Drawing with an Unsteady Hand

[Saigokarasu]

Hey.

When I draw, my hand is very unsteady making any attempt to draw smooth lines suitable for more comic style artwork borderline impossible or sketching finer details a royal pain in the ass. Any tips for making my hand more steady?

[Muz]

Draw with your forearm and not your wrist and fingers. It will take getting used to but it works.

[FranciscoShreds]

To add to that, do tons of drawings without lifting your hand with pen/sharpie. Also, try not to go over your lines too much. A friend of mine was being trained like that when he was an intern at a tattoo parlor, because they aren't allowed to be jittery or fuck up. It taught him to make decisions and not flip if a mistake was made. You'll learn to work at a more sure pace instead of trying to rush too much. It'll also help with line weight.

[p sage]

The two answers you've gotten are very good.

I'll add that amateurs often worry way too much about details in drawings, to the point where they get caught up in them.

Details are usually best left until you've got all your main shapes blocked in. If you concentrate on details first, you're likely going to get drawings where the proportions and shapes are all messed up.

[Elwell]

Or, don't worry about it (see Edward Koren, R. O. Blechman, Ed Sorel, etc.).

[Saigokarasu]

I appreciate the advice.

The problem is I have a very small amount of space and my Wacom is only 6 x 8, making drawing with the forearm a bit difficult.

[Black Spot]

Zoom out then.

[Saigokarasu]

Uh, sure.

PS: Which brushes would you recommend for sketching out drafts in Corel? Particularly when I need to zoom in and out?

[mickeymao]

What Elwell said. One of my favs is Nicolas DeCrecy, whose line is shaky as hell. Then there's John Callahan, a quadruplegic cartoonist who draws with the pen in both hands. Sometimes I wonder if I should draw shakier ;-)