Carving A Relaxed Hand

A lot of carvers have ask me to demonstrate how to carve hands so I thought we'd start with a simple relaxed one that comes in handy for all sorts of applications. As you can see by the photo he's holding a pot of beans in one hand and a spoon in the other. He could just as well be holding a lasso or his hat, an ax, a shovel, a branding iron, you name it this hand will do it.
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When I carve hands I think of the hand's shape as a series of interlocking planes, i.e., the first set of knuckles, the second set and then the last set. The thumb, while seperate from the others is still made up from three joints and in this example rests on top of the first finger. The palm of the hand can be defined with just three surfaces, i.e., the thumbs first joint, the pad of the hand and the soft area directly below the fingers. Just flex you palm a bit and you'll see those three forms.

Now here is a picture of those same hands in another situation. Same hands just holding different objects, in this case a powder horn and a flintlock rifle. Like I said earlier, learn to carve this one and you'll be using it over and over.
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When laying out the hand make sure you orient the grain with the direction of the thumb. If that means doing the hand as an attachment that's okay, the important thing is to make sure that the hand is as strong as possible. The ends of the fingers will be supported by each other and normally turned inward toward the body for protection. That thumb though is out there on it's own and can easily snap off if not done correctly.
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So, let me show you how easy it is to carve one of these.