Blog: Stupid body

Hiya! The blog post is on Friday this week, because I took Thursday off. The days before it, I'd been dealing with some awful pains in my arms, so I really needed to step away for a moment. 

The desk I'm working at now isn't really ideal; it's a bit too small and not quite the right height. I've been trying to improve the ergonomics of my entire work space to compensate with mixed success. I tried propping my laptop up so I wouldn't have to stare down at the screen, but that makes the keyboard impossible to use comfortably, so I nixed that. However, I have forced myself to start using the shortcut buttons on my tablet instead of reaching over to the keyboard all the time, which lets me sit up straighter. I've always had a problem with being hunched over. I've also placed some pillows on the arms of my chair so I can have my arms parallel to the ground even when I can't rest them on the desk because of the tablet--there just isn't enough room like with my old desk.

Of course, eventually I'm just going to have to buy a better desk, an external keyboard and screen, etc. etc., but I'd really like to hold off on that until I've made the big move, or it's just going to be more stuff to lug around. I'm thinking about maybe upgrading to a bigger tablet with better button placement though, if I can afford it.

I'm also forcing myself to take breaks every hour and not draw for too long every day. Before and after a session, I do some stretches. I'm using this chart as a starting point, but I'm going to keep finding more things I can do. I should work out more anyway. ^.^

This week's WIP sketch is the monthly damsel, Stella Vermillion, having a bit of fun at the summer home I'm sure her family has. I drew this on last week's stream--if you haven't checked those out yet, I really recommend it, because they're a ton of fun. ^.^ I'm going to start inking this very soon. It'd be very cool if I could start August with a clean slate, so fingers crossed!