I was talking with a artist friend other day, and we went talking about difficulties to draw, then hands and feet.
Then he did a commentary: "Feet and Hands Are even more important than faces, despise what most people think. You can do a pretty face, but if the Hands and Feet are bad, it will ruins most of image"

So, What you people think about it, let's Discuss that point of view ^^

I think they can be of a great importance, and if they aren't good, can make the overall image looks strange, but I'm not sure if they can Absolutely Ruin everything.

I don't think it's the most important. You could also draw beautiful hands and feet and ruin it with a hideously drawn face. Hands and feet are as important as every other detail, in that if you screw up anything of that size it's going to look wrong.

Well I can draw pretty decent hands and feet, but I still think my image is let down by some of my faces...

I Agree

and that made me remember that one day I heard that if know to draw good hands, know to draw good faces.

There probably is some cross over, in that if you can shade your hands well, the shading on your faces will probably be decent too and stuff like that. But it's an entirely different structure.

What a funny thing that is for a person to say! ^^

• Considering how much I like drawing hands...I can agree with your friend.
  
  I put a heck of a lot of effort in hands 90% of the time. Because I think hair, eyes, and hands are the most important components of my art. ^^;
  
  Yuu Watase draws really pretty people. Really nice eyes, hair, and faces, for example. But why don't I like her art? Because she draws small shoulders, hands, and feet. The disproportions make me strongly dislike her works. (That's just me though... :3)

I think its the picture. The face can be drawing in. The hands can be just a detail. In some pictures that is the other way around. Its all about placing.

Hands and feet are extremely important. They can be as expressive - more expressive - than a face. They are also very difficult to draw. I respect artists with well-drawn hands (and feet) as much, or more, than those with well-drawn faces.

I won't necessarily say that it's the most important thing to do, but I do think that people who are serious about doing character art should study how to draw hands and feet as often and as seriously as possible. :)

Because a beautifully drawn hand or even foot can take your artwork from "average" to "amazing".

The hands are important but not at the point of overpowering the face. They are equals in most case, I think.

I agree with your friend.

Hands are the only things I can draw, and all my art is crap.

Well, any major off in the anatomy tends to throw off the entire picture, no matter how made the rest is. But since hands and feet are extremely difficult to draw, people will be impressed if you manage to get them correctly.

Having beautifully drawn hands and feet won't automatically make anything a great work of art. I think the most important thing is just that every part of the picture flows well together. So, even if the hands look good and the face looks good, the picture may look really bad if one is disproportionately larger than the other.

Originally Posted by CK

Hands and feet are extremely important. They can be as expressive - more expressive - than a face. They are also very difficult to draw. I respect artists with well-drawn hands (and feet) as much, or more, than those with well-drawn faces.

I won't necessarily say that it's the most important thing to do, but I do think that people who are serious about doing character art should study how to draw hands and feet as often and as seriously as possible. :)

Because a beautifully drawn hand or even foot can take your artwork from "average" to "amazing".

I'm not seeing how they can be more expressive... hands are like tofu, they pick up whatever flavor is around them. I definitely can't see a foot portraying an emotion.

But I'll shut up, because I'm being nit picky. ^^

teh hands are easy to hide.. but if you dont..
then you need to Draw sooo good...
i always screw up my hands...
but dont fear... your not the only one..
( like 6/7 of the ppl CANT draw hands )

Hands and feet are pretty important, but not so much that they could ruin the whole picture. It'd just annoy me, for me usually it's the faces that ruin my drawings.

Feet don't necessarily ruin everything about an image. Then again, I don't really pay much attention to them. ^^;. I suppose if they were too small, or drawn in a strange position, then they might. However, I have yet to come across any blatent anatomical errors involving feet. They're usually covered in shoes, anyway. ^^;
As for hands... if they're really badly drawn, it can make an image look bad. However, it does not ENTIRELY ruin an image- just makes it not look as good as it possibly could look.
Both of those parts need to work together with other body parts to make a good image- They don't make a picture good on their own.

Seriously? You've obviously never witnessed the dreaded peg foot disease that manifests itself when artists first attempt the forward facing feet. Actually I still have that problem.
Or the golf club/hockey stick problem with sideways facing feet. I had that one too.

It depends on the focal point. I made a picture of Tom Smith with one hand outstretched, but failed to make the hand look believable. All the energy of the picture was directed at that nasty looking smudge of a hand and I had to start over.

I guess we need to define 'ruin'. In my book, if something makes it not look as good as it could, it's pretty much ruining it. At least in my own work. It's either perfect, or it's ruined.

This is all very subjective.

With slight irony, I am terrible at faces, but pretty good at drawing hands, and sometimes good at feet (shoes usually do the trick) XD. Some of my friends are awesome at faces and pretty much everything except hands. . . so looking at people I know, I would say that both faces and hands are REALLY important to get right. The diffence is you can hide hands and still make it work, but faceless people are scary. Unless that's the whole point. . .

Maybe, I'm not much of an artist, so I wouldn't be the best expert to ask. . .

According to my art teacher, the eyes are the soul of the project. You can do a wonderful job on everything else, but if the eyes aren't right, it throws the whole thing off. Of course, all the parts of a drawing are important, and since hands and feet are so tricky, it's especially important to practice them.

It really depends on the focus of the picture in my opinion. For me it's usu the face, probably because i suck at drawing hands so i always try to find a way to hide them.
Lately though, i've been trying to draw characters in different positions using their hands and i have to say from my own experience that drawing bad hands can make the drawing look bad or slightly off, but only if you're focused on the hands/feet will it look really bad.

all part of the drawing are important, although i think the face is most important, it what people look at first, theres so much conveyed by the face

... I don't think that the hands really determine the quality of your picture. If it's like what your friend said, you can also draw nice hands and still have a picture that's not good.

A good drawing depends on overall composition. A good artist should also not be having as much of a problem with hands or faces, etc. Though I have to say, everyone has their own problems and we're all learning. Everything counts really.

So yeah, I don't agree with your friend.

Eh, for me as long as the art as a whole seems to flow I'm fine with a few proportion issues. Heck I can't say much about my style due to I'm trying to work on hands and below the waist entirely. Yet I'm happy with the overall, again fine with a few issues it doesn't bring down the whole thing.

Most portfolios will be automatically rejected if they do not include hands and feet.