Holding a pencil
3yr
Christopher Lebreault
Good Day fellow classmates!
As you can see, I have questions about holding a pencil. I watched Stan's video on the two grips and I am wondering if the over hand is necessary for long flowing line (line variation, I can see the difference.)
Love it or hate it, I have progressed in my ability l to achieve lines that flow with "writing grip" through DRAWABOX mandatory felt pen rule(and i love DaB personally).
Am I limiting myself using this grip? If so any tips on getting used to the overhand and using the tip of the pencil. Also I use graphite over charcoal in most cases.
3yr
Not a master on the subject but I believe it'd be a good practice if we adjust ourselves with both the grips as sometimes we are working on larger drawings that we can't really cover with our wrists. Over the hand allows you to put your whole hand in motion and gives better flow to your lines. But yes when you're working with details and comparatively smaller work I believe it's okay to use your wrists. Its just that you should not feel limited because you are not accustomed to the other thing.
Christopher Lebreault
3yr
Very true! It was a bit of a learning curve getting used to using overhand but now it's comfortable to use but still learning how to actually control and apply
None of the traditional 2d animators that i am aware of use the overhand grip. I guess it is just not needed when all you draw is lineart. So they tend to use the "tripod grip"
That makes since. I've started using the overhand when I'm doing rough work, but as that industry is my end goal I find myself sticking to tripod more.
3yr
Hey @Christopher Lebreault! Personally, I think the kind of grip you use depends mainly on two things:
1) The tool you're using - some materials such as felt tip pen, ballpoint pen, ink quill and a Wacom stylus won't allow for an overhand grip so nicely, if at all. But you're a living proof that it's totally possible to draw flowing lines using the writing/tripod grip! The secret to flowing lines is not in the grip, but in the shoulder motion.
2) Your personal preference - some people just love the overhand grip, some others not so much. Personally, I like it a lot when I wanna keep my thinking process loose to draw gestures or concept sketches (somehow, using the overhand grip puts my mind a bit more into "exploration mode" rather than "definition mode"). But since art is such a broad, subjective and ever-changing field of knowledge, I also like to believe there are no strict rules in it - so I'd dare to say nothing is completely mandatory in art, unless you decide it should be so for you, depending on what objective you want to achieve with that.
So maybe observe yourself closely when drawing and see if the writing grip helps you achieve the results you want. And why not, maybe explore switching to an overhand grip once in a while and see how it feels, notice how it works differently for you. It's mostly a matter of practice and habit until you get used to it. But if you still prefer the writing grip even if you're able to use the overhand grip as well, I'd say that's no problem at all, it's just a preference - you'd only be limiting yourself if you chose to never try a new way for the sake of "lazyness" or fear of failure.
That's my take!
Hope it helps!
