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I looked into this a bit because while I know what the "proper" grasp is, I have never used it willingly. But, my handwriting is beautiful. Like, John Hancock-esque gorgeous cursive and printing that people remark on fairly regularly, even though I mostly type now and haven't been in a grade school in...a long time. I've been successfully writing for, ahem, several decades with my inelegant pencil grasp, so I gravitate to the idea that a grasp should be functional, even if it isn't perfect.

Anyhow, all that is to say that I did a tiny bit of looking around and I found confirmation of my suspicions:

http://theanonymousot.com/2013/03/22/when-to-fix-a-pencil-grasp/

And this: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23106992

The main takeaways are: 1) 3 year olds are still developing the fine motor skills necessary for writing (so maybe don't stress too much, but practice things other than writing/drawing that require LO to use a pincer grasp, etc.), and 2) grasps can and do change over time as kids mature.

My LO is approaching 5 and since he was never really into drawing/coloring we didn't do much of it when he was younger, but he has always enjoyed playing with little stuff--Legos, those tiny green model soldiers, play dough, pipe cleaners, etc.--which all give him a hand workout. If your LO wants to do writing/drawing at 3, I'd perhaps do some forefinger-writing using the Montessori-style sandpaper letters/numbers or a sand box.

Also, I believe the "trick" to getting the gold-standard tripod grasp is to put your pencil down so the point faces your hand, pinch a bit above the tip with your thumb and forefinger, and then flip the pencil over with your other hand so it rests against the writing hand. I've tried that (and I have vague memories of doing it in grade school) and it does indeed put the pencil in your hand in the "correct" position, but you'll have to pry my pen from my cold, dead, quadrupod-grasping hand, man.