CHAPTER II.

Having provided the proportions used by academies and the method of sketching them, we will now provide the proportions of hands and feet, as well as the method of drawing them, either from plaster models or from nature. We will begin with the hands of grown individuals.

1. Proportions of the Hand.

The length of the hand is equal to three parts of the head. Here, plate 36, figure 1. AB equals three parts.

The hand consists of two main sections: the palm and the fingers.

We will begin with the hand seen from above, fig. 1.

The back of the hand, represented here as AC fig. 1, or by a c, fig. 3, has a height of one and a half parts, half the length of the hand, or half the scale ST. The length of the middle finger, represented here by CB, or c b, fig. 2, is equal to one and a half parts, half the length of the hand.

The fingers have three segments (phalanges). The middle finger, marked here by B, is the longest; the ring finger, marked here E, is shorter than the middle finger by half the length of the nail; the index finger, marked D, is shorter by half the length of the nail than the ring finger.

The first phalanx occupies a little more than two-fifths of the length of the finger; the second phalanx is equal to three-quarters of the first, and the third phalanx is equal to three-quarters of the second. The length of the nail occupies half of the last phalanx.

The thumb has only two segments (phalanges); therefore, it is much shorter than the other fingers. The end of the thumb reaches almost to the second phalanx of the index finger. The height of the thumb, including the first bone of the metacarpus, equals almost two parts, or the height of the middle finger plus one-fifth, meaning that the height HG is equal to CB, or to f, plus one-fifth, or to SX.

When one wishes to draw a hand, one should start by sketching it as the hand represented in fig. 2. Once the length of the hand is known, the square of the hand is given, represented