Who was the artist who learned to draw hands really well?

January 29, 2009 10:07 AM

Who was the comic book artist who improved his hand-drawing skills to mastery?

A friend of mine is attempting to recall a story he heard. In it, an artist, possibly a comic-book artist, realizes that he's much worse at drawing hands than most of his peers. He decides to focus on learning to draw hands well, and eventually he becomes well-known for being one of the best artists at drawing hands in his field.

Does this sound familiar to anyone? He'd like to know the name of the artist in question, and an actual cite would be extra-great.

posted by lore to media & arts (6 comments total)

That sounds vaguely like the artist who does the User Friendly webcomic. Basically, for years all of his characters would have their hands on desks, in their pockets, etc. I stopped reading long before he ever grew past that, but iirc he made a public and concerted effort to improve that aspect of his art.
posted by TheNewWazoo at 10:25 AM on January 29

This sounds very much like Jules Feiffer's The Man in the Ceiling. The protagonist is a ten-year-old aspiring comic book artist, and among other bumps in the road he can't draw hands.

Even if that's not what you're thinking of, it's a lovely book and worth a read.
posted by Metroid Baby at 10:29 AM on January 29

It sounds like this could apply to a lot of artists. I remember reading that Greg Dean of Real Life Comics went through almost the same exact process you described, though.
posted by Zaximus at 11:05 AM on January 29

how about burne hogarth? did the old tarzan strips for the dailies. his drawing dynamic hands is phenomenal and if anyone draws like the old masters it's that chap.
posted by artof.mulata at 4:45 PM on January 29

For some reason this is bumping a memory for me of Michael Chambon's The Amazing Adventures Of Kavalier And Clay. The main characters are comic book artists in the 40s and 50s (and perhaps the 60s as well?), and I think there was some discussion of the difficulty of drawing hands.
posted by planetthoughtful at 5:48 PM on January 29

I think of comic book hands & think of Kirby's expressive, dramatic hand gestures, though I can't come up with a phrase to search for to find a story about his skills improving.

Just so you know, searching for "the liefeld of hands" didn't come up with anything useful, especially Uncyclopedia.
posted by Pronoiac at 12:23 AM on January 30