How to hold a pencil for sketching ?

The most common way of holding a pencil is basic tripod grip. Although changing the way you hold a pencil and forcing yourself to have a unfamiliar grip would only impact your ability of drawing and it will also upset the natural flow in which you draw the lines, yet it is advisable to go for trying the basic grips to develop better control over your drawing skills and speed. A basic tripod grip is similar to what we use for writing. The thumb, forefinger and middle finger form a tripod.  To draw larger strokes you can use extended tripod grip and for shading purpose overhand grip can be used, obviously you can cover larger area with this grip, but to assure accuracy and for detailing you need to have basic tripod grip. To avoid smudging you can use an extra piece of paper under your hand in basic tripod grip.

Benefit of extended tripod grip is that the chance of smudging is reduced.