Check Out NMA    About our Partnership    Collapse this Ad

Drawing from the entire arm for everything?

1:17 AM, Saturday June 7th 2025

I have a question regarding the approach to take some of the later lessons. I am at lesson three where I am learning how to construct plants etc. The lesson has some elements of drawing the contour-lines, cast shadow etc.

My question is: do we really need to draw everything from the entire arm? Sometimes when I am drawing a small shape for a cast shadow, or a small contour line, my brain defaults to do it mostly from the wrist. Is that ok? Or even the smaller shapes we should be trying our best to draw from the entire shoulder (say for texture etc.).

Thanks!

Report
1 users agree
11:45 PM, Saturday June 7th 2025

Its fine to draw really small objects from the wrist , the point of drawing from the shoulder (arm) is to ensure that your whole arm is engaged in what your drawing. This also avoid putting strain on the wrist which in turn can lead to things like carpal tunnel or wrist pain. So once in a while is fine honestly and you should really worry if you do it here and there for smaller things , but fully drawing with the wrist can lead to complications later on. If possible you should still try to draw from the shoulder but sometimes its unavoidable to not draw with your wrist.

Hopefully this helps

Cheers!~

6:16 AM, Sunday June 8th 2025

I appreciate your answer! Thanks so much.

Cheers!

0 users agree
8:31 PM, Sunday June 8th 2025

This section from the page that discusses drawing from your shoulder addresses your question: https://drawabox.com/lesson/1/2/wrist. The section below it, discussing the path of least resistance, may also be worth reviewing.

The answer is a little more nuanced than what SlayerDelano explained. More than the size of the stroke, it's about the qualities you want it to have. Marks that need to flow smoothly and consistently with no sharp turns should be executed from the shoulder, even when they're smaller, and marks that need tight control with sudden turns that the shoulder's range of motion would not be able to handle quickly enough would be drawn from the wrist.

7:10 AM, Monday June 9th 2025

Thanks, uncomfortable! I will have a look at the link you sent!

Cheers,

The recommendation below is an advertisement. Most of the links here are part of Amazon's affiliate program (unless otherwise stated), which helps support this website. It's also more than that - it's a hand-picked recommendation of something we've used ourselves, or know to be of impeccable quality. If you're interested, here is a full list.
Drawabox-Tested Fineliners (Pack of 10, $17.50 USD)

Drawabox-Tested Fineliners (Pack of 10, $17.50 USD)

Let's be real here for a second: fineliners can get pricey. It varies from brand to brand, store to store, and country to country, but good fineliners like the Staedtler Pigment Liner (my personal brand favourite) can cost an arm and a leg. I remember finding them being sold individually at a Michael's for $4-$5 each. That's highway robbery right there.

Now, we're not a big company ourselves or anything, but we have been in a position to periodically import large batches of pens that we've sourced ourselves - using the wholesale route to keep costs down, and then to split the savings between getting pens to you for cheaper, and setting some aside to one day produce our own.

These pens are each hand-tested (on a little card we include in the package) to avoid sending out any duds (another problem with pens sold in stores). We also checked out a handful of different options before settling on this supplier - mainly looking for pens that were as close to the Staedtler Pigment Liner. If I'm being honest, I think these might even perform a little better, at least for our use case in this course.

We've also tested their longevity. We've found that if we're reasonably gentle with them, we can get through all of Lesson 1, and halfway through the box challenge. We actually had ScyllaStew test them while recording realtime videos of her working through the lesson work, which you can check out here, along with a variety of reviews of other brands.

Now, I will say this - we're only really in a position to make this an attractive offer for those in the continental United States (where we can offer shipping for free). We do ship internationally, but between the shipping prices and shipping times, it's probably not the best offer you can find - though this may depend. We also straight up can't ship to the UK, thanks to some fairly new restrictions they've put into place relating to their Brexit transition. I know that's a bummer - I'm Canadian myself - but hopefully one day we can expand things more meaningfully to the rest of the world.

Remember that when you agree with something another user has written, you are putting your own reputation behind it.

Consider the following:

  • If it's homework feedback, does it address each section of the lesson/challenge, or only briefly touch upon one or two exercises?
  • Does it provide clearly defined next steps for the student to follow?
  • Have you read through it thoroughly, or are you simply agreeing so the student earns a superficial badge?
  • Replies you agree with will be visible in your sketchbook

Agreeing blindly just to be nice is a good way to get your permissions associated with this function revoked, so make sure that you genuinely feel that the response is beneficial to the student.

This website uses cookies. You can read more about what we do with them, read our privacy policy.