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tech.lgbt is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
We welcome all marginalized identities. This Mastodon instance is generally for folks who are LGBTQIA+ and Allies with an interest in tech work, academics, or technology in general.

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I was today years old when I was told that the way I hold pencil is good for writing letters but bad for drawing smoothly flowing precise lines. I changed my grip from tripod to violin bow OR pen and voila...

Thanks helpyoudraw tumblr for a helpful illustration

Multiple photos demonstrating ways of holding a pencil. The "wrong" one - three fingers grip the tip of the pencil - and a bunch of other types that are good for drawing - holding the pencil somewhere in the middle of the pencil, balancing it in different ways
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@nina_kali_nina wait, you're allowed to do that?

Is this why I suck at drawing? Or is it much more than that?

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@jaykass this might be one of the reasons. After I changed my grip and doodled for 30 minutes, I was able to draw pretty flowing lines like The Artists Do. There are many other possible reasons, one common reason is automatically relying on your memorized symbols to "short cut" and "speed up" the drawing process. I'm currently going through "Drawing on the right side of the brain" book, in parallel with "The art and science of drawing". One week in, or roughly 7 hours of drawing in total, trying to draw every day for an hour or so, following the textbook. I can definitely see a lot of progress in my drawing skills. Here is the drawing of my left hand - one from 29th of January 2025, and one from a few hours ago, BEFORE I learned about the way of holding the pencil (I tried to understand why the lines I draw are so... boring and wrong).

A pencil sketch of a hand. You can tell it's a hand, but it looks plenty amateurish. Maybe not childish but still
A pencil sketch of a hand. The lines are clear, and the hand looks much more like a hand compared to the previous sketch, but some small bits here and there still don't look right (misshapen nails, the ring finger looks too narrow, and generally the volume is not conveyed correctly)
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@nina_kali_nina my mind is sincerely blown.

Like, of course you can grip a pen or pencil differently to achieve different results. But that never occurred to me.

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