How Can I Draw The Jojo Art Style Hands And Faces?

I still giggle at how dramatic hands can make a face read as instantly 'JoJo-ish'—so here’s a compact routine I use when I want that vibe quickly. Start with a 30-second gesture sketch to capture the pose and energy. Build the head from a sphere and then cut planes for the cheekbones and jaw; exaggerate the nose bridge and keep the lips sculpted, almost like carved stone. Use a single strong light source and block in shadows early to sell the planes.

For the hand, think of the palm as a tilted rectangle, add the thumb wedge, then stack cylinder segments for fingers. Mark knuckles as little spheres and nail beds as flattened ovals—Araki often elongates nails a touch for flair. Practice drawing the negative space between fingers; if it looks right, the hand reads. When inking, push line weight—thicker lines on the shadow edge and thinner lines for interior details—and use cross-hatching for midtones. I often flip my canvas or draw from a mirror to catch proportion mistakes. It’s a simple loop: gesture, structure, detail, ink. Do that a few times a day and you’ll get that sculpted, dramatic look before you know it.

There are a few practical habits I developed that made the biggest difference when I was learning to paint faces and hands the way Araki does. First, break everything down into simple volumes: spheres, boxes, and cylinders. For the face, I start with the skull sphere, map out the planes of the cheek and nose, then put the eyes on a strong brow line. The nose in 'JoJo's Bizarre Adventure' often reads like a wedge—don’t make it a soft bump. I sketch in high-contrast shadows early so the planes read immediately, then refine features and add hair and stylized accessories.

Hands deserve their own practice regiment. I practiced one pose a day for weeks—open hand, fist, pointing, holding—each time starting with a blocky palm and cylinder fingers. I also photographed my own hands in dramatic lighting to study cast shadows and wrinkles. For inking, experiment with a brush pen for thick, calligraphic strokes and a fineliner for veins and creases; the variety sells the dramatic texture. Another trick: copy panels from different parts of 'JoJo's Bizarre Adventure' to see how Araki’s style evolved—muscular and chunky early on, then more elongated and fashion-forward later. That gave me permission to mix styles rather than copy one rigid look.

If you get stuck, slow everything down: redraw a single hand from five different angles before moving on. Over time, combine those studies into quick thumbnails of characters in dramatic poses. It’s slow at first, but you’ll recognize the shapes in no time and it becomes a lot more fun.

My sketchbook and a cheap mechanical pencil have been my best teachers for nailing that flamboyant, sculpted look from 'JoJo's Bizarre Adventure'. Start with the attitude before the details: pose your figure in one strong gesture line, exaggerate the twist of the torso, and commit to the foreshortening. For faces, build the head with planes—use a sphere for the cranium and block the jaw as a wedge. Araki’s faces often have sharp cheekbones, defined chins, and noses that are more like sculpted planes than soft curves. I like to mark the brow ridge and the line where the cheekplane meets the jaw; that single edge makes the face pop when you shade.

Hands in this style are dramatic. Think of the palm as a box with a wedge where the thumb sits, then stack finger segments like little cylinders and mark knuckles as spheres. Exaggerate lengths a touch—fingers tend to be longer and more elegant in later parts of 'JoJo's Bizarre Adventure', while earlier parts favor bulky, heroic hands. Pay attention to the negative shapes between fingers; if those silhouettes read correctly, the hand will feel alive. Use strong cast shadows between relaxed fingers and bold highlights on knuckles for that comic-book dimensionality.

For rendering, practice cross-hatching and thick-to-thin line weight—Araki loves stark contrasts. Try a limited palette of blacks and one midtone to focus on values. Do timed gesture drills for hands (30–120 seconds) and full-head studies for 10–20 minutes; I used to draw hands on the bus during commutes and it improved my shapes fast. Copying directly from panels is fine for study, but always re-draw in your own voice; steal the rhythm, not every stroke. If you want, I can break down a step-by-step tutorial for a single pose next time—I’ve got a stack of scans and my own process notes that help.