In this week’s free Deke’s Techniques episode, in order to start his three-week celebration of Thanksgiving (US version), Deke explores what he calls the “most versatile art form of our time” —the hand turkey.

For those of you who haven’t been exposed to American kindergarten art projects or any one of the collection of hand turkeys we’ve created over the years here at the old dekeFarm, this so-called art form arises when you trace around your hand and then, well, turn it into a turkey.

You can see the traditional version up top, in which Deke actually uses a version of his own hand which he traced onto his iPad. (If you’re a member of LinkedIn Learning, you can see it in action in this week’s exclusive movie.)

For a mere glimpse of what can happen to this in the hands of a mind like Deke’s, here’s the original hand turkey from 2012 for episode 175:

And here’s a more rudimentary turkey I made for a dekeSpeak newsletter that became the original prototype (you can see who the real artist is):

Then there was the year where we went all-natural with the hand turkey and actually used Deke’s actual hand, some sticky notes, and some “branding” courtesy of Deke’s Techniques episode 002.

And the year we were in Ireland, and spotted this shadow hand turkey in Galway:

This year, Deke will be exploring all kinds of hand turkeys, including at least two superheroes, the Incredible Turkey:

And Spider-Hand Turkey:

You know, this is the closest we have to an actual tradition around here. More on that and more turkeys next week, if you can believe it.

Deke’s Techniques, where nothing goes unexplored until we reach full poultry-seasoned ridiculousness!