Art hurts
October 29, 2016 7:43 AM Subscribe
Artists of Metafilter: what do you do to avoid hand pain and/or eye strain?
I've been drawing a lot, both on paper and in Photoshop using a cheap Wacom tablet. The type of art I do is full of fine details. Even without a death grip on the pen I find my fingers getting achy and fatigued, even painful. The problem is the worst with the joints closest to the tips of my index and middle fingers.
Additionally, when drawing on my laptop during the day, I get terrible eyestrain after about an hour, regardless of where in the house I am. Since I don’t get eyestrain at night, the problem is clearly due to the reflection of daylight through windows. However, even when using blackout curtains and sequestering myself in the least-daylit room in the house, I develop eyestrain. Bizarrely, I can be in the exact same room with the exact same set-up of electric lighting at night, and not develop eyestrain. I’ve been dealing with this by only Photoshopping at night, but I’d like to expand my options to be able to work during the day.
Have you found ways of coping with either of these problems? At this point I’m having to give up hours of work because it’s literally too painful to continue.
Thanks!
I've been drawing a lot, both on paper and in Photoshop using a cheap Wacom tablet. The type of art I do is full of fine details. Even without a death grip on the pen I find my fingers getting achy and fatigued, even painful. The problem is the worst with the joints closest to the tips of my index and middle fingers.
Additionally, when drawing on my laptop during the day, I get terrible eyestrain after about an hour, regardless of where in the house I am. Since I don’t get eyestrain at night, the problem is clearly due to the reflection of daylight through windows. However, even when using blackout curtains and sequestering myself in the least-daylit room in the house, I develop eyestrain. Bizarrely, I can be in the exact same room with the exact same set-up of electric lighting at night, and not develop eyestrain. I’ve been dealing with this by only Photoshopping at night, but I’d like to expand my options to be able to work during the day.
Have you found ways of coping with either of these problems? At this point I’m having to give up hours of work because it’s literally too painful to continue.
Thanks!
Take breaks. You shouldn't be drawing for an hour straight. I like the Pomodoro method of 25min working, 5 min break, enforced by a timer (though in practice I never time the breaks and they can get longer). Pee, stretch, refill your glass of water (you're drinking water while you work, right? No? Start.), look at something further than four feet away for a little while. Take out the trash or just go for a walk around the block.
Your grip on the stylus/pen/pencil should be as loose as possible. Someone should be able to reach over your shoulder and pluck it from your grasp. In addition: draw with your arm, not your wrist. The best way to make this happen is a grip I was taught in the animation industry; grasp your pencil sideways, so that the entire side of the point presses against the paper for a broad, pale line. This will force you to keep your wrist stiff and learn to draw with your entire arm. It will feel weird at first; you'll want to draw bigger for a while until you get used to it. It'll also make your initial doughs much lighter, which will help keep you from trying to make super dark lines and dig into the paper when you're nailing down the final shapes. You can switch to use the tip of the pencil when you're doing fine details or definitive lines, but try to avoid that as long as you can. Sadly this grip doesn't work well with a Wacom stylus, but learning to draw this way will build much better habits in exercising your whole arm when drawing. I'm primarily a digital artist nowadays but I still hold my stylus with the looseness I learnt with that pencil grip, and still draw from my shoulder.
A wrist brace may help teach you to stop moving your wrist, as well. Seriously. Don't move your wrist while you draw. That summons the Carpal Tunnel Fairy.
You can also try to improve the overall ergonomics. Your desk and chair should be arranged such that when you let your arms dangle loosely from the shoulders, your elbows are a little above the surface of the desk. And the top of your screen should be around the place your eyes are looking at when you look straight ahead. You will need something to put your laptop on top of and an external keyboard; you can get purpose-built stands for the laptop to sit on, you can use a desk with an adjustable shelf, or you can just pile up some books or boxes or something. Whatever it takes to stop bending your wrists and spine while you work. (When I go out to a cafe with the laptop I can't do this, of course. But I sure don't become a regular at places whose chairs are low enough that I have to lift my forearms up over the edge of the table. Ow.)
You could look into getting a matte screen protector for your laptop. Most of them have ultra-reflective screens these days. That might help the daytime reflection problem.
As to the fine details... that's what zoom is for. Zoom in and draw those fiddly details at 300% or so, with your arm rather than tiny, super-controlled motions of your fingers. Get in the habit of hitting the 100% view hotkey on a regular basis; draw some details, zoom out, see if they work at full size. Move on to the next part of the piece if they do. Fix them if they don't. I used to get insanely lost in details that would be smaller than a single pixel in the final piece until I started doing this, it's a huge hazard for me because I work in Illustrator and can zoom in to like 1000% without things getting all jaggy.
If you can find a way to automate these details that can help a lot too. I don't know what kinds of details you revel in, and I'm not a Photoshop expert, but there are a lot of ways to make the program do part of the work for you. Find them. Revel in them.
posted by egypturnash at 9:12 AM on October 29, 2016 [5 favorites]
Your grip on the stylus/pen/pencil should be as loose as possible. Someone should be able to reach over your shoulder and pluck it from your grasp. In addition: draw with your arm, not your wrist. The best way to make this happen is a grip I was taught in the animation industry; grasp your pencil sideways, so that the entire side of the point presses against the paper for a broad, pale line. This will force you to keep your wrist stiff and learn to draw with your entire arm. It will feel weird at first; you'll want to draw bigger for a while until you get used to it. It'll also make your initial doughs much lighter, which will help keep you from trying to make super dark lines and dig into the paper when you're nailing down the final shapes. You can switch to use the tip of the pencil when you're doing fine details or definitive lines, but try to avoid that as long as you can. Sadly this grip doesn't work well with a Wacom stylus, but learning to draw this way will build much better habits in exercising your whole arm when drawing. I'm primarily a digital artist nowadays but I still hold my stylus with the looseness I learnt with that pencil grip, and still draw from my shoulder.
A wrist brace may help teach you to stop moving your wrist, as well. Seriously. Don't move your wrist while you draw. That summons the Carpal Tunnel Fairy.
You can also try to improve the overall ergonomics. Your desk and chair should be arranged such that when you let your arms dangle loosely from the shoulders, your elbows are a little above the surface of the desk. And the top of your screen should be around the place your eyes are looking at when you look straight ahead. You will need something to put your laptop on top of and an external keyboard; you can get purpose-built stands for the laptop to sit on, you can use a desk with an adjustable shelf, or you can just pile up some books or boxes or something. Whatever it takes to stop bending your wrists and spine while you work. (When I go out to a cafe with the laptop I can't do this, of course. But I sure don't become a regular at places whose chairs are low enough that I have to lift my forearms up over the edge of the table. Ow.)
You could look into getting a matte screen protector for your laptop. Most of them have ultra-reflective screens these days. That might help the daytime reflection problem.
As to the fine details... that's what zoom is for. Zoom in and draw those fiddly details at 300% or so, with your arm rather than tiny, super-controlled motions of your fingers. Get in the habit of hitting the 100% view hotkey on a regular basis; draw some details, zoom out, see if they work at full size. Move on to the next part of the piece if they do. Fix them if they don't. I used to get insanely lost in details that would be smaller than a single pixel in the final piece until I started doing this, it's a huge hazard for me because I work in Illustrator and can zoom in to like 1000% without things getting all jaggy.
If you can find a way to automate these details that can help a lot too. I don't know what kinds of details you revel in, and I'm not a Photoshop expert, but there are a lot of ways to make the program do part of the work for you. Find them. Revel in them.
posted by egypturnash at 9:12 AM on October 29, 2016 [5 favorites]
Get a larger Wacom -- you can pick up a used Intuos or Bambu fairly cheaply. There are also combo tablet/laptops or regular tablets/ Chromebooks where you can draw right on the screen, if your budget extends to that level of upgrade.
Teach yourself to draw standing at an easel. This will force you to draw with your arm, instead of your wrists/fingers (yes, your arm will get sore until you build muscle). I HATE working like this, but it has taught me many useful skills.
Make sure your pen grip is ergonomic. This can be annoying to correct, but if your grip is incorrect you are setting yourself up for cramping and pain. You can also learn to vary your grip (very helpful, and you should notice some improvements right away!)
If the pain is being caused by the quantity of detailed line work, try switching to another liner, like a Pentel brush pen that requires minimal pressure to make fine lines. It's got a learning curve for sure, but once you get the hang of it, you can do wonderful detail work without a lot of hand strain.
posted by ananci at 11:01 AM on October 29, 2016 [1 favorite]
Teach yourself to draw standing at an easel. This will force you to draw with your arm, instead of your wrists/fingers (yes, your arm will get sore until you build muscle). I HATE working like this, but it has taught me many useful skills.
Make sure your pen grip is ergonomic. This can be annoying to correct, but if your grip is incorrect you are setting yourself up for cramping and pain. You can also learn to vary your grip (very helpful, and you should notice some improvements right away!)
If the pain is being caused by the quantity of detailed line work, try switching to another liner, like a Pentel brush pen that requires minimal pressure to make fine lines. It's got a learning curve for sure, but once you get the hang of it, you can do wonderful detail work without a lot of hand strain.
posted by ananci at 11:01 AM on October 29, 2016 [1 favorite]
Tilt your workspace or tablet up onto an angle(you can get little drafting easels/reading stands that sit on your desk), this forces you to loosen your index and thumb and rely more on your arm/elbow for strength. Getting to a point where you can use your pen as an extension of your whole arm, rather than relying on your fingers to do all the work, is really helpful.
I've also found with tablet styluses that the more you grip, the more they slip. It's also a good way to wear the nibs on the stylus down to nothing. I'd suggest swapping out the nib for a new one ASAP(they should have come with your tablet, in a little baggie. You can also buy them online), it improves pressure sensitivity. You should also make sure all your programs have the sensitivity properly adjusted. I know you can do this in photoshop, opencanvas and SAI, but you'll have to check what you can do for your program.
As for eye strain, set your brightness at a comfortable level, and check and make sure your contrast is not turned way up. High contrast on a monitor is hell on the eyes. If all else fails, buy a pair of low prescription reading glasses to wear around the point you start to feel eye strain.
posted by InkDrinker at 11:58 AM on October 29, 2016 [1 favorite]
I've also found with tablet styluses that the more you grip, the more they slip. It's also a good way to wear the nibs on the stylus down to nothing. I'd suggest swapping out the nib for a new one ASAP(they should have come with your tablet, in a little baggie. You can also buy them online), it improves pressure sensitivity. You should also make sure all your programs have the sensitivity properly adjusted. I know you can do this in photoshop, opencanvas and SAI, but you'll have to check what you can do for your program.
As for eye strain, set your brightness at a comfortable level, and check and make sure your contrast is not turned way up. High contrast on a monitor is hell on the eyes. If all else fails, buy a pair of low prescription reading glasses to wear around the point you start to feel eye strain.
posted by InkDrinker at 11:58 AM on October 29, 2016 [1 favorite]
Using the keyboard on a slanted easel helps.
Eating anything with sugar in it makes my joints ache.
Wise woman Shelley notes that screen work sucks Vit A out of your body. She recommends 10,000 IUs for every hour of computer work.
posted by Mesaverdian at 2:21 PM on October 29, 2016 [1 favorite]
Eating anything with sugar in it makes my joints ache.
Wise woman Shelley notes that screen work sucks Vit A out of your body. She recommends 10,000 IUs for every hour of computer work.
posted by Mesaverdian at 2:21 PM on October 29, 2016 [1 favorite]
Lots of good suggestions here. I just want to reinforce the idea of breaks...seriously. Get up, walk around, look out the window, shake out your hands. Every 20 minutes if you can. I had to give up a good career in design because I developed carpal tunnel syndrome. A friend also became permanently disabled from extended use of a Wacom pen, so suggestions for loose grip, sugru custom grip, etc. are all really good.
posted by Gusaroo at 11:42 AM on October 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Gusaroo at 11:42 AM on October 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
Use a variety of methods and rotate them. Any one solution will cause fatigue, even if it's the best.
And don't push it. Stop when you first feel pain. Pain is your body telling you that there is more trouble ahead unless you stop it. Play for the long run. We need great art.
posted by Murray M at 9:28 AM on October 31, 2016 [1 favorite]
And don't push it. Stop when you first feel pain. Pain is your body telling you that there is more trouble ahead unless you stop it. Play for the long run. We need great art.
posted by Murray M at 9:28 AM on October 31, 2016 [1 favorite]
I'm on a wacom tablet and photoshop all day. I do hand/forearm stretches before, during, and after. I do some of the stretches shown here (although I do them slower, longer, and more gently – the actions in the video look a bit abrupt!). IANAPhysiotherapist though, so do at your own risk.
posted by Kabanos at 11:09 AM on October 31, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Kabanos at 11:09 AM on October 31, 2016 [1 favorite]
« Older number of rent-controlled units in Berkeley, CA? | Help Me Understand if the New Federal Overtime... Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
On the eyestrain, I totally hear you about the reflections. Today's monitors are so dang shiny that any little reflection is annoying. Another thing might be, is the laptop screen bright enough during the day? They have reflection reducing things you can buy for regular monitor screens, maybe they exist for laptops too.
posted by bluesky78987 at 8:29 AM on October 29, 2016 [3 favorites]