What is the best posture/table height for drawing using your shoulder? I'm having a lot of neck and back pain while doing the exercises.
You'll find this addressed at the end of the video from the top of Lesson 0 Page 4.
Awesome thanks! I remembered this being addressed in a video, just couldn't remember which
I found that I have a lot of neck pain, even when drawing at my arms at around 90 degrees as suggested in the video. For example, when using the ruler or trying to do the ghosting method - I often lean my head down to get a close look, causing the neck pain. Any recommendations for this?
Main thing that comes to mind is that you might want to look into a table-top drafting table. It's basically something that provides you with a desk surface that is at an angle. You may have seen the big drafting tables where it's all one piece (I think I mention them in the video I referenced before), but there are tabletop variants that you put on top of an existing desk.
The other answer, which admittedly sounds a little silly, is to consciously avoid leaning your head down to get those closer looks. It's very easy to get the impression that we need to do this, but it may well just be a compulsion that isn't necessarily helping you that much. But, as most things we do habitually, it requires a conscious effort to catch ourselves when we do those things, and correct the behaviour until we stop.
Got it, thank you! I will try to stop leaning my head down, good to know it's not necessary for getting things precise
Where the rest of my recommendations tend to be for specific products, this one is a little more general. It's about printer paper.
As discussed in Lesson 0, printer paper (A4 or 8.5"x11") is what we recommend. It's well suited to the kind of tools we're using, and the nature of the work we're doing (in terms of size). But a lot of students still feel driven to sketchbooks, either by a desire to feel more like an artist, or to be able to compile their work as they go through the course.
Neither is a good enough reason to use something that is going to more expensive, more complex in terms of finding the right kind for the tools we're using, more stress-inducing (in terms of not wanting to "ruin" a sketchbook - we make a lot of mistakes throughout the work in this course), and more likely to keep you from developing the habits we try to instill in our students (like rotating the page to find a comfortable angle of approach).
Whether you grab the ream of printer paper linked here, a different brand, or pick one up from a store near you - do yourself a favour and don't make things even more difficult for you. And if you want to compile your work, you can always keep it in a folder, and even have it bound into a book when you're done.
This website uses cookies. You can read more about what we do with them, read our privacy policy.
