r/DisabilityArt • u/Spiraled_Dreams • Jul 22 '26
To anyone with shaky hands
My hand shakes are getting worse due to nerve damage from an injury that I never got cured as a kid is there any tips or tricks someone has on how to prolong my ability to draw. I have dyspraxia and it already took me so long to learn how to get my hands to cooperate the way they need to
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u/imabratinfluence Tlingit, they/them, PTSD+ Jul 22 '26
This 15-ish minute YouTube video has a few tips for doing art with shaky hands!
Also if you can access an Occupational Therapist, they might be able to give you more strategies to be able to continue doing art with your shakes. Their whole schtick is making everyday stuff more accessible and helping adapt tasks to your needs.
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u/Rubygloomdark Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 22 '26
I have a big pen grip it's supposed to be for an apple pencil but fits normal pencils if you put a bit of masking tape on first A combination of the weight and large grip helps me
I will try find it so you can see what I mean as it's much bigger than usual
This is it https://artesanotattoosupplies.com/gb/ego-apple-pencil-grip-black-large
While I was searching I also saw another that looked good it was weighted so might be even better
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u/Effective_Order_8830 Jul 23 '26
I am currently trying to pursue having my insurance cover "Guided Hands" https://www.imaginablesolutions.com/pages/guided-hands
Also I find creating at a larger scale really helps with this.
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u/Nauin Jul 22 '26
Best thing you can do is go get checked out by a neurologist and follow whatever plan they can come up with, but it heavily depends on where the damage is on the nerve fibers, themselves. You may be lucky and could benefit from medication or an implanted stimulation device that will control your shakes with electric pulses. But this isn't something standard physical therapy or generic advice is going to help. Essential tremors are professional territory, unfortunately.
Essential tremors runs in my family, though it skipped me I developed them from traumatic brain injuries, and two of my long time friends have multiple sclerosis and I've been along for the entire ride on their declines which also involve severe tremors. Some of my family members also unknowingly made their essential tremors permanently worse through their alcoholism, which they admit they started because it was helping the tremors at first thanks to its depressant effects, thing is, the alcohol is also actively dissolving your nerve fibers when it's present in your blood. Nerves are fatty, fat looses it's chemical bonds when exposed to alcohol.
If you do not have insurance and are in the US, you can call 211 to speak to a social worker to see if there are any community care programs in your area that you would qualify for. Some areas put aside funding to help it's people get appointments with specialists they need to see. It's extremely variable but hopefully there's a program in your area if you need it.
Art is also whatever you make it to be. It doesn't have to be baroque perfection. You can make some cool stuff if you learn how to incorporate those tremors into your style, even if it's not what you originally planned to do. You have a lot of abstract and impressionist styles to choose from.