Realistic hand: tendons, veins, fat, and more
In this blog, we will explore how to create realistic hands by adding anatomically accurate details to the hand that you’ve sculpted or drawn. We’ll start by covering tendons and veins of the hand and then move on to hand aging, skin folds, creases, and fat pads. We will finish off with advice on creating realistic looking fingernails.
Table of Contents
It’s important not to lose your hand in the details and get the basic shapes of the hand right. For this purpose, we’ve also created a separate article on the fundamental hand anatomy for artists, which covers the basic shapes of the hand and explains how they’re created. We advise you to start with this article, if you’re not familiar with the fundamental anatomy of the hand yet!
Want to understand and create arm and hand anatomy not just for static but also for various dynamic postures?
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Tendons and veins of the hand
Tendons and veins of the hand are essential for detailing the hand. After you’ve formed the basic shapes, adding tendons and veins on the hand can help you highlight the gesture and movement of the hand.
What to know about veins:
- veins are tucked in the depressions between the bones;
- veins go over the hand along the metacarpal bones;
- veins are thicker on the wrist side and become thinner towards the fingers;
- veins go across the metacarpal bones only at the dorsal venous arch;
- veins are flatter on young hands and become more pronounced on older hands.
What to know about tendons:
- tendons are not visible at the wrist, they start at the metacarpal bones;
- tendons follow the surfaces of the metacarpal bones and are straight.
Tendons and veins are very different from each other.
There are fundamental differences between tendons and veins, so make them look different from one another. While veins will meander, tendons will always be straight. And there’s also a difference in color.
Try and poke your skin right now – you’ll see that it gets lighter for a brief while after you’ve removed the finger. Tendons usually have this slightly lighter hue, while veins have a darker color than the rest of the skin.
Extensor tendons of the fingers: Extensor digitorum, Extensor digiti minimi and Extensor indicis.
The image illustrates the extensor tendons of the fingers found on the back side of the hand: Extensor digitorum, Extensor digiti minimi, and Extensor indicis. Their location matches with the surfaces of the metacarpal bones and they go from the wrist slightly beyond the proximal knuckles.
The Extensor Pollicis Longus, Extensor Pollicis Brevis and Abductor Pollicis Longus tendons all insert into the thumb creating the anatomical snuffbox between them.
More pictures like this on Anatomy for Sculptors ArtStation.
The tendons inserting into the thumb create the anatomical snuffbox, a triangular depression between them at the back of the hand. It is most visible when the thumb is extended. The anatomical snuffbox’s medial border is the Extensor Pollicis Longus tendon, and its lateral border is the parallel tendons of the Extensor Pollicis Brevis and Abductor Pollicis Longus muscles.
When you’re detailing tendons and veins try not to make their forms repetitive. Instead, they can add some variety and help you show off the intended movement of the hand.
Hand lines, skin folds, creases, and fat pads
Now that we know that younger hands are more chubby and older hands have almost no fat, it brings us to examining hand lines, skin folds, and fat pads of the hand.
Adding skin folds furthers realism and enhances the gesture of the hand. The creases of the hand and wrist show how the hand bends, moves, and folds. The fat pads are soft and react to hand movements.
Fat pads
Fat covers almost all of the hand: the palmar side of the fingers is covered with fat pads – there’s one for each phalange. The thumb has one big fat pad at its end, and the palm has three large fat pads that cover almost all of the palm, except for a triangular fat-free spot in the middle.
The palm is entirely covered by fat pads, except for a triangular fat-free spot at the middle.
The first two fat pads cover the muscle masses of the palm – the thenar and hypothenar eminences – and the third fat pad covers the palmar side of the knuckles, which is known as the interdigital region of the palm.
The three main fat pads of the palm are the Interdigital fat pad, and Thenar and Hypothenar eminences. You can also see the Adductor pollicis muscle and a small chunk of the First dorsal interosseous muscle.
As the hand moves, the fat pads react to the movement and change their form. That is why you should contrast straight lines with curves to make fingers look realistic. Fingers have soft curvy fat pads on the palm side, but they’re pretty bony and straight at the back of the hand.
Finger is more curvy on the palmar side. That’s because the palmar side has more fat while the dorsal side of the fingers is more bony.
As the finger bends, the contrast between the straight lines at the back of the finger and the curves underneath becomes more pronounced. The skin underneath becomes more relaxed and wrinkly, while the skin on top gets more stretched.
Skin creases and folds
Skin creases and folds are features directly connected to hand movements because they form in places where the hand and fingers fold. For example, skin creases wrap around each finger joint and the wrist line.
The dorsal side of the hand with all the creases visible.
Each finger joint has a slightly different crease. At the back of the hand, the distal finger joint has a straight crease, the middle joint has a spiral pattern, and there are very subtle creases on the proximal knuckles.
On the palmar side, the distal joint also has a straight crease and the middle joint has an oval-shaped double crease. The proximal joints feature oval-shaped creases, except for the pinky and index fingers, which have a single straight crease. The thumb has a double crease at its middle joint and a double line around its base.
The palmar and dorsal side of the hand with creases and hand lines marked in red.
The palm has got three main lines. The first hand line is opposite the proximal knuckle bones, running along the border of the fat pad that covers the knuckles. The second hand line runs around the thumb mass, and becomes deeper, when you flex the thumb over your palm towards the pinky finger. The third hand line is found in the middle of the palm, between the previous two.
Bending and connecting line of fingers
If you take a closer look at the folds and creases of the fingers and compare the ones at the back of the hand with the corresponding ones on the palmar side, you may notice that they are a bit shifted relative to each other.
Earlier in the blog, we mentioned that fingers are longer on the back of the hand and shorter on the palmar side. Now, let’s take a closer look at the proximal knuckles to learn why that’s the case!
The connecting line of fingers is slanted, and fingers start much later on the palm side than on the back side of the hand.
At the back of the hand we see the knuckles. But at the palm side we actually see the hand line that runs along the proximal border of the fat pad that covers the knuckles. The fingers on the palm side “start” much later – beyond the fat pad.
The crease line on the palm side does not match up with the connection line of the metacarpophalangeal joint. The connection line is slanted and runs from the proximal knuckles at the back of the hand to the beginning of fingers at the palm side.
Connecting line of fingers in motion.
The distal finger joint is similarly slanted, just to the opposite side. Yet the middle finger joint is not slanted.
The distal (1) and proximal (3) finger joints are slightly slanted, while the middle joint (2) is relatively straight.
This feature of the finger joints allows the finger to fold in on itself completely.
The slanted finger joints allow fingers to fold in on themselves.
How to draw and sculpt fingernails
To finish off the hand, you need to create fingernails. In drawing, fingernails have the power to define perspective. Oftentimes, if the hand looks off, it’s worth just trying to redo the fingernail.
Although it may seem obvious, the fingernails are not flat. When sculpting a fingernail, don’t develop it from a flat surface.
The form of the fingernail is slightly curved, not flat.
The thumbnail is shaped differently from the other fingernails. When the thumb is straight, its nail points upwards. And when it is half bent, the nail will point straight ahead, and not downwards.
The thumbnail is shaped differently than the other fingernails.
Finally, the thumbnail faces a different direction than the other fingernails. When the surfaces of other fingernails face upwards, the thumbnail faces outwards from the hand.
The thumbnail faces a different direction than the other fingernails.
Hand aging
We already mentioned that veins are flatter on younger hands and more pronounced on older hands. Let’s look at other differences when detailing hands at different ages.
Non-adult hands have proportionally thicker fingers than adult hands. In addition to that, newborn hands are also wrinkled.
Some of the signs that a child is still a baby are the chubby wrists and knuckle dimples. The same indentations are also visible on the baby’s elbows and knees. A child’s hand still has some light dimples and the fingers are proportionally thicker than adult fingers.
Chubby wrists and knuckle dimples are characteristic of a baby’s hand.
As children grow up, the dimples disappear and the fingers become less chubby. An adult’s hand has less fat than a child’s hand. A hand of a senior will have almost no fat left, leaving the skin loose and thin. The skin of a senior’s hand may also have age spots and the veins protrude on the surface.
Hand aging in different stages: from a newborn to a senior.
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