How to Draw a Hand

These engravings showing how to draw a hand are also from The Art of Figure Drawing by Thomas H. Maguire. Notice the radius line in the top line drawing indicating the alignment of the knuckles with the joint of the thumb.

This book follows the same convention that A Treatise on Muscular Action does in presenting an outline engraving plus a fully rendered engraving. (See more illustratings from A Treatise on Muscular Action here).

The ability to produce such beautifully engraved books must have influenced the artist and publisher to show what they were capable of.

Draw Real Hands! (Discover Drawing Series)

Drawing Hands and Feet: Form, Proportions, Gestures and Actions (The Art of Drawing)

Drawing & Painting Hands & Feet

Arthur "Pop" Momand - How to draw Hands and Feet

Anatomy for Artists Painters and Sculptors ebook at Figure- Drawings.com

Other posts about drawing hands:

Pencil Drawing for Fun

1762 Drawing Book - The artist's vade-mecum

Willy Pogany's Drawing Lessons

How to Draw Hands - Anatomical Drawings from French Museums

How to Draw Hands - Hendrick Goltzius

How to Draw Hands

Bones of the hand and foot from The Animal Kingdom, Arranged According to its Organization and an Introduction to Comparative Anatomy by Baron George Cuvier, With Figures Designed after Nature.  London, G. Henderson: 1834-1837

Reprint at Amazon.com: The animal kingdom, arranged according to its organization, serving as a foundation for the natural history of animals : and an introduction to comparative anatomy (Volume 3 (Plates))

Bones of the hand, Osteologia print.

Also see: How to Draw Hands

The Landon Course of Cartooning - How to Draw Hands

Pencil Drawing for Fun

Willy Pogany's Drawing Lessons

How to Draw Hands - Anatomical Drawings fro French Museums

The Art of Figure Drawing By Thomas Herbert Maguire

This engraving is from The Art of Figure Drawing by Thomas Herbert Maguire, published in 1869 by Winsor & Newton.

It was a well known and authoritative book of the time cited often in the literature including; A Supplement to Allibone's Critical Dictionary of English Literature, Catalogue of Books Added to the Library of Congress, Supplement to the Universal Catalogue of Books on Art: Compiled for the use of the National Art Library and the Schools of Art in the United Kingdom.

It contained 30 lithographic plates, some tinted.  I don't know, but from appearances it could have been influenced by Chapman's American Drawing Book (see the post below How Harry Cook Learned to Draw).

I found one reference to Mr. Maguire which listed him as a  historical and portrait painter, and also as a designer of music title drawing, which would explain his evident skill at engraved illustration.  Examples of his portraits can be seen at the National Portrait Gallery Website.

A short article is available at Wikipedia.

Some more examples of how to draw facial features are at these links: eyes, nose, mouth, ears.

Two more posts showing the work of Thomas Maguire:

How to Draw a Hand
How to Draw a Foot

Eighteenth Century Drawings from the Collection of Marius Paulme

I came across 3 volumes of an auction catalog. Dessins Anciens, Gouaches & Pastels principalement de L'Ecole Francaise du XVIII Siecle. Composant la Collection de M. Marius Paulme. Gallerie Georges Petit. Mai, 1929.

(Old drawings, Gouaches & Pastels primarily Eighteenth Century French School. The Collection of Mr. Marius Paulme. Gallerie Georges Petit. May, 1929.)

Two volumes  are the drawings, the third is sculptures from the same collection.

The drawings are rarely seen. Many seem as fresh as the day they were drawn.

The first is by Louis-Léopold Boilly

The next is by the Rococo artist François Boucher who was probably the most celebrated artist of his time. This drawing shows his drawing skills more than his rococo taste.

The drawing may be a study for his painting, "Portrait de Madame de Pompadour."

The third is by Jean-Honoré Fragonard, another rococo painter, but I selected this drawing on the strength of his observation rather than his rococo sensibility.

The last is by Hyacinthe Rigaud, not currently as famous as the others but this detail drawing "Studies for a portrait of a man" shows an artist in command of his line with keen observational skills.

You can search for books about these artists and the original auction catalog at AbeBooks. To search for the auction catalog enter "Collection Marius Paulme" in the search box.

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How to Draw Hands

Here is a wonderful book that demonstrates how to draw hands from every perspective with clear drawings and useful text. How to Draw Hands

From the text, "Your first care in drawing hands associated with the head or figure should be to make them, proportionately, the right size; and, with beginners, this instruction invariably resolves itself into exhortations to make them bigger. Regarding them, I must suppose, as an insignificant detail, the novice always makes the hands (and feet) of his figure drawing much too small; or even neglects them altogether."

Here are a few other examples

of hand drawing instructions from the 1940s and 1950s.

From John Moranz' Mastery of Drawing. The original of this book was an unusually complete book about drawing, 399 pages including animals, people, illustration for advertising, perspective, hands, feet, heads, and expression. It included color reproductions of figure paintings, one of which was reproduced on the cover.

There is a new Dover reprint of John Moranz' book, Drawing and Illustration: A Complete Guide, available at Amazon.com.

Cover of new edition, old cover.

Drawing and Illustration, by John Moranz.

Another book by John Moranz, the original version,The Professional Guide to Drawing and Illustration (Mastery of Drawing)

From Willy Pogany's Willy Pogany's The Art of Drawing

. Willy Pogany's book has fewer illustrations than the Moranz book, but in its own way is just as complete, plus he has a thoroughly authoritative line in his drawings which you can see in the examples of the hands above.

It is also available in a Dover edition, and in an edition from Keessinger Publishing, Willy Pogany's Drawing Lessons

Cover of new edition, old cover.

Drawing Lessons by Willy Pogany, take a look at the book at Amazon.com.

A new book is about to be released Willy Pogány Rediscovered.

From John Everard's Artist's Model

Draw Real Hands! (Discover Drawing Series)

Drawing Hands and Feet: Form, Proportions, Gestures and Actions (The Art of Drawing)

Drawing and Painting Hands and Feet

Other posts about drawing hands.

The Sculptor and Art Student's Guide to the Proportions of the Human Form - Proportions of the Human Body

This ebook The Sculptor and Art Student's Guide to the Proportions of the Human Form is now available as a printed book at Lulu.com, and also at Amazon.com.

It includes 30 plates plus a 25 page introduction and treatise, and photographs of the original's huge 24.5 inch by 19.75 inch double wide pages, plus full page scans from a reduced version of the original German edition that this is a translation of.

Plate from The Sculptor and Art Student's Guide to the Proportions of the Human Form.

Plate from The Sculptor and Art Student's Guide to the Proportions of the Human Form.

Johann Gottfried Schadow was a classically trained sculptor in Germany in the 1800s. He published this book of plates after his study of the classical Greek work of sculpture especially those of Polykleitos.

Polykleitos, or Polycletus was among the creators of the Greek Classical style. His particular contribution was a new naturalness which evolved from his study of the way people really stood, and how their weight was distributed.

The study of Polycletus' canon was a popular one for 19th Century Sculptors looking for a system of representation.

Anyone interested in sculpture, figure drawing or action figures will be interested in this classical study.

Plate from The Proportions of the Human Figure: According to a New Canon.

Plate from The Proportions of the Human Figure: According to a New Canon.

Another work of the time was The Proportions of the Human Figure: According to a New Canon, for Practical Use by William Wetmore Story. This book, while giving proportions of the figure according to classical studies does not provide the elaborate plates of figures that Schadow's book does.



Plate from The Proportions of the Human Body

A similar book published in 1892 is The Proportions of the Human Body By Bertram Coghill Alan Windle. This book also attempts to codify the knowledge of human proportions but does not have the elegant drawings of Schadow's book.

Other posts about human proportions.

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At Amazon.com:

The Art Student's Guide To The Proportions Of The Human Form

The Proportions Of The Human Figure: According To A New Canon, For Practical Use (1864)

The Proportions Of The Human Body

Human Proportions for Artists

Carlstrom's proportions of the human form;: A scientific treatise on proportions as they apply to garment construction; heights and widths reduced to rules applicable to practice,