The guy at my local shop told me to stop pressing so hard on my brush pens

I went into East Side Comics last month to grab the new issue of Saga, and the owner Jeff saw me hulking over my sketchbook. He walked over and said, 'You're trying to carve the page with that thing, just let the nib do the work.' I had been digging into the paper so hard my lines looked like scratched concrete. He showed me how he barely touches the paper and lets the ink flow natural, and now I use like 70% less pressure. My crosshatching actually looks clean now instead of a muddy mess. Has anyone else had an old pro change your whole approach with one simple tip?

3 comments

3 Comments

blair_chen8118h ago

Did Jeff also mention how holding the pen further back helps loosen up your strokes?

josephbailey14h ago

OH MAN that's such a good point and it's something Jeff really emphasized when I took his class. He said the further back you hold a pen the less control you have over the tip which sounds BAD but it actually forces your whole arm to do the work instead of just your fingers. That loose grip lets your strokes flow way more naturally and you get that organic line variation that's impossible with a tight death grip. It felt super weird at first but after like a week of practicing it made my writing look completely different in a good way.

jessem5914h ago

I tried that method for a few months and actually found it made my handwriting worse, not better.