How to Hold a Drawing Pencil

PRELIMINARY DRAWING

Breaking Down Preconceptions

Before we go on to discuss techniques in relation to drawing media, we want you to think about your input into a drawing from a psychological and physical point of view.

When we start out along the visual creative road, we tend to bring with us a lot of preconceived notions about what a drawing is and how it should be produced. It's vital for your creative development that you shed these preconceived ideas as quickly as possible, otherwise they will continually hold you back.

One of the first projects we put before our students in the studio involves an exploration of our relationship with the drawing implement. We will assume, for our purposes, that this is a pencil. Breaking down preconceptions involves taking risks and trying something a bit different. If we are not careful the familiar can become a straitjacket, and this extends to how we hold the pencil.

You might think, 'Well surely, there's only one way of doing that!' Wrong. There are several ways and each of them will tell you something new about the implement you are using and what you are capable of producing with it.

If you try holding your implement in experimental and unorthodox ways you will produce drawings that have a variety of expressive marks and various tensions within those marks. You will widen your approach to mark making, whether with a pencil or any other drawing implement, and also open up your attitude towards drawing techniques.

In the first stage of the project we ask students to make test samples and just see what sort of marks they can make by holding the pencil in a different way to usual.

Holding the pencil in a traditional way - this way of holding the pencil for the beginner can be very restricting, as it tends to come with too many preconditions that limits our ability to be more creative. However holding the pencil in this way is very appropriate for more theoretical and technical drawing where you need more control.

Holding the pencil with your fingertips - this action changes the type of control, and it allows you to make marks that are more tentative. The pencil can also slip quite easily in this position, giving marks that are not accounted for, and therefore bring a life to the drawing that is more creative because we are allowing for the mistake or the slip to take a positive part in the drawing.

Holding the pencil like a dagger - this is the opposite effect to holding the pencil in your fingertips. As the mark made from this action is strong, direct and usually aggressive in its expression. The very physical nature of this drawing employs the movement of the whole arm rather than just the wrist and the hand.

Holding the pencil between the toes - we have seen some amazing drawing done by students in this position. Stand on one leg and don't hold on to anything whilst doing the drawing.

Then place the board on the floor, put the pencil between the toes and proceed to draw.

Use the figure when doing these drawings.

Treat them as experiments, and as fun - you will be surprised at the results.

FIGs: Traditional method. With your fingertips. Like a dagger. In your teeth. Between the toes.

Establishing the head proportion: Align the top of the pencil with the top of the head, then slide your thumb down the pencil until the top of your thumb aligns with the bottom of the chin.

Each head proportion relates to a specific part of the body:

A. top of head to bottom of chin B. bottom of chin to nipple C. nipple to navel/stomach D. navel/stomach to groin E. groin to mid-thigh F. mid-thigh to knee G. knee to calf H. calf to toe 2.

THE PENCIL AS A MEASURING DEVICE

We can analyze our observations in a number of ways to enable us to make a visual record of what we see. One of these ways involves using the pencil both as mark maker and measuring device. What you are doing in effect is building a grid on which to map out your drawing. This approach is appropriate for all types of observational drawing and for different subjects ranging from landscape and still life to figure drawing. W e have chosen a figure for our example because the pencil is still the most popular measure for this type of drawing; go to the life rooms of any art college and you will find it widely used. The procedure is as follows:

1) Set yourself up for drawing in a fixed position so you have a consistent view that doesn't alter. This enables you to see the subject from the same viewpoint every time without any change occurring - vital if your measurements are to be accurate.

2) Hold the pencil in the fist of your favored hand, leaving your thumb free so that it can slide freely up and down the side of the pencil.

3) Stretch your arm out straight towards your subject matter and take a measurement. This is always done on a vertical axis. For instance, if we are drawing a figure, usually the measurement will be from the top of the head to the bottom of the chin. Close one eye as you do this, to focus your vision and give you one viewpoint. Put the top edge of the pencil at the top of the head then pull your thumb down the pencil until you come to the bottom of the chin.

You have now established the proportion of the head. Repeat this process along an imaginary vertical down the body, using that first head proportion as your measure for dividing the figure. This will give you a proportional overall length of the figure - usually an average person will comprise eight head proportions in all from tip to toe.

4) You can repeat this process to measure the width of your figure. Turn your pencil to the horizontal position and measure across the figure, using the head proportion as your gauge. It’s important to remember always to measure only on the horizontal or vertical axis - if you measure at an angle you will get distortions - and always measure with your arm straight out in front of you and from the same position to maintain consistency.

5) Once you have your vertical and horizontal proportions, you can now transfer this information to your paper. If you wish, you can make what is called a 'sight size' drawing by using the exact measurements you have assessed. This does, however, usually turn out to be a very small, tight drawing, and is not advisable unless you are very experienced. The other way is to make a scaled drawing relative to your proportions; For example, if your original head proportion was one inch in height, you could double it when you came to transfer each measurement to your drawing.

POSTURE

Posture runs hand in hand with proportion.

Posture is the way we hold ourselves and has a direct relationship to the changing nature of proportion. As notice in the example opposite posture is informed by directional lines that are determined by the angles of the body and the relevant proportions in relation to your body when you are in a pose. Posture also allows us to understand and come to terms with the human form that exists in space on a two dimensional surface. The posture lines usually follow the central dynamics of the pose, and pick up the changing edges of the form on the main parts of the body. You should always give lots of consideration to how you pose your model, because the posture will say so much about your drawing and what you are trying to achieve through it.

One way of using postural lines is by extending them and in doing so one can find relationships that extend to other objects in a drawing. This is another way of making a drawing have proportional accuracy. It also creates an analytical directional tension in the drawing.

ASSESSING ANGLES

Posture is the way we hold ourselves and is intimately connected with proportion. As notice in this example it’s shown by using a directional line that determines the angles and proportions of those angles relative to the other relationships of the body and their changing angles. Posture lines usually follow the central dynamics of the pose through the figure. They also pick up the changing edges of the form on the main parts of the body.

Using the pencil as a tool to assess the angles in a composition.

VECTORS OF ANALYSIS

This is another way of giving your drawing proportional accuracy. The aim is to find associations by extending the axis from 10e objects to locate other essential el0ments in the drawing.

THE WINDOW MOUNT OR VIEWFINDER

Using a window mount is a marvelous way of composing your picture and getting the objects in the scene proportionally and positionally correct.

Cut the window to scale in relation to your paper. To do this and get accurate proportions in relation to your paper, follow these instructions.

Step 1) Take the paper you are going to draw on and make a diagonal line from one corner to the other.

Step 2) Decide how big you want your window aperture to be. For example, if you want the height of your aperture to be three inches, measure length up the side of your paper from where the diagonal line departs.

Step 3) From 10.0.point draw a straight line into the paper until it meets the diagonal line.

Step 4) From 10e.point where the line meets the diagonal line, draw a straight line to the bottom edge of the paper. You now have an accurate scaled proportion of your piece of paper.

Step 5) Take the mea 0 0ments of this proportion and draw them into the center of a piece of card, then cut out the window for the viewing of your composition. Step 6) Mark the edges of the window mount and the paper into 1/2, 1/4 & 1/8.

Some students string cotton across the window to make a grid.

If you do this draw a corresponding grid on your paper. Put the window up to the world and choose your composition. Now you will find it very easy to transpose what you see through the window on to your paper.