Hand Reaching Toward the Camera: Foreshortened Reference

What changes at this angle

• The fingertips are nearest the viewer and overlap the rest of the fingers, so each finger reads as a short round-ended shape.
• The hand's length collapses. The distance from the fingertips to the wrist in the picture is less than the hand's width.
• The wrist and forearm sit behind the hand and are partly hidden by it. The hand's outline cuts across the forearm, which continues behind it.
• The thumb points off to one side rather than at the viewer, so it reads at nearly full length while the fingers read short.

What goes wrong

• Keeping the hand longer than it is wide when it points at the viewer, so the hand reads as held off to the side rather than thrust forward.
• Drawing the forearm beside the hand instead of behind it, so the wrist reads broken and the arm seems to come in from the side.
• Foreshortening the thumb as much as the fingers, so the hand reads as a stub with five short buds and the thumb loses its place.

Try it

Open the hand search at the same angle and turn the hand yourself.

Open this angle in Angle Ref