Ponder

First of all, what do we mean by loosening up? 🧘

When first learning to draw, you will find that it is common to hold your pencil like you do when you write. This has been ingrained into you since your early years when you first learned to hold a pencil. This method has served you well throughout all your years of writing, however when we learn to draw this posture can feel a little stiff and as a result your drawings might show this. By learning to relax when drawing, this can result in different lines that will show movement, and express emotion. Also when we learn to relax we get less engrossed with the detail of the picture and we are therefore able to see the overall shape and structure in a better way.

So here are some exercises to help you to loosen up.  Many artists will do these before embarking on an art project as a warm up and I encourage this in my online drawing classes.

Pencil posture

As I said, we hold our pencil quite often down near the tip.  This is how we have done it for years and this is how we feel safe and in control.  Now that you’re learning how to draw, it is time to try a few different positions to see the effect it has on your artwork.

TIP – This is a gem of a tip that I learned from a very experienced artist recently: If an artist is holding their pencil correctly, then someone should be able to come and slip it from their fingers without any resistance.  That is a light touch!

Act

Draw a series of straight lines, curves and squares using your normal method of holding the pencil.  Now take another piece of paper, this time holding your pencil halfway Up.  Create a series of lines and curves.  How does this feel?  Do you notice any effect on the lines on the page? Perhaps you feel less in control or perhaps you find it quite freeing?  Now do the same thing again holding the pencil as far back as you possibly can.

Different lines can be achieved when we hold our pencils side on and use the side of the graphite.  You might find that you’re less able to carry out detailed work using your wrist, rather you are using your whole arm .

Now I would like you to try using these different positions with your pencil for the following exercises.

50 circles

Take a sheet of paper and fill it with various circles.  Make them large, small, squashed flat ovals and fat round circles.  Notice how difficult it is to create small circles when you hold your pencil far back.  You are more inclined to use your knuckle and wrist joints for fine details.

Hard and soft

Now create a series of lines on a fresh sheet of paper firstly leaning as hard as you can into the paper without breaking the lead or ripping the paper.  Gradually make each line lighter by applying less pressure to the paper and by your final line see how pale you can make it without lifting your pencil off the paper

Big and small

Now take another sheet of paper and choose a shape to doodle. Start very small and create a series of shapes in tiny form.  Then gradually increase the size and see how large you can make the shape.  Feel free to overlap or allow some lines to run off the page. 

If you are feeling playful, why not try with your non-dominant hand?

So what have we done here?  Well, we haven’t produced a picture as such, but we have worked out those muscles in our hands and arms that will be needed to draw.  We are also strengthening the connections needed in hand-eye coordination, while quieting our minds from busyness. This is a great exercise to do with pencils, paints, pastels, even just for 15 minutes and will serve as a great warm up before embarking on a work of art.

When I teach, I often encourage this sort of method, to warm up our bodies. There are other exercises I also like to do to loosen up the mind. More of that to come!