This tutorial will show you how to draw a handshake. These tips and examples are applicable to drawing in anime, manga, comic books, or other traditional art styles.
Drawing a handshake can be challenging because of the difficulty in drawing individual hands and the fact that parts of each hand are hidden behind each other. This tutorial will help you understand the steps and provide a breakdown of how to draw them.
These examples can also be used to draw hands in any style, as we’ve already said. Even if you don’t like anime, these drawing tips can still be useful.
You might enjoy drawing in anime or manga style. If so, you’re in the right place.
Before you begin drawing the handshake
It is important to understand the handshake position before you begin drawing. This is evident in the following examples.
Above, the “front hand”, or handshake, is drawn as if the “backhand” were invisible.
In this example, you can also see the approximate location of the hands of the foreground hand. It is possible to estimate the length of each finger and the thumb by being aware of how they are placed.
You can also find more information on drawing hands in different poses at:
Step by step Drawing Manga and Anime Hands
In the next example, you can see how the second hand would look if it was not visible.
You can also see an estimate of where the joints will be placed for this hand.
Both hands will be equal in size, so it is possible to think of them as one hand flipped over. You will find all of the major parts and joints in the same place. All proportions should be roughly the same.
Step 1: Make a construction drawing of both hands
Make a sketch of each hand as though it were transparent. Draw the fingers together and remove all details. Make sure you draw light lines so that you can erase them until the end of the tutorial.
This step will ensure that you have the right proportions and position for each hand. You can also draw the hidden areas to ensure that all the parts of your hands are aligned properly. It may be necessary to erase and redraw several times before everything looks right.
You can see examples of what could happen if your sketch is not clear and other common mistakes in drawing, here:
Common Mistakes in Drawing Manga & Anime
Step 2: Clean up any see-through construction lines
Once you feel you have the right placement and proportions, you can erase any parts of one hand that are behind the other.
Once you’re done, you will have a simple and clean construction drawing of your handshake.
Step 3 – Draw your individual fingers
Draw the individual finger inside the “framework” of the previous step.
The examples were made to ensure that fingers fit into the frame. You may need to adjust the length of the fingers in your drawing to make them fit within the construction lines. This is perfectly acceptable.
Step 4: Draw the smaller details of each hand and complete the handshake drawing
You can now add details to the hands, such as wrinkles and fingernails. You can also draw some hints of bones around the base fingers of your front hand.
You can also create curves around your foreground finger joints so that they wrap around your background hand. These will show the bends.
The fingernails are not usually drawn in the manga, anime, or comic book styles. The fingernails can be drawn to make your hand look more professional and also show the bend angle of each finger. As an example, you can see the index finger’s fingernail is drawn narrower than the rest. This indicates that the finger is pointing towards the viewer rather than towards the sides like the other fingers.
After you have added all the details, go over your drawing using darker lines. For larger details, you can make your lines thicker.
You can also find some general drawing tips here:
Beginner Guide to Drawing Anime & Manga
Conclusion
Handshakes and hands are not easy to draw. You can practice handshake drawing by drawing each hand individually in the handshake position, as though the other is invisible (as in previous examples). This will help you to get a better grasp of each hand’s posture and help you avoid making mistakes when drawing them together.
Drawing hands with various objects is possible by using:
- How to Draw a Rose Step by Step
- Step by Step Drawing Hand Poses
- Step by step Drawing Hands with Chopsticks
