Holding a Pencil

You might wonder, 'whats the big deal about holding a pencil?' Well, different people hold a pencil in different ways. When drawing there are basically 2 ways to hold a pencil, each for achieving a different effect.

Writing and drawing
Holding a pencil normally to draw lines and write.
Good for outlining, sketching, etc.
Its harder to shade an area this way.










Shading
Hold the pencil more to the side, so that the lead (or graphite) lays flat along the paper. In this way you can achieve a smoother shading, not sharp lines.
It is much easier to shade, harder to get a sharp edge.