There were eight or so of us huddled around a table scattered with loose paper, pencils, and various reference images. As each student made the attempt to sketch what they saw onto the blank paper in front of them, the instructor walked by and provided feedback.

I was deep in my sketching process trying to capture a figure of a man mid-jog, when the instructor came by to look at my work. This is the sketch and reference figure I was working from:

I tried to mimic my instructor as he made strokes on the paper to capture the texture of the man’s curly hair, but my sketch was a lot darker, and my strokes were rigid.

I asked the instructor what went wrong, and he noted that it could be an issue with how tight my grip was on the pencil and how hard I was pressing onto the paper. To my recollection, I may have even broken the pencil tip!

It’s actually quite funny — because I don’t grasp the pencil tightly or press hard out of frustration or control, but more as a natural reflex to focusing on a task. The more focused I am, the harder the grip, and the more pressure I apply. They are directly proportional!

I noticed that this pattern applies to how I hold and operate my paintbrushes too.

Recently, I produced a painting of a mother elephant and calf in a warm embrace. You can read the backstory here. I was satisfied with how the painting turned out, but it left me feeling like something was slightly off.

In many of my detailed paintings, I noticed that they are expressive, but sometimes lacking in animation. They lack that feeling of movement, and I think it all comes back to how I grip my paintbrush and how loosely I allow the brush to move.

Compare the more precise paintings with the freeform ones in the image below. Maybe it’s just my perception, but don’t you think there is a difference in the emotional texture between the precise and freeform ones?

Apparently there is a term for the tight grip — it’s called the “death grip”. It’s a common problem. And the term for people who press a bit hard on the paper is “carvers.” I think I’ve picked up on the advice to loosen my grip and draw lightly through various tutorials before, but observing the problem first-hand from a series of my own work brought the problem into focus. When I grip too tightly and press too hard, the strokes tend to be more rigid. I noticed this happens more frequently with my artwork that is detailed and requires greater precision.

Ironically, I can’t be rigid about loosening my grip. I have to learn to be relaxed, and that may be a learning in itself. It might be challenge to unlearn a habit I’ve had for several years, but the desire to create more animated forms might be enough of a motivation.

With practice, I’m gaining more confidence in painting without an outline and learning how to work a painting or sketch after it’s already been produced on the paper. So with this confidence and this desire, I’m excited to see what will happen with my future works.

Relaxing My Grip on the Pencil & Paintbrush was originally published in The Drawing Times on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Abjuration is the first finalized piece of a series I have been planning for a while, portraying stages of the life of a person initiated in esoteric arts, a wizard with Prospero-like powers.

The abjuration may actually be the last of those stages. The idea was inspired in part by Prospero’s words at the end of The Tempest, announcing, after having achieved what he set out to do, that he shall break his staff.

Other things helped form this idea, such as Iris Murdoch’s novels, in which the issue of the dangers (to the magician’s own “soul”) of using “magic”, even when with good intentions, appears often; and my own growing appreciation of staffs, sceptres and rods, not only as symbols but as material objects with a purpose.

Here are a couple of studies for other works in the series:

Thank you for reading and until the next post,

MA.

This is a slightly altered version of the post I made on my Ko-fi page.

Wizardry was originally published in The Drawing Times on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.