# shaky hands



## septango (Jul 9, 2013)

I have always had shaky hands, this has really kept me from being abel to do anything other than hard black lines traditionally and is now screwing up my ability to use a tablet,  does anyone know any tips or exercises or anything to remedy this?


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## dinosaurdammit (Jul 9, 2013)

vector tool


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## Arshes Nei (Jul 9, 2013)

Use line smoothing.

Programs that have this.

Easy Paint Tool Sai - PC Only - Stabilizer
Sketchbook Pro 6 - Both Mac and PC - It's under (Edit - Preferences - Steady Stroke)
Corel Painter (full version) - its Damping with the scratchboard tool
AZ Drawing - *Free* - PC only it also has a Stabilizer kind of setting
ArtRage Studio Pro - PC Mac


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## Zydala (Jul 9, 2013)

MyPaint is free and also has a smoothing option for its brushes.

Have you tried a wrist brace? I've heard people with shaky hands before say it was really helpful while drawing from the elbow - but ymmv depending on conditions of course


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## Lauralien (Jul 10, 2013)

GIMP has smoothing too: the "Smooth Stroke" checkbox on brush options.   But...I was never really that impressed with it.

I have a friend with really shaky hands.  Apparently he briefly went on medication for it, and it stopped his shaking...But he found he couldn't draw quite right anymore, because his suddenly-steady hands were throwing him off.   But I suppose medication could be worth a try if you can't find any other solution.


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## Judge Spear (Jul 10, 2013)

I'm not sure to the degree of which your hands shake, so I'm just going to assume as much as mine that it's not a medical concern yet, (correct me if otherwise). To counteract this, I've been doing drawing exercises of confident strokes as people call it. 
I take my laptop, my tablet, sketchbook, and sit under a waterfall in the mountains as I practice doing larger lines in one swish of my wrist, *quickly*. Not so much for the base sketch BUT I try to have my lines match the sketch as quickly as I can without "inchworming" (that's what I call it when you draw little lines in rapid succession...you know what I'm talking about. XD). 
Quick large confident strokes

Mark Crilley had an excellent and small tip of being sure to follow something he called the "pivotal point of your wrist". Be sure to rotate your canvas be it digitally or on paper in sync with how you naturally comfortably curve your wrist when you draw for more satisfying results.

Also, how often do you actually _make_ mistakes? I mean when you go to erase how often do actually stop to see if your "mistake" is actually a benefit? I can't count how many times I'll be drawing and some bumps me, but I end up getting the line perfectly as I want. It's good to ponder your mistakes before erasing them as you may actually have something going for you.

I hope this helps. :3


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## Arshes Nei (Jul 10, 2013)

The other tips I can give aside from programs with line smoothing.

Work at a higher resolution/image size (I recommend this for inking more than initial sketches and composition) - 4x the size you'll post it at. By the time it reduces down, the lines will clean up a bit and look less terrible.

Use the rotation function in whatever program has rotation abilities. Why stress your hand out more to get that curve if you can rotate the canvas to make it easier to nail it.

Not stress over it so much. I think this ultra clean line look can also lead to some really lifeless art. Even if your lines aren't the cleanest or most precise the economy of them is what can bring energy. Claire Wendling has some great work, her lines are fluid but they aren't always precise and ultra clean.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gO1LRvjT_RU/UEvm2BpzceI/AAAAAAAACtQ/3Yu2w-w4EN8/s1600/wendling.jpg

Bill Sienkiewicz







Work in mass over line. http://nathanfowkes.blogspot.com/ (check out his Charcoal portraits)

I should note that in working in mass digitally, I do think Painter has advantage over Photoshop in handling mass. The real pencils and charcoal actually take in account the bearing of your pen (especially well in the intuos line) Keep in mind this is different than pressure to create a bigger line. Bearing is the direction of your pencil/angle to the surface. So if you have it straight up, thin line, greater slant like 25-30 degrees means more of the edge of the pencil - greater surface area/larger area to cover.


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## Judge Spear (Jul 10, 2013)

Art Wars: Episode VI
Return of the Links. XD


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## Clancy (Jul 11, 2013)

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