How To Hold A Drawing Pen

How to hold the pencil

The least frequently asked question about drawing is "How do you hold the pencil?"

Near people are simply unaware that there is more than one way to hold it. They unconsciously employ the writing pen grip they learned in elementary school, and it does non occur to them to even think of changing it. Yet many typical beginner'southward problems with pencil drawing, from wobbliness to hatched lines, originate from bad grip.

The "scribe'south grip" that feels natural for most people is surely the worst grip for cartoon: writing and drawing are fundamentally different activities. Writing Latin cursive or pica is done with minute motions of the paw and fingers, with the elbow fixed; for it, the grip at the pen's tip provides the optimal range of motion. Cartoon is done with broad movement of the whole arm, from paw to shoulderblade — for it, the scribe's grip is a killer precisely considering it requires fixation of the elbow. Trying to draw with a scribe's grip is a frustration; a flowing line is impossible, hatching gets curved, the pencil pressure becomes as well hard, and in the terminate you lot experience tired and cramped — yet that'southward what many people practise.

I had encountered people who claim that the best way is to apply whatsoever feels comfy, and if that's the scribe'due south grip so be it. What these people commonly miss is that it'southward all-time when y'all already have an arsenal of skills and can pick the most appropriate one for the task. A beginner thinks that scribe's grip is comfortable because he knows no others, and for him such mental attitude is counterproductive. Everyone is entitled to pursue an own style and approach, but only after they mastered the basics and can be aware of all the choices.

There are only two basic cartoon grips: the lengthwise pen grip and the crosswise violin bow grip; about of the other grips are variations of these two.

Pen grip

Hold the pencil like you would hold the writing pen, just much farther from the tip. The closer to the tip your fingers are, the more control of the pencil goes to the fingers and wrist, and the range of motion becomes smaller. Finally, at nearly 2 inches (5 /cm/) from the tip the grip becomes suitable only for infinitesimal detailing, and less than that is impractical.

This grip is good for detailing, and for pocket-size-size sketching on nearly-horizontal aeroplane (inclined table or board ready on tabletop). It is also the grip Wacom tablets are designed for. It offers high control for smaller features, and works with propped elbow -– but information technology becomes progressively worse for larger motion. It is only adept for working with the pb's tip, only non with the side. An added problem is that the hand (or the picayune finger) usually must residuum on the drawing, and you risk smudging it — more than on that later.

Violin bow grip

Hold the pencil with the pollex against all four fingers. This removes nearly control from the fingers, and emphasizes the wrist and specially the arm at elbow and shoulder.

This grip is the preferable bones cartoon grip. It does non demand a propped arm, and the move range is limited merely by your arm span; it produces flowing, economical sweeping line and is ideal for crude sketching, hatching and tonal work with the side of atomic number 82. It works best on big folio and a near-vertical plane (paper pinned to board), and is the preferred grip in bookish cartoon. Information technology enables working with the lead's side, for darker flowing lines and shading. It cannot exist used with Wacom stylus.

Of grade, when yous are cartoon, yous are doing so on an oblique surface, not on a horizontal table, correct? Sit direct and either use a board propped on the tabular array, or pin the paper to board and hold that vertically on your lap. Working on a horizontal table makes y'all stoop and does funny things to perspective.

Gesture grips and variations

Between the "pen" and the "violin bow", at that place is whatsoever number of intermediate grips, suitable mostly for gesture drawing with varying paper size and motion range. Usually, the smaller the page or detail, the closer the grip will exist to the "pen". They nonetheless share the "violin bow"'south do good of loosening the arm and not needing elbow back up.

A violin bow grip with all fingers directly is the scalpel grip. It is not used often; information technology is good when y'all demand to lay the pb all apartment on paper for shading, and too for making practiced horizontal lines. For our purposes it's still the variation of the "bow". A violin bow grip with index finger pressing on the tip is the rare knife grip, and is also suitable for drawing with full side of the lead. It offers a little effectively control of the tip, simply seriously restricts the arm'due south movement range. Information technology is good for making brusk thick lines.

Brush grip

Sometimes a brush grip is used for item work — it is the pencil held similar a brush, in a pen grip with index finger resting forth the shaft. It offers more motion freedom than the pen grip and works with or without elbow back up, only when used with a pencil it as well takes away some fine command. Information technology is adequately good for holding the Wacom stylus, too.

Brush can likewise be used when held backwards, but for a pencil such inverted bow grip offers almost no benefits (in my experience). Information technology can be used for making skilful vertical lines. You could also utilize it for stippling, but it shows niggling advantage fifty-fifty for that rarely used technique.

Pathological grips

I have seen other grips occasionally, which tin't be classified — in fact, most of them are painful to await at. I have no explanation why these people choose to grab their pencils against the base of their thumb or bunch upwards their fingers; I doubtable these are just bad habits, just less typical than the "scribe" grips. It "works for them", but at what toll?

Fortunately, it is unproblematic to examination whether your grip is good. All working grips I have seen and used obey one mutual rule:

Do non choke the pencil tip.

That'southward information technology. Just go along your fingers at least two inches from the tip, so you cannot press down, and exist certain to employ your elbow and shoulder, not your fingers.

■

User commentary

i concord a pencil the "wrong way" and my drawings are as good every bit someone property the pencil the "right" way. what ever way is most comfortable is the manner yous should hold the pencil.

c ✉
Midweek, Feb 22 2012 xv:42

Sure, whatsoever works for you. Only some grips are still more conductive for good technique than other ones. And for some people, changing the grip does help fifty-fifty if you don't retrieve it can help y'all.

I go through grips without even thinking, depending on the size of the affair I am working on, for case.

Eugene Arenhaus✔
Thu, Feb 23 2012 03:33

WoW this helped and then much I have been reading that pencil grip doesnt affect yous piece of work that much only the violin/gesture grip made a huge divergence in my gesture drawings and it was weird feeling my shoulder and elbow in movement.

Thanks Alot !!!!!

^Thanks again

Azuerous
Thu, Mar 1 2012 09:31

I'm glad the commodity helped you. :)

Eugene Arenhaus✔
Fri, Mar two 2012 06:50

Do you intendance to elaborate on the Violin Bow grip? Like whether the pressure should be divided equally or the most of it be put on the pointing finger and thumb.

Is it beneficial to grab the end of the pencil with the pinky ?

Should I go along the pencil and then that my fingers most impact the surface or more like at a thirty-45 degree angle?

Is control over this grip something I'll gain with practice or am I missing something?

Lastly, is this grip only to get the menses and proportions of the figure and non the details?

Hisoka ✉
Sat, Jun 9 2012 08:48

Very helpful. Thanks a lot.

Tong Liu
Monday, Jun eleven 2012 07:04

Hisoka, the Violin Bow grip is meant to make you lot use the whole arm and force you lot to press lightly. So don't try to printing much at all, merely touch the pencil to the paper. Keep it at a depression bending. Touching the surface with fingers should be avoided, unless yous are wearing a cotton glove, but keep them shut to the surface.

Stabilizing the pencil with the pinky does assistance, merely don't try pressing on the end with information technology. Just put all 4 fingers across the pencil. (In some cases you can bear upon the *paper* with the pinky fingernail, to stabilize the hand.)

As with any unfamiliar skill, you'll get meliorate at it every bit you practice. Switching from a lifetime of using the fingers to using the whole arm takes fourth dimension and effort.

And yes, the violin bow grip is better at broad sketching than fine details.

Eugene Arenhaus✔
Mon, Jun 11 2012 08:48

Which grip would you say is improve for sketching something like animal fur?

Shay ✉
Thu, Jun 28 2012 10:28

Depends on the size of your motion-picture show. Fur is usually a repetitive texture, composed of short strokes, unless you are drawing an Afghan hound, so I'd expect a gesture grip or the pen grip would suit it.

It's not a matter of a precise grip-to-texture fit, though. As long as your arm joints are not locked and y'all are working from the shoulder, you tin can use whatsoever grip that works in a given situation. Even a violin bow grip might piece of work to lay downwardly texture, for example, when y'all are working at large-size folio placed vertically.

Eugene Arenhaus✔
Sat, Jun thirty 2012 11:25

I tried these grips for a while but kept running into the same two problems: i) Where did my pressure level go? 2) Where did my accuracy go?

Rereading this article, I have an idea of what I was doing wrong but I want to check:

Is pressing difficult with the pencil just a mistake, and i should become a softer pencil for darker lines? (Or mostly printing lightly, and at the end switch to a grip that can handle more pressure?)

Will these grips *not work* for small detail, and they should be used on large (A4+) sizes only?

Are these grips designed for fast, confident lines? That is, if you try to become wearisome they will be shaky?

Volition you get decent accurateness for long lines after practise? Suppose I wanted to trace the shape of a zeppelin, which needs to be exact -- would these grips exist better than using a french curve or curved rule?

One of the reasons I desire to switch to these grips is that I become hand pain very rapidly when using my normal 'scribe'due south grip'. I suspect it's a habit of choking the pencil, partly caused past wanting night lines, partly by not beingness used to the correct grips. (I got to the indicate where I was switching to my left to continue doing studies while my dominant paw rested. Not ambidextrous, simply meliorate than nothing. Any other tips for paw pain?)

Besides, I was wondering why my hatching ends up curved! Mystery solved.

Lulie ✉
Tue, February 12 2013 09:eighteen

Lulie - aye, you are correct, pressing hard is a mistake. Apply a softer pencil and/or more hatching to get a darker value. Heavy pressure interferes with command.

Generally you want to conform the grip to the size you lot are working at: violin bow grip for broader lines, pen grip for smaller item, gesture grip in between. If yous don't feel confident enough to switch on the fly, use the gesture grip for everything. But no matter what size yous are working at, go on your arm relaxed and joints loose. Put as much shoulder and as petty wrist into the movement equally possible. Even when you are working at tiniest detail, go along the shoulder free.

These grips are designed for control. You don't have to work fast to get it right; whatever speed works. If yous find the line hard to control or shaky at slow speed, it is probably considering of likewise much muscle tension. The pain that you say you lot feel reinforces that guess. Putting antagonist muscles in a fight with each other kills control.

Relax. Pay attending to how you exhale. Wave the arm effectually, brand sure all joints movement. Do a few cartoon motions without touching the paper, brand sure your grip is light and movement easy and smooth. Do a few lines with the same move, South-curves, straight lines, ellipses. Use that as a routine do earlier you draw and during breaks.

An exercise for precision is cartoon a freehand line, then drawing over exactly the same line again and again. With full control, the line will get darker and more refined, but not "hairy". Practice that too, with enough practice your accuracy volition improve.

But for a clean technical cartoon of a zeppelin, where the requirements to the line are different, I use French curves too. :)

Eugene Arenhaus✔
Tue, February 12 2013 11:33

So yous were saying that you use as little of the wrist/fingers as possible, and always continue the arm/shoulder gratuitous to motion, simply the wrist/fingers is used to an extent or even primarily in small detailing?

I was going to brand an argument forth the lines that the arm is larger and heavier and less designed for fine particular. Only it seems you are saying the betoken is to favour arm movements, non stop manus movements altogether, and either may help equally long equally the muscles are working with each other instead of stiffly against.

Regarding "pressing difficult is a mistake": What about the burnishing technique for coloured pencils? Is pressing difficult only a mistake for graphite pencils? (Or is there a way of burnishing without pressing hard?) Which grip is most suited to that? I guess i should also accept more frequent breaks to let the manus residual in that state of affairs.

Yes, that is correct. Less fingers, less wrist, more elbow and shoulder, as little musculus tension as possible. But if you need to add some fingers or some wrist, do it. Only don't adopt them to the larger joints.

Every bit for the arm beingness too heavy for small detailing, you tin can go practise a fiddling experiment: endeavour to depict a 3-mm circle using just the shoulder and elbow. Use the pen grip and residue the hand on the pinky finger if yous demand it. You'll probably discover that it's quite possible, even if it seems foreign. (At least, I can do it.)

Burnishing technique in colored pencil is a different matter. It is done to an expanse, not to a line; it is a mode to get a detail smooth texture or alloy and conform layered colors. (Burnishing with a colorless blender pencil intensifies colour, burnishing with white pencil washes it out, burnishing with a calorie-free-colored ane washes out and shifts color.)

You do have to press hard to burnish colored pencil, so these grips aren't very applicative - they are designed for light force per unit area used in drawing. Use whatever grip that keeps the pencil close to vertical - hard pressure volition crush the soft color lead if it is at an angle. For example, modify a writing grip so your curled center finger'due south back side puts about pressure on the pencil, and the index and thumb only continue information technology in place.

Put most pressure down from the shoulder. Don't effort to press down with your fingertips, or yous'll get tendon pain.

Eugene Arenhaus✔
Saturday, February 23 2013 00:26

thank you been struggling with my grips n looking for answers ... I didnt realize that the distance from tip of the pencil = dissimilar pressures on the page. I was wondering why my line darkness, and hatching were inconsistent.thanks.

Theidleone ✉
Mon, Mar 18 2013 xviii:05

Hi,

Thanks for the article I'm a complete beginner and I've been trying to do this, I'm having a piddling difficulty, I'm using a drawing lath which is 15 degrees do you call back this is enough for this grip to be effective, when I try and draw horizontal/vertical without adjusting the pencil the markings are uneven. when I try to hold the pencil vertically to draw a horizontal line I find it quite difficult sitting downward with this lath as my arm goes into my body and information technology feels difficult to get that loose movement. Also shall I assume that the violin bow grip isn't going to all-time for authentic lines and what I mean past that is having an exact distance you lot desire to hit and using this grip?

Sorry I'm a complete novice and I'd really dear some example of these techniques a chip more then I know what to sort of expect when applying them as i'grand trying to just become my basic hand-eye coordination going with drawing lines only I do struggle to go the distances right to finish a foursquare with these grips.

Thanks for the wonderful article, I appreciate when somebody tries to help usa beginners :)!

Jon

Jon Saunders ✉
Wed, May viii 2013 03:55

I tried these grip merely I have poor control. The aforementioned i have with regular pengrip (that is as well bad).

Then I was right, turning the paper is also a bad habit.

Nordlys ✉
Midweek, Apr 22 2015 09:33

Command is something that improves with do. Remember to utilise your whole arm when cartoon, and keep the joints loose. Straining kills command. So does limiting your motility.

Try working in larger size; it forces y'all out of habitual move.

Eugene Arenhaus✔
Wed, Apr 29 2015 01:42

How-do-you-do, thank you for your post! I take a question: I'one thousand thinking of ownership a Wacom intuos small tablet. How do y'all suggest I use my pen in that case? The pen grip, equally you mentioned, is practiced for a virtually-horizontal plane, but my desktop is fully horizontal. Should I buy some sort of back up for the wacom, or is information technology fine to use it horizontally besides? (I likewise heard that the tablet should be fully paralel to the screen for all-time functioning)

Cheers!

Thales ✉
Monday, May 18 2015 15:56

Hi Thales.

Try holding the Wacom stylus like a brush, with the index finger forth it and its tip on the rocker switch. Hold the tablet at an angle.

Supports tin work, only I simply put the tablet on my knees and residue it on the desk-bound - and that only because I work on vertical screens. When I piece of work on horizontal screens, it becomes equally easy to put the tablet flat on the desk.

Putting the tablet parallel to the screen is completely irrelevant. Y'all adapt to whatever position, once y'all learn to depict while looking on the cursor instead of the actual stylus.

What may exist important is the tablet size. I discover information technology easier to work when the tablet is closer in dimensions to the screen: a tablet that is smaller than half your screen may be too small for accuracy. Zooming in on item tin can help in that case.

Eugene Arenhaus✔
Sun, May 31 2015 03:45

Hello Eugene, thank you for the answer.

I will probably get a medium sized wacom pen and touch, it's probably the cheapest good tablet I can afford xD Also, since my screen is horizontal, I"ll probably use it flat on the table like yous said!

Thales ✉
Sun, May 31 2015 05:06

The give-and-take is now airtight.