Students draw contours of hands and fill with pattern, symbols/motifs that will communicate something about themselves. In this example, negative space was painting with watercolors.

For younger students, patterned hands could be cut out and mounted on construction paper.

1. One hand was drawn using pencil tool
2. Lasso the hand (dotted line icon) and drag to upper left.
3. copy, paste, rotate by angle 90 degrees in upper right corner
4. Repeat for each of the 4 corners.
5. Color is optional

Here is my revision.

6. Divide image into four equal sections using line tool. Make a bold line. If your program does not have a line tool - hold the shift key down to make a straight line. Make sure hand and/or wrist lines go off the edge - draw in lines if necessary. Stop and start line if it crosses part of hand (some of Jan's students' hands are overlapping)

7. Flood fill each background (negative space) section a bold color. Correct any broken lines on hand if color goes into hand.

8. Flood fill hands (positive space) a contrasting color. (Mine are all complementary actually split complementary - See Andy Warhol's self portraits in complementary colors)

9. Change dividing line to white if desired (as shown in sample).

Howard Finster Folks Art Hands By Jeannette Smith Anthos Students learned about Georgia Folk Artist Howard Finster. After realizing that his artwork gave them "clues" about him, they decided to trace their own Hands using Sharpies, and give clues about ourselves. After tracing hands they added words, symbols and patterns with sharpie markers. Colored pencils added the finishing touches. This would make a nice lesson for crayon resist and watercolors, too. Or watercolor marker brushed over with water. Howard Finster Home Page  Man of Vision

Adinkra-Meets Mehendi Hands Designs by Christine Besack A very interesting cultural mix! Students learned about two cultures in the creation of these hand designs. Adinkra symbols were studied along with their meanings. Students combined these symbols and their own personal symbols with the elaborate designs of Mehndi (also Mehendi) henna decorations. Students did tracings of their hands. Overlapping in an interesting way was suggested. Designs were done in ultra fine point point markers and colored pencils. Wet in wet water color washes were used for negative space and the hands. An alternate approach would be to use fine point markers for the designs. More to come on this lesson.

See image of finished hand "tattoo". These were done using watercolor marker. Student could choose any color.

Mehndi Hand Designs - Temporary  "Tattoos" Submitted by Kris Fontes I have a friend who is married to an Indian and her daughter gave us a demonstration using traditional henna paste. Students then created their own hand designs on paper (just by tracing their hand) referring to handout for ideas. I supplied handouts with designs consistent with this art, i.e. paisleys, swirls, vines, eyes, etc. See finished hand - done with watercolor markers - in choice of colors. Kids loved writing on their hands.  Make sure the staff in your school is aware that this is a legitimate ART PROJECT or the kids will have some nasty teacher make a comment about not writing on hands.

Extension to the Hand Henna Tattoo Lesson:

Use the paper hand in a collage showing a merging of cultures - a sharing of ideas. Make a second paper hand with personal symbols and combine both in a composition (maybe showing elements/images from both cultures in the negative space - magazine pictures - whatever - or simply a painted background.  See the example from My Place Asia Australia

Aboriginal Hand Print Lesson Plan Rock Art painting by Cheryl Kerr  "The stenciled hand print and Aboriginal style drawings help children to relate to Australian Aboriginal Culture while helping them to understand the use of line in art. A black paper with white splattered paint was used, but white paper with red (ochre) splattered paint would make a nice impression also. Construction paper crayons make bright, bold, linear designs around the hand stencil" Paint and paint markers could be used too. See lesson plan

This image is from Dick Blick Lesson Plan and will be replaced with a student example. Used without permission.

Consider other Rock Art Cultures - Native American symbols and patterns. Use with Cave Art Lesson See some resources from Bradshaw Foundation

"Sacred Circles" Mandalas image from Gina Grant Clifton Hill Primary Quoted from Bunki Kramer: The lesson comes from a book called "MANDALA - Luminous Symbols for Healing" by Judith Cornell, PH.D. who is from San Francisco. It discusses the spiritual light from within the self which comes from ALL religions and encompasses the circle as the common ground for of all religious artworks. It doesn't just cover eastern philosophies but ALL philosophies of religion. See Sacred Circles from Bunki Kramer's Students (Los Cerros Middle School). This lesson was introduced to Getty TeacherArtExchangeTalk by Sharon Kennedy.	White Prismacolors and metallic pencils on black.
Common Threads - Hand and Ribbon Drawing Textiles from Around the World - Judy Decker This lesson dealt with similarities and differences of cultures. Tolerance and understanding. Students researched textile designs and used cultural patterned papers from Sax. The lesson began with looking at famous drawings and paintings of hands. After researching textile design on the Internet using links in Art Stuff, drawings of hands began. A 1/4 inch ribbon was given to each student which became a connecting "thread" for handmade book. Original drawings were glued to collage materials (digital images and assorted papers) on black paper.	See "Hands Book" from Bunki Kramer- Los Cerros Middle School. Bunki's lesson "sparked" this unit.
Expressive Hands from Donnalyn Shuster Modern Art Styles Problem to solve: create a larger than life modified contour drawing of hands in an expressive situation. Hands will have linear value, contain a object, and have a patterned background. Students express a message with hands. Background is inspired by a style of modern art. Hands are rendered with stippling technique. See lesson plan

Blind Contour with Rope Submitted by Carol O Neil Linda Watson posted the idea to Getty TeacherArtExchange. Hand Holding a rope.  Have all students hold a section of rope with one hand and draw that hand holding the rope with the other hand…try blind drawing. Hands would be displayed then with a rope connecting all of them. Example shown takes on a surreal look with the hand drawing the rope and rope piercing the arm. M/C. Escher's Drawing Hands could be used for reference for this lesson. For variation. photograph the students hands. Students will then draw the photograph and include a drawing of their hand drawing it.

Plaster Cast hand - Personal Portrait Paul Galinas Junior High -Ms. Connor Also see Plaster Cast Surreal hands from Bunki Kramer's (Los Cerros Middle School)  students. Hands can be cast as one unit leaving the middle two fingers loose to ease removal (and secured with gauze after taking hand cast off). With this method a wrist needs to be fashioned from cardboard and/or newspaper and foil - attached then plastered. The other method is to cast the front of the hand and back side of the hand separately - then put together with strips of gauze. The students glued and plastered the hands to a wood base and painted with acrylics. Objects were included to tell something about the individual.

Plaster Cast hand idea from Susan on Long Island: 

Plastercraft the writing hand in the position of holding an object.  After cast dries, you can hot glue the object in.  Hot glue or wire the hand to illustration board (painted wood base or Dow board painted base. Dow board could have a layer of plaster gauze).  On this board, draw the other hand doing something related or coordinated.  Draw a related background. Example: plaster hand holds milk carton in a pouring position.  Draw a hand holding a cereal bowl with dry cereal.  Background is a table in a kitchen.  Example: plaster hand holds a brush, draw a hand holding a palette.  Background- a painting on an easel. Note: These would be striking with the hand left white and the drawing a black line contour drawing (permanent marker) on white surface. M. C. Escher's drawing hands could be inspiration.

Patterns in Nature - Camouflage Hands - Lesson by Melissa Speelamn Students studied pattern in nature. They painted the pattern on 12" x 18" paper - then painted their hand to either be camouflaged within the pattern or contrast it (painting opposite the pattern).  Lesson can be done in tempera or acrylics.  Melissa photographed hands with a 35mm camera and with a digital.  Students manipulated the digital image in Photoshop. The photograph becomes the art. It might be fun to do some larger collage works with all of the painted papers. See Nature Patterns -Utah Education Network Themepark. Jan Hillmer has written a lesson plan for this project.  Share the hand paintings of Guido Daniele (not a site for your students)

Value Study Hands - Cubist style Submitted by Carol O'Neil Jan Hillmer posted this idea to Getty TeacherArtExchange. Lesson teaches related colors and value shading with colored pencils. Students trace their hand 3 times with pen (or pencil) on 9x12 paper, with hands overlapping and outlines of all hands showing. Then, draw 4 more lines, with a ruler, from one edge across to the opposite side, dividing the largest spaces into smaller spaces. These lines will also go through the hand tracings. Then pick 4 colors ( any type of color scheme works here) and color each space from dark to light (start darker in the angles and fade out towards center).  It's particularly good for working on colored pencil values.

Note from Jan Hillmer: They trace their hands 3 times, overlapping is fine.  Then they draw 3-5 lines from one side of the paper to another, breaking up the largest spaces. The students shade each space with colored pencils.  I encourage my students to figure out their own 'rule' for shading - for example, darkest towards the middle of the page or darkest towards the bottom.  Then they pick out a color group and shade!   We start this early in the year and keep it available to work on as other projects are completed - instead of 'free art.' (from post to Art Education list serve 9/1/05)

Hands of a Hero  Submitted by Carol O'Neil This is also a lesson in character development. Students research any hero of their choice. They create a composition of the hands of the hero (using their own hands as a model). The composition has to tell a story about their hero. Any medium could be used for this lesson. Example shown is done in colored pencil. Hands must include something about the hero. A scientist could be holding a beaker or test tube. Students need to do research to see what hands could hold. Students write a report about the hero.

Surreal Self Portrait Hands Submitted by Carol O'Neil This lesson is modified from one by Bunki Kramer. Student created a surreal portrait of themselves using their hands and symbols representing their interests. See lesson. Click images for larger view.

Hand Self Portrait - Lesson by Jan Hillmer

I had my 5th grade students do a hand 'self-portrait' - just their hand and some object which tells about them (soccer ball, book, tennis racquet, etc.) These were 81/2" x 12", in oil pastel but any medium could be used. Have students bring in an object that they treasure.

Signing Hands - Andy DiConti - 7th grade Contour Drawing A contour drawing project (using the American Manual Alphabet as our model) was the final phase in a series of lessons which followed a blind contour drawing and modified drawing.

Students did several studies of their hands prior to this lesson. This also was a lesson in letter design. Different styles of lettering were presented - then student designed their own.   Lin Altman did this lesson with 5th graders - shown right. These lessons used the student names. Any special words could be used. See this Sign Language Alphabet Activitiy

Submitted by Stephanie M. Corder   Lesson: Cool Hands/Warm Hearts Grade Level:  Kindergarten (and up) Objectives: To help younger students understand and to illustrate the difference between warm and cool colors. Materials: 12x18 white paper - Markers/oil pastels - Heart templates; one large, one small - Laminate (optional) - Fishing wire Procedure: Trace both of student’s hands taking up as much length as possible. After defining “cool colors”, instruct them to color their hands and arms with patterns using blues, greens and purples. Hand out heart templates and have them trace one large, and two small hearts. Define the “Warm Colors” and have them fill in hearts with patterns using reds, yellows, oranges. Point out the differences of the color combos, with hands side by side, hearts next to hands and hearts beside hearts.  What do they notice? Teacher should cut out hands and hearts (maybe get a volunteer to help) to be sure of getting all details. Older students can do their own cutting. Many Kindergarten students can cut their own. If available, laminate and cut these out-I know this is drawn out, but the stiffness and protection the laminating provides is worth it! Punch holes into the top and bottom of each set of hands, and two of the hearts, leaving one heart with a hole at the top. Connect with fishing wire, leaving a loop at the top to hang with.

Niki de Saint Phalle inspired Wire Hand Sculpture - personal portrait - from Judy Decker

I got the idea for this lesson by looking at Blue Magic by Niki deSaint Phalle. You could use any imaginative wire shape. I chose to write this up as a hands lesson. Make a wire hand sculpture (from traced outline of hand and wrist) and hang a symbol in the center - Symbol can made from clay - Sculpy polymer clay - paper cast - foil tooling - - even built up plaster gauze on a foil or cardboard armature -  for a personal "portrait". After posing the hand - wrap the wire hand and wrist with plaster gauze (or paper maché - or bright colored tissue paper dipped in white glue/water mix) to thicken it and paint in bright colors (a la Nicki Saint Phalle). Paint symbol with bright colors and patterns and suspend in center of hand with fine wire. Stick wire ends of wrist into a wood base painted white (or light color) and write words on the base about self - or positive character traits. Paint a border design around the base (a la Sam the Dot Man style or Howard Finster) picking up colors of the symbol. An added option could be to wire in words across wrist section and in fingers. Collage printed words onto poster board (on both sides) - put small hole in ends with awl - and tie in with fine jewelers wire.

Mehendi (Henna) Hand Design Scratchboard - From Kristen Puhl (student teacher)

My cooperating teacher just did a lesson with silver scratchboard using Mehendi (also spelled Mehndi) hand designs (henna painting.) As far as I know, the students traced their hand and then looked at Mehendi designs to fill in the hand. Then then transferred these to silver or gold scratchboard. Then, they retraced their design onto good white paper with brown colored pencil so it looked like henna. This hand was cut out, and both the white hand and the black scratchboard hand are mounted on a piece of brown construction paper. (5th grade.) They're pretty neat looking, and girls an guys alike were pretty into it. ("It's like tattoos").

Surreal Plaster Hands by Bunki Kramer - Los Cerros Middle School. Upper elementary through middle school.

Surreal Hands Drawing - from Bunki Kramer - See images on Los Cerros Middle School site.

Kaleidoscope Cloud Dance - Movement lesson grade K thru 4 - from Kennedy ArtsEdge

See Introductory Hand Sculpture idea. Have digital camera ready to take picture of these temporary sculptures. Use this as Interdisciplinary with Science - as a lead in to a unit on Weather.

Paper Hand Cast Lesson - Elementary to middle school

Make a plaster mold of hand - then when dry cast with paper. Lesson has pushing pulp into the mold. Loosely molded sheets of handmade paper may be used too - leaving some paper around the edges if desired. Students could also carve symbols into the plaster mold to be picked up by the cast paper sheets for an interesting relief sculpture. Do more carving into plaster for a middle school lesson.

Hands of Character Elementary (see Howard Finster Folk Art Hands by Jeannette Smith Anthos)

• Draw Hand - trace hand three times onto 12 x 19 paper
• In each of the fingers and on the palm, label one of the pillars of Character Counts. OR - You may also brainstorm with the group qualities you feel are important to positive character. Discuss for each character trait how you have represented that trait/pillar. Add word in teh other hands for each Character trait - things you do to exhibit that trait. Use markers (try some watercolor markers - then brush over with water), crayons and watercolor or marker and colored pencils.

Hands Sculpture in Clay Lesson Plan - looking at hands of Rodin Utah Museum of Art - Middle school and up. Expressive hand sculptures - looking at hand gestures.

Hand of the Artist in Clay - by Jeannie Sandoval Create a hand sculpture in clay. Research an artist and decorate the hand using that art style for inspiration. The hand project gives a great opportunity to learn about the style of an artist of interest to the student. Hand could even become surreal.

Submitted by Tina Grimes
Lesson: Hand sculpture
Grade level: upper elementary - adaptable to middle school

A project I did one time was Clay Hands. We rolled out slabs and traced around the students' hands and cut them out, then they could move the fingers around, if they wanted to, or just leave the hands flat and smooth out the edges. Once the hands were bisque fired I had the students paint them in a way that would tell me something about them. One student liked cows so she painted a cow pattern. Another liked baseball so he painted his hand to look like a baseball. And so on. They really had fun with these, and there is the added bonus of having their hand preserved in clay, so to speak.

For middle school through high school adaptation, roll our thick slab of clay. Cut out hand. Shape hand into desired pose. Prop up fingers if necessary with wads of newspapers or scraps of clay. Build up palm of hand and add knuckles. Shape wrist and portion of arm by rolling our and fusing a cylinder of clay. Hollow out thickest part of hand and attach to wrist section. Tie in art of Rodin - expressive hands. Bisque fire - then paint to express "self" - or an emotion.

Hands - Photography Lesson Ideas

• Speaking with Hands: Photography from the Buhl Collection  More examples  Calendar available 
  You will get many lesson ideas from browsing this exhibit.
• Hand Print Display Border
• Get your kindergarteners in the act, too. A Getty list member sent in this suggestion. 
• I had my kinders do simple hand printed borders for my bulletin boards.  The fun part was that students experimented with mixing colors right on their own hands.  We used tempera cakes and paint brushes, students mixed colors right on their hands, and when they were satisfied, they made the prints on a strip of paper.  All the strips were then stapled around the edges of the bulletin boards.