Hey, could you give me a hand ?

The start of my journey through learning anatomy for sculpting took a wide turn to the left as I badly damaged my hand the first week of class. Then I thought maybe this is a sign? A high five in terms of knowing where to start or even begin this study. I kept progressing back and forth between starting at the head, or the feet, or the torso, but then it led to the realization that I may have a damaged hand for the rest of my life. I wanted to understand exactly what and why a specific muscle or tendon connects between the palm of my hand, to my middle, and ring finger. It was by far a major struggle, I could barely go about my day not realizing that I used my left hand for many different routines and in replace of my right body deteriorating muscles. It was like learning how to ride a bike all over again, although I am mainly right handed, I am ambidextrous when it comes to teaching my body to use my left hand for the many things that my right hand could not bear to complete over the years. 

So that was it, it was a great sign to learn and study hands as a starting point, because I didn't quite understand when my doctor said it will need time to heal do not stress it, but playing guitar as a passion and mostly well working was by far the hardest part to grasp his do not stress it. Well I stressed it and here I am again in a brace with ripped stitches ! (*** smacks hand to forehead ….. Yes, unfortunately at the time it was my left… lol***)

I believed in the idea that a hand was composed of mainly small bones with muscles and tendons that did not seem to be of importance, almost an outlet for the body being that a damaged hand takes longer to heal because of blood flow. Well I was completely wrong! 

I choose to single my study to the male anatomy due to time within the semester.

I began my study by diving into the typical o.m.g.! and am I going to have a hand Google search, which if you are anyone in this world Google and WebMD will say you're dying at that point, which does not help. I then was led into a wide range of hand anatomy searches. I am personally not a fan of Wikipedia, and could not find an exact breakdown of what I felt was good study material. This led me to research anatomy for artists books and courses that led me to purchase, Anatomy for 3D artists by 3DTotalPublishing, and Anatomy for Artists - A Visual guide to the Human Form by 3D Total Publishing. I already owned several different human figure drawing books from the past, but one that has always stood out to me, and I’ve stuck to over the years is How to Draw People by Jeff Mellen. It seems like a beginner book by the title, but it is by far not the case. The precise form and blocking along with the motion study of the anatomy in figure drawing is accompanied in the study within the book. 

As a refresher I dove right into thinking I had what it takes to draw the human figure as I once did, well I am extremely rusty. I have been sketching random props and stylized doodles for so long that I guess I forget the exact blocking and form process of it. So, this led me to start at refreshing myself in some blocking while understanding the human form of the hand. One great way to remember as Jeff Mellen mentioned in his book, think of a hand as a mitten. This is a great way to block out the overall shape and flow of what it takes to complete the final form. This is then led by splitting the mitten and blocking out the forms of the fingers by observing many different forms of the hand. I used the visual reference in the Anatomy for Artists visual form book by 3D Total Publishing, which gave me an amazing breakdown of the overall flow of muscles within the hand.

After refreshing myself with the blocking and sculpting forms of the human hand, because I was apparently extremely rusty. I wanted to dive into understanding the structure of the hand rather than the muscles and tendons. I needed to get a grasp and understanding of the bone structure in order to have proper proportions when sculpting. I dove right into reading through the Anatomy for 3D artists by 3D Total Publishing. The structure was laid out in a very comprehensive way that made me observe the way I use my hands for movement and bending of the skeletal muscles. The Ulna and Radius connect the arm to the wrist being made up of the Carpals bones. The Carpals when sketching seemed to be as a bunch of small blocks with two rows, which are not a necessity in understanding the design of the human hand. They are used as a reference point for a half circle to gauge the large muscle masses that tie into the Metacarpals. This is what plays a role in how we can shape the hand and give depth and structure. Each Metacarpal bone has a ball that connects to the Phalanges of the hand with the small muscles in the top of the hand and around the thumb are called Interosseous muscles, they assist in the spreading of the fingers and thumb. The Hypothenar sections and Thenar sections are muscles on the palm that give the depth and structure to the ball joint that is displayed when one observes their palm near their thumb. Each of the finger sections are accompanied by a Flexor and Abductor muscle, which means to extend and retract in the movement of the hand. The nearest phalanx to the Metacarpals are called the Proximal Phalanx, which is important to note in knuckle placement on the hand, and the furthest away is the Distal Phalanx, where the fingernail/fingertip is met to the skin and fat of the finger.  The Fingers are shaped around what is mostly fat and tendon by three segments, while it may seem there are muscles within the fingers, it is mostly tendons that pull the fingers joined in the knuckle segments that make the fingers move. Opposition is what was described in the Anatomy for Artists in visual form, it gives the way the thumb moves to each finger tips and stretches the way the muscles form and extract in each position. Circumduction is created by the flexion, extension and lateral movement that we create when we move our thumb, it's what basically creates all of the folds and creases between the thumb and palmar side of the hand as we age. 

The joints within the hand are extremely important to remember when drawing and sculpting because they play a big role in the structure of the hand overall. The saddle joint the Biaxial is found within the thumb and the wrist, this is a two degree freedom joint. This specific joint when pressed to each finger in an opposition uses the flexor and extends that specific area, depending on the figure we may be replicating, it can show an extensive flex, or give a unique pinch point for sculpting. The Condyloid Joints are also considered biaxial, and it also has two degrees of freedom involving the wrist. The wrist seems like it has an overall 360 degree angle as you move it, but the joint overall can only give out two degrees of freedom. This only implies the stress of the tendons and gives an overall stretching of the skin, a very good reference for retopology or starting with good topology near the wrist. The wrist also offers a gliding joint which is referred to as a Nonaxial meaning only very limited movement which is why it may seem as we have more freedom, but in terms of anatomy we do not.  

Although all of these muscles and tendons are extended from the forearm to the fingertips, they crossover the palm muscles and in between the Interosseus muscles at the top of the hand, we are only going to focus on the hand anatomy at the moment. A good way to form muscle structure and understand before sculpting is blocking out the hand, designing the bones that are typically structured in the desired block out, and then using a teardrop form to structure the muscles and tendons within the hand. I used this technique several times before diving into sculpting in order to understand the placement of details, structure, and form to prepare for sculpting a hand. 

Proko on YouTube offered a great tutorial video on how to draw hands, that was not the exact starting point for the tutorial.

 It surprised me after all my research that he said in his video “ For the hand in particular, a lot of forms of the bones are visible on the surface, so you gotta know them.” This was a big surprise to me as studying anatomy of the hand through the books led me to believe that bones are the key points to observe and structure a hand around rather than the fat, tendons, and muscles. Another thing mentioned in the Anatomy for 3D Artists by 3D total Publishing is that “ Fingernails - they can make or break a good anatomy study.” As far as I noticed throughout my study I did not come across much on fingernails other than their connection to fatty tissue of the tendon that connects the phalanges at the knuckles to the fingertips. The placement of the fingernails is key to the study, not all hands are the same, and some tendons are stretched in different ways that produce a more fatty finger tip with the nail being positioned further back, or for instance a females fingertips are placed further from the tendon and the Distal Phalanx.

At this point I felt I was ready and had an amazing reference to sculpt from in the Anatomy for Artists - Visual Form book by 3D Total Publishing. I wanted to learn a little more about the interface and the workflow of Zbrush before I got started. I bought a tutorial off of Flipped Normals by Speedchar. He offers a great interface introduction, a way to customize the interface, and an in depth way to use reference right from the beginning. I started semi through his tutorial which I plan on finishing in the coming weeks on top of the anatomy studies to use Zbrush more fluently for the future of the semester and so on. Here is the current result from the tutorial.

I began in Zbrush to sculpt the hand, although I am not extremely fluent with the Zmodeler and ways to use the tools in creating a base mesh to start from, I used the mannequin hand  base mesh from the library loaded into Zbrush This allowed me to smooth out the geometry and add come clay in areas that I thought may need it to work from. As for the future I plan to learn how to box and structure these parts on my own but as time fell short in pursuing this week's goal I wanted a result that I could share. This was a great way to start without knowing the program much and trying out some different brushes, techniques, and tips that Pixologic has live streaming on their homepage. I managed to smooth out the areas, add in clay where necessary, inflate the hand in areas that I felt needed it and I gave my own take on what I thought was correct from my research and analysis of hand anatomy. You will see the Dorsal Side view, Palmar side view with the slight Pisiform visibility ( which is also known for the boxer break), and detailed areas from reference of Anatomy for Artists - Visual Form by 3D total Publishing.

Next we move on to the arms which shouldn’t be that hard right ? I beg to differ. 

Works Cited / Resources

Amin, Jahirul, et al. Anatomy for Artists: a Visual Guide to the Human Form. 3DTotal Publishing, 2020.

Lewis, Marisa. Beginner's Guide to Zbrush. 3Dtotal Publishing, 2017.

Lewis, Mathew. Anatomy for 3D Artists: the Essential Guide for CG Professionals. 3DTotal Publishing, 2016.

Mellem, Jeff. How to Draw People: Step-By-Step Lessons for Figures and Poses. F & W Media, Incorporated, 2018.

Team, 3Dtotal. Sketch Workshop: Anatomy. 3dtotal Publishing, 2014.