Just had a great idea for an animation exercise, and I think I might try it when I get home:
a HAND TURN.

You know, like, in animation school, they may have you do a turntable animation of a head, so you understand how the drawing represents a three dimensional shape and so you know how whatever character you've designed looks when turning around.


But I have always had trouble getting hands to look right....the shapes of the fingers, their placement on the palm, etc.
And I am thinking that might be a good exercise to try doing drawn animation of in general.

Draw a character's hand, and rotate it on-axis (axis through the wrist), so it goes through 360 degrees of rotation.

If ya like drawing paws, you could try that with a foot too - on the footbones' axis to get a much more solid understanding of the toe shapes, or on the ankle axis for a nice challenging bit of foreshortening. But try a hand, too.

Whatcha all think? :D