You know you won't bother with this so get along
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What the hell must I do to not forget the knowledge of things I learn? I'm trying to learn how to draw hands and if I don't draw a couple of them each day, a week later they look like crap. Like total crap. The only way to be good at drawing something is to draw it everyday? So I should draw a building, a person, a hand, an animal everyday? And what about my damn projects? And sometime down the line I'll need to get a job. Day only has 24 fucking hours.
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I had a university professor who told me I should have a whole sketchbook fill of pictures of eyes!
I spent a lot of time worrying about hands and feet (and eyes) in my illustrations...and then one day I was looking at a children's book and noticed how bad the hands were. This led me to look at more hands in more books. They arent good! Noone is good at hands and feet.
Every time I look at a book now, I always check out the hands and feet. Do you know how many 4 and 6 fingered hands are out there. Lots! Dont worry about yours. They cant be any worse. Worry about composition. Light and shaddow. Color choices. Those are the things that matter. -
@TianLian Anatomy is a challenge for me to draw. I have several reference pages with lots of different poses for each and go back to those, especially with hands and feet, every time I draw them and most of the time I'm still not happy with them even after several iterations. You'll get there, try not to become frustrated.
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@TianLian Well, you do have to practice often, but you don't necessarily have to draw one of each thing that exists every single day. All that these are - animals, hands, buildings, etc - are just shapes. What you should be focusing on isn't how to draw just hands, or animals, or just cars, but practicing observation, how to understand how things work and break shapes down in your mind to be able to put them on paper. I've been doing art professionally for years, but I still need to find reference pictures all the time to do my projects. Nothing wrong with that! I'll find myself having to draw a rhino and think to myself "yeah I have no clue what a rhino looks like really." But knowing how to break shapes down is the real ticket. I can find a couple pictures of rhinos and use them to draw it in a completely different pose or angle, just by understanding how these shapes work. I suggest you try Jake Parker's class "How to draw everything". He goes over that stuff.
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@TianLian, yes it’s hard, but that’s what makes it worth it!
Recommended reading: Road Less Traveled
https://www.amazon.com/Road-Less-Traveled-Timeless-Traditional/dp/0743243153 -
Sorry you are feeling so frustrated.
From my limited experience and also seeing people's sketchbooks over the years- progress happens over a longer period of time. You sometimes expect to be comfortable with an art concept after you've spent a good few days, weeks, or months consistently practicing, but unfortunately sometimes you don't see actual long term results until a year or two later. Even then, you don't necessarily feel as if you've mastered the subject, but you've reached a better comfort level.
With this is mind, do you have to be drawing hands everyday until you are comfortable enough to start sketching them after a few weeks of not studying? Nope. In my opinion you focus on what @NessIllustration talked about, and make sure you know how to break things down into simple shapes with whatever you draw. That will transfer over to you ultimately being more comfortable with drawing hands. Revisit drawing hands every couple of months maybe. Find a system for breaking them down into simple shapes. Look at how other artists simplify hands. Maybe focus on a couple of common hand poses. Then don't worry about studying them again until you've had a good break, but in the mean time keep working on personal art and other study subjects.
Hands are hard and complicated. Even when you get somewhat comfortable with them- expect to have to use reference anyway!
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I can sympathize with your frustration here. But let me offer some suggestions. The real trick in learning to draw things is to learn how to break it down in a few simple shapes. I can hear some of you now: "Hey, that is the most generic advice ever!!" But hear me out. Each thing that you draw over and over will require a sort of "shorthand" approach.
With that shorthand, you will be able to draw that thing fairly well, even after a long period of time in between your attempts. So I have a few quick lay-ins I use for hands, figures, cars, etc. that gets me pretty far. Then I might have to use actual reference for the specific details. We have the head and hands class being added to the subscription soon. @davidhohn is a master at laying this stuff in and breaking it down. Don't worry too much, it gets a LOT easier after you figure out your process. : )
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Something that helps me is to put things into practice. If i'm learning to draw heads and the figure, I try to draw a character without reference, and while I'm drawing it if I cant remember how to draw a certain part, then I look at a reference or a character designer and that way I retain it better. It's the difference between problem solving instead of copying in art I think.
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@TianLian wow, what a drama queen title. Lol
joking aside it’s very catchy though 
you don’t need to draw them everyday but you do need to draw them a lot in order the retain that muscle memory. Aside from that you also need to be mindful of your process. Analyze how you’re drawing hands and keep it in mind. Break it down to digestable chunks and practice, practice, practice. You’ll get there.
