If you end up staining your drawings or drawing tablet with grease or sweat from your hands, you need a drawing glove! What are drawing gloves? A drawing glove also called an artist glove or two-finger glove, is a glove that prevents your drawing from getting stained on traditional media like paper. The glove also reduces friction with drawing tablets or iPads and reduces grease on the screen.

Are Drawing Gloves Essential?

Perhaps the most honest answer is no. But in certain cases, it will make the task of drawing easier and it can help us with our drawings, either with traditional means such as pencil, charcoal, wax, or ink or if we create our designs on graphic tablets, lightboxes, even using tablets.

Gloves for Drawing with Paper, Canvas, or Other Traditional Media

It has surely happened to you on more than one occasion that you had a perfectly clean piece of paper and you have been drawing your incredible design for a while. So, you accidentally run your hand over the paper, trying to grab another tool and smear it all over the place!

If you use something like charcoal or waxe, then it is even worse. Even when you use an artist glove, you will need to be a little careful, but you won’t get your hands dirty or transfer it to other places on the paper. You can always erase the mess you make. 

Drawing Gloves for Digital Artists

You are a digital artist and begin to notice that some parts of your drawing tablet do not respond as well as they used to. This is because the oil that our hands produce begins to accumulate on the drawing tablet. It happens even if you constantly wash your hands. Our skin produces natural oils, so the drawing tablet will end up with greasy marks whether we like it or not. It is normal!

The same happens if we are using something like a Surface Pro for our artwork. Another benefit of using an artist drawing glove is that it helps prevent accidentally activating a touch function on the drawing tablet or other electronic tools.

Reasons to buy some gloves to draw

It is important to keep in mind that there are several reasons why professional artists prefer these gloves. In any case, the main ones will be:

• You can protect the side of your hand, preventing sweat from falling on the surface where you are drawing.
• They reduce friction, which makes you can move your hand much more easily on any surface.
• In the case of tablets, these will remain cleaner and have greater durability.
• They are perfect for left-handers since the inks will not run and are used even for greater comfort when writing.

Therefore, to protect your art and make the tools and materials last longer, I recommend buying a drawing glove. An artist’s glove is one of those things we don’t necessarily need, but it will make our work easier and help us make less clutter while drawing, both traditional and digital.