In this week’s free Deke’s Techniques video, Deke demonstrates how to draw a hand (his own) by tracing a sketch (his own). Although the title refers to a clenched hand, a word that normally evokes a fist, you’ll discover next week that what our fists are in fact clenched around is one another. 

But first, it all starts with a single hand. Using a photo of a sketch he drew of his own hand, Deke shows you how to place the template, trace with the pen tool, reposition anchor points as you go, switch to Outline mode for precise alignment of points, and apply variable width to your strokes. You can see the results of the trace on the right below. 
 

Next week, as promised, we’ll put four of these hands together in a classic 1970’s style emblem of interwoven hands.

Meanwhile, for members of lynda.com, Deke’s got an exclusive movie this week in which he shows you how he got from the "scanned" (i.e. shot with a camera phone in an activity that passes for scanning these days) sketch on the left to the cleaned up traceable image in the center. If you’re not a member of lynda.com, you can check this exclusive video (along with over 300 other Deke’s Techniques, and a mountain of other courses from Deke and the rest of the talented lyndaAuthors) signing up at lynda.com/deke for a free week’s trial.