HANDS: Introduction

I hope to introduce you to anime hand proportions without going into too much
detail. If you find this difficult at first, don't worry. You will see these principles
repeated again and again that you will naturally become familiar with them. ^_^

[1] If you haven't already, have a look at your own hand. ^_^ Compare the lengths
of each finger. Now look at your palm, and see where the fingers join. Hopefully,
you can see how I've come from that to the simplified version in the left pic
below.

The palm shape is based on a pentagon, where the fingers are to one side, and the
thumb to the other. It's good to keep the anime hands simple (in fact, in anime it's
good to keep everything simple – but of course that doesn't mean "unrealistic").

Note that the thumb joins the palm lower than the pentagon suggests, so need to
modify when drawing the actual hand – as in the right pic. The red shows the
original hand models. Note also that in side view, we don't just see one finger. Be
creative and slant the fingers a bit.

[2] Now let's look at joints. A thing about anime hands is that they're pretty
straight. We don't often see all three parts of the finger like in the top right pic.
The red lines show that the joints slant when bent, so don't draw as if the joints
were vertical.

The top row shows the model, the middle row shows the actual hand with light
outline of the model, and the bottom row shows a clenched fist.

Note that in a clenched fist, the the widest part of the hand is below the thumb.
This is reflected in the shape of the pentagon.
[3] By just using the pentagon model, you can draw many hand poses. Also note that
with anime hands, the middle and ring fingers tend to touch each other – I'm not
sure why, but it's very effective.

The rightmost pic shows how wide the fingers can be stretched before the hand looks
"frog-like". Notice that the thumb and little finger comes out of the lower side of the
pentagon. This shows that the model is not a hard set of rules. Sometimes we have to
modify according to what our eye thinks is right.

This model is too simple for foreshortening (ie when the hand is pointing straight at
you). We'll need to know more about perspective, so until next time...

FEET: Introduction
I hope to introduce you to anime feet proportions without going into too much detail.
If you find this difficult at first, don't worry. You will see these principles repeated
again and again that you will naturally become familiar with them. ^_^

[1] If you haven't already, look at your own feet. ^_^ Compare the lengths of each toe.
Now have a look at the shape of your feet. It's always good to have a 3D model to
look at, because it will help you understand how that 3D object is converted into a 2D
one.

The pic below is of the right foot seen at different angles. The 1st pic is the inside of
the foot, the 2nd and 3rd the front, and the 4th the outside. The difference between
2nd and 3rd is that the 3rd is the foot perfectly front on, while the 2nd is the foot when
the body is front on.

The front part of the feet is based on a triangle/pyramid shape, while I'm not sure
what shape the heels-ankles are based on – sort of triangular prism-ish, I suppose, but
I personally think of a square with a corner cut off.
Note the position of the knee in relation to the foot. When the foot is front on, the
knee is slightly to the inner side of the leg.

[2] The pic below shows when the actual foot is drawn.

2 main things to note:

• The position and shape of the inner ankle compared to the outer.
• The big toe points up while the little toes point down, so see how this affects the
angle of the toe lines.

[3] Putting shoes on. Not much to note here. Just see how the foot determines the
shape of the shoe, like how the body determines the shape of clothes. Also note that
the shoe-point is skewed towards the big toe.