See No Evil Drawing: Three Wise Monkey Poses with Hand Placement

Object Drawing Lessons

This lesson teaches a repeatable method for drawing the three wise-monkey poses: one hand covering the eyes, one covering the ears, and one covering the mouth. You will build each pose from a simple head-and-shoulder frame, place the covering hand using landmark lines, and check the result with a small set of measurable rules. Use a head unit H, measured from crown to chin, as the repeatable unit for sizing the hand and face frame. All numerical values below are hypothetical examples chosen for practice, not manufacturing or printer specifications. Measure your actual paper and tools before drawing.

Practice materials: Printable downloads are not available for this lesson yet. Use the instructions and four exercises below.

Build a shared head-and-shoulder frame

Start every pose with the same frame. Draw a light vertical centerline and an oval head of height H, where H is the crown-to-chin distance. Mark the chin and crown so the same H can be used to size the hand. Keep the frame faint; it is a guide, not a final line.

Place three landmark lines on the face: an eye line halfway down the head oval, an ear line level with the eye line, and a mouth line two-thirds down from the top of the oval. These landmarks let you position the covering hand consistently across all three poses.

1. Draw the vertical center line and the head oval.
2. Add the eye line, ear line, and mouth line.
3. Add the shoulder line one head unit below the chin.
4. Label the three landmark lines lightly so you can erase them later.

Place the hand for see-no-evil

For the eyes-covered pose, the palm faces the viewer and the fingers spread across the eye line. The fingertips should reach the top of the head oval, and the wrist should extend down to the shoulder line. This creates a clear cover without hiding the whole face.

Draw the hand as a rounded rectangle, then add four finger capsules and a thumb capsule. Let P be the palm width. If each finger is 3P/16 wide and each of the three gaps is P/12, the four fingers and three gaps total 4(3P/16)+3(P/12)=3P/4+P/4=P. This is a packing example for the drawing. For vertical placement, measure from the top edge of the palm to the fingertips; compare that span with the eye-to-crown distance so the fingertips can reach the top of the head oval.

1. Draw a rounded rectangle for the palm centered on the eye line.
2. Add four finger capsules spreading upward to the top of the head oval.
3. Add the thumb capsule angled toward the ear line.
4. Erase the eye line inside the palm area and redraw the visible face edges.

Place the hand for hear-no-evil and speak-no-evil

For the ears-covered pose, place the palm over one ear with the fingers pointing up and the thumb behind the jaw. The opposite ear remains visible. For the mouth-covered pose, place the palm over the mouth line with fingers pointing toward the opposite cheek and the thumb under the chin.

Use the same hand size in all three poses. Compare palm width P with the head oval height H, where H is the crown-to-chin distance. This worksheet uses a palm width near H as a simple scale choice; adjust the hand consistently in all three panels.

1. For hear-no-evil, center the palm on the ear line and point fingers upward.
2. For speak-no-evil, center the palm on the mouth line and point fingers across the cheek.
3. Keep the thumb visible on the outside edge of the palm.
4. Compare palm width to head width and adjust before inking.

Check face-cover construction and finish

A good face-cover pose shows the covering hand clearly and leaves enough of the face visible to identify the monkey. Check that the hand overlaps the correct landmark line, that the wrist connects to the shoulder line, and that no finger crosses the center line unless the pose requires it.

Finish by darkening the final lines and erasing the frame. Add simple facial features only where they remain visible. Keep the three poses on one page so the set can be compared side by side.

1. Verify the hand covers the correct landmark line.
2. Verify the wrist meets the shoulder line.
3. Erase the frame and darken final lines.
4. Compare all three poses for consistent hand size.

Worked example

Draw a see-no-evil pose on paper where the head oval is 4 cm tall and the shoulder line is 2 cm below the chin. Place the covering hand so the palm center sits on the eye line and the fingertips reach the top of the head oval. State the palm width you will use and check the wrist position.

Four practice exercises

Common mistakes

• Drawing the covering hand too small so it does not reach the landmark line. Measure palm width P against the chosen head unit H and redraw the hand before adding fingers.
• Placing the wrist above the chin line, which makes the arm look disconnected. Extend the wrist down to the shoulder line and redraw the forearm.
• Using different hand sizes across the three poses. Draw all three palms from the same rounded-rectangle template.
• Erasing the landmark lines before checking hand placement. Keep landmarks visible until the final check, then erase.

Self-check rubric

• The covering hand overlaps the correct landmark line for each pose.
• The wrist connects to the shoulder line in all three poses.
• Palm width is consistent across the three poses.
• The face remains identifiable around the covering hand.
• Landmark lines are erased and final lines are clean.
• Valid alternatives are accepted if the hand covers the correct landmark and the wrist reaches the shoulder line.

Questions and answers