Arm/Hand placement on a drawing

[EdLoen]

I did the following drawing back in march, but tucked it aside cause i got frustrated with getting "sausage fingers" whenever I try to get the hand placement on the hat brim.  I recently pulled it out again to try it again but i still couldn't get it right.  I'm thinking i may just have the arm angled wrong which could be throwing my positioning off.

can anyone point me in the right direction to finishing  this?



I'm trying to get it where the arm's extended out and brought back where the thumb and middle finger have a pinch hold on the brim with the remaining fingers extended in kind of a psychotically elegant type of manner. but as i said, i can't quite get it to look right.

here's what i did as a (very) rough draft of the pose. [sketch]. I've since changed some of the composition to what I'm trying to achieve above, but the initial stance it the same...

[Renal Shutdown]

Find a mirror, and try and recreate that pose, with the hand reaching for the imaginary brim.

I'm not the most supple of people, but it feels like my arm's going to snap when I try to make that pose.

That tells me that either:
1. He's got some kind of deformity, where his arms are the wrong lengths.  Perhaps his mother was on Thalidomide. Or..
2. His arm's in the wrong place for the pose.

I'd suggest you do a skeletal-esque paint-over at some point, to see where the joints should be.  Whilst you're at it, I'd take a closer look at his shoulders in general, as they seem off to me.