The picture plane is a mental concept. It is an imaginary transparent plane, like a framed window, always parallel to the artist's eyes. What the artist sees continues off into the distance but the picture plane enables the artist to see the scene as though it were flat - like a photograph. The 3D image is converted 2D on the plane and the artist then copies the image onto the paper.
Drawing is copying what you see flattened on the picture plane.
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Drawing is copying what you see flattened on the picture plane.
(Source:https://millis.itslearning.com/ContentArea/ContentArea.aspx?LocationID=640&LocationType=1)
For this project it was necessary to draw your hands with wrinkles in them by folding your hands and copying the picture by putting your hands under an acetate. The obstacle with transferring the 3D hand to a 2D plane though is that the perspective, depth, and shading changes. This all effects what the eye sees and it looks less realistic in a 2D plane due to that. So in reality drawing is just taking something 3D and copying onto a flat 2D picture plane which is an imaginary plane like a window that is always parallel to the artist's eyes to help the artist see a 3D scene in a 2D plane.