How to hold the pencil

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

Most people are simply unaware that there is more than one way to hold it. They unconsciously use the writing pen grip they learned in elementary school, and it does not occur to them to even think of changing it. Yet many typical beginner’s problems with pencil drawing, from wobbliness to hatched lines, originate from bad grip.

The “scribe’s grip” that feels natural for most people is surely the worst grip for drawing: writing and drawing are fundamentally different activities. Writing Latin cursive or pica is done with minute motions of the hand and fingers, with the elbow fixed; for it, the grip at the pen’s tip provides the optimal range of motion. Drawing is done with broad movement of the whole arm, from hand to shoulderblade — for it, the scribe’s grip is a killer precisely because 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 too hard, and in the end you feel tired and cramped — yet that’s what many people do.

I had encountered people who claim that the best way is to use whatever feels comfortable, and if that’s the scribe’s grip so be it. What these people usually miss is that it’s best when you 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 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 drawing grips: the lengthwise pen grip and the crosswise violin bow grip; most of the other grips are variations of these two.

Pen grip

Hold the pencil like you would hold the writing pen, but much further 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 about 2 inches (5 /cm/) from the tip the grip becomes suitable only for minute detailing, and less than that is impractical.

This grip is good for detailing, and for small-size sketching on near-horizontal plane (inclined table or board set 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 it becomes progressively worse for larger motion. It is only good for working with the lead’s tip, but not with the side. An added problem is that the hand (or the little finger) usually must rest on the drawing, and you risk smudging it — more on that later.

Violin bow grip

Hold the pencil with the thumb against all four fingers. This removes most control from the fingers, and emphasizes the wrist and especially the arm at elbow and shoulder.

This grip is the preferable basic drawing grip. It does not need a propped arm, and the motion range is limited only by your arm span; it produces flowing, economical sweeping line and is ideal for rough sketching, hatching and tonal work with the side of lead. It works best on big page and a near-vertical plane (paper pinned to board), and is the preferred grip in academic drawing. It enables working with the lead’s side, for darker flowing lines and shading. It cannot be used with Wacom stylus.

Of course, when you are drawing, you are doing so on an oblique surface, not on a horizontal table, right? Sit straight and either use a board propped on the table, or pin the paper to board and hold that vertically on your lap. Working on a horizontal table makes you stoop and does funny things to perspective.

Gesture grips and variations

Between the “pen” and the “violin bow”, there is any 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 be to the “pen”. They still share the “violin bow”’s benefit of loosening the arm and not needing elbow support.

A violin bow grip with all fingers straight is the scalpel grip. It is not used often; it is good when you need to lay the lead all flat on paper for shading, and also for making good 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 finer control of the tip, but seriously restricts the arm’s motion range. It is good for making short thick lines.

Brush grip

Sometimes a brush grip is used for detail work — it is the pencil held like a brush, in a pen grip with index finger resting along the shaft. It offers more motion freedom than the pen grip and works with or without elbow support, but when used with a pencil it also takes away some fine control. It is fairly good for holding the Wacom stylus, too.

Brush can also be used when held backwards, but for a pencil such inverted bow grip offers almost no benefits (in my experience). It can be used for making good vertical lines. You could also use it for stippling, but it shows little advantage even for that rarely used technique.

Pathological grips

I have seen other grips occasionally, which can’t be classified — in fact, most of them are painful to look at. I have no explanation why these people choose to grab their pencils against the base of their thumb or bunch up their fingers; I suspect these are simply bad habits, just less typical than the “scribe” grips. It “works for them”, but at what cost?

Fortunately, it is simple to test whether your grip is good. All working grips I have seen and used obey one common rule:

Do not choke the pencil tip.

That’s it. Just keep your fingers at least two inches from the tip, so you cannot press down, and be sure to use your elbow and shoulder, not your fingers.