You've been holding your pen wrong your entire life
Recently, in my early twenties, I decided to really step up my drawing game and move beyond the simple, flat, cartoony doodles level of drawing I've been in most of my life. I've taken up to starting with the fundamentals and slowly working towards sketching forms and simple objects with sleek, smooth lines. However, even with quick wrist motions, my lines appear to be uneven and a little jagged. I've been lying awake just now trying to figure out why, and I can't help but wonder if how I'm holding the utensil is the problem.
For my whole life, this is how I've held a pencil when writing or drawing.
This looks way different from how typical proper pencil grip is supposed to look.
I've tried holding and drawing like this for the past hour now, but to me it just feels uncanny and unnatural. Suddenly I'm having a crisis where I'm unsure if I need to relearn proper pencil grip. I don't know whether or not if this grip is required by other artists to effective drawing.
My questions are: Do you believe its possible to learn drawing with my current grip? Has anyone else drawn with a different grip their whole life? How could my current grip impede my progress (or what advantages could it have, if any?). Lastly, if a certain pencil grip IS required, how would you recommend I adapt to drawing with it? Part of me is scared that writing my own name would start to prove difficult with either grip if I'm trying to relearn proper pencil holding.