I hope don't mind edits, 'cause I did one:
So, this is the direction I would go with the hands; cartoony, fattish, and really more symbolic/iconic than really resembling anything close to human hands (but obviously, you should spend more time and make em prettier than I did
)
I also added highlights to certain parts which, in retrospect, I probably shouldn't have done (since this is obviously in progress and you may have been getting to that yourself).
As far as actually drawing hands goes, yeah... I'll just second what Xion said, and what you agreed with, which is that pixelling hands
can be is a total pain, and practice never hurts. I find that when I'm trying to learn to draw something I'm not experienced with, doing several different pieces in which I can focus on the subject in question helps break up the monotony of pure repetition (so, for example, draw a whole bunch of interesting/fun people pics, and focus a lot of attention on the hands).
Whatever you end up doing, best of luck.
EDIT:I also added a possibility for the stomach/chest. Dunno if it's what you had in mind, but I thought I'd throw it out there.
Also, my highlights look plasticy and wrong, so ignore them for the most part
