow is like this with, you know, thick, thick, and then kind of soft
in there or sharp in there.
Yours is really chaotic and you got a lot of stuff in there, like something like that.
And I can't feel those forms very well.
Okay.
So next up is Nick Valente.
I wanted to show yours because it's another thing about finger design.
And in this case, it's more of...it's not the snowman effect where you're showing too
many curves.
In this case, you have the sausage effect.
It just kind of looks like, I don't know, like a hot dog.
You don't have too many repeating shapes, but you just have one boring shape.
And it's repeating shapes of the fingers themselves rather than repeating shapes within the fingers,
right.
Each finger is that same sausage shape.
It's the same problem, really.
You just have repeating shapes, no variety.
But it's different shapes that you're repeating.
You're repeating the same shape for each finger and you also just kind of add in these creases.
They're not overlaps.
They're just lines on top of the form.
Yeah, you're kind of just adding lines.
That doesn't really help to show anything.
So same on this hand in here.
That's a sausage, sausage, sausage, sausage.
Remember that design that I talked about.
So if I was to draw this ring finger, I would start with the back, a little curved and then
a little less curved.
The first segment has more of a curve, and the second segment is straight.
And then the third segment, it tapers to a point.
There you go.
And then make sure you show the overlaps in here, maybe a little bit in here for an overlap.
There's more pinch in here.
So I'm gonna make that overlap a little deeper.
I might be going too far with that.
Anyway, this shows a little bit more gesture.
It's not a simple sausage shape.
There's a little more variety to all the contour shapes.
So sausage, no, gesture, yes.
This one is from Jaclyn Quijano.
I wanna start by saying thank you for providing your photo reference.
You didn't work from any of the ones I provided, which is fine.
But as long as you provide the reference, you know, it looks like it's your own hand.
So take a picture.
Show us what you're drawing from so that we can help you better.
It's a lot easier for us to see, you know, where you went wrong.
And this is another finger design issue.
So, remember that snowman I was talking about?
There it is.
You even have it on the back edge, which is bonier.
You can't really see it.
You're not looking straight at the palm.
It's kind of turning and you're starting to see a little bit of the back edge of the finger.
So you're gonna see some joint information.
So that's a great place to take away that snowman effect, same thing on the thumb.
I mean, in here, I'm seeing a nice swoop back and then a little bit of joint information.
I'm not seeing snowman bumps.
You have two of them right in there.
You even kind of added one at the base in there.
So, really, be careful about that snowman.
Let me redraw your thumb.
So as I was saying, at the base or in here, I'm seeing a nice swoop backward, a little
joint in here, tapers to a nice point and then this last piece very much like that,
you know, remember the dog had of the thumb.
So there it is.
The dog head swoop at the bottom.
And then I'm gonna straighten this part out a little bit.
I made a little too thin, though.
So let's bring it back out.
There you go.
And I'm straightening out just for variety.
I do see a little curve in there, but I don't think that that curve will add anything to
it.
I feel like adding the variety is a little bit better here, another knuckle back here,
a little more roundness for the thinner eminence and actually bring it in.
The way your hand locks into the wrist, I feel like it's a little bit too...the wrist
is too high.
So I'm gonna bring that wrist down, a little swoop in here.
Yeah, yeah, there's a...
The tendon from the thumb creates a nice curve in here.
And then down here, I'm gonna have a less of a pinch.
Oh, I totally forgot to look at your hand.
Yeah, you have more of a swoop in here but a more obvious step down.
In here, I feel like it's a little more subtle, but there is an overlap, but there's not as
much of a plane change.
It feels more like a straight line.
This one is obviously more of a step.
So the wrist needs to lower.
But there is still an overlap in here, something more like that, a more subtle overlap, but
there is one.
So there you go.
That's how I would lock that in, maybe overall actually.
The wrist needs to be bigger, fingers too skinny.
You just need to add a little more bulk to it.
You've lengthened it a little too much.
Okay.
But anyway, the whole point here was to show designing the thumb, adding shapes in there
that are not just snowman shapes.
Think more the gesture, think about, "Is this a tendon that's curving backwards?
Is this a joint?
Is it bone or is it a fat pad?"
If it's a fat pad at the bottom, how can I design the fat pads to have a little more
variety?
Okay.
That's the basic concept there.
All right.
Thank you, Jaclyn.
Thank you everybody who participated in the discussions, who submitted their assignment.
It really does help for all of you guys to learn if you guys are talking to each other
about it and sharing your work and trying to help others fix their problems.
So, yeah, keep doing that, keep posting in the groups.
And if your watching the free version on Youtube, there is an extended premium version of this
critique.
And actually most lessons have extended versions, along with e-books, and 3D models, and a bunch
of premium stuff.
If you interested in getting more serious with your anatomy, go to proko.com/anatmoy.
Thank you guys, Bye.