taking care of your hands

i draw all the time, to allow myself to do this better I figured a few things out over the years.

The last few weeks ive been practicing dry brush technique, and hitting it pretty hard, I think I did like 10 pieces in my shop, and I want to do more, but I have to rest my hands a bit. Rather than taking days off, I found if you can change things up, the tools, the style you use, you can rest up I'll still being productive.

Tough tools to use are probably MICRONS. I use them for faces and hands, eyes, etc. sometimes. But I used to use them a lot years ago. I would hold them tightly, and try to press to get a little line variation, bad and bad.

tombos  are fantastic, they have great tips and it's pretty easy to get some nice line variation with pressure. But even that adds up.

PENTEL brush pens are my go to for filling in blacks and feathering. Absolutely love them. But I do hold them a little firmly for control. Gotta work on that.

So when I need a break, I'll step away from these tools, and the two I go to (was ) a fountainpen, and ballpoint pens. Fountain pens are wonderful. Fantastic writing drawing experience the sound the feel. But they're a fucking bitch to get started sometimes and clean and to unclog, etc.😄

The ballpoint pen I'm using today is all in Chinese but the name on Amazon is REXloyal. I'm using the .35. Just ordered some .5.  The reason I bring this up is that you don't need to hold the pen tightly, it's a ball point, there's no line pressure or variation. It's a gel pen. Which flows beautifully. I'm sure any will work fine.

So number one,  change tools, but to do that and I have it work I have different styles. I have very simple, cartoony styles, I have manga styles. I have abstract styles I have comic strip styles. The more projects and styles you have on the side, the more it will allow you to take breaks from certain things you're working on.  There are tons of artists that do a simpler style and simpler lines. Flat lines, etc. The world loves anime, and that's all flatline.

Number two, change hands. I mentioned this before in my art books and stuff, and posted here but I'm going to keep beating that drum. Everyone can start today using their opposite hand, drawing grass and trees and organic stuff in the background. Especially in pencil. draw as much as you can with your opposite hand and every minute you do that you're giving your main hand a break. Write grocery lists with your opposite hand, get pissed off that you can't read some things when you get to the store,  but after a year or two of doing this, I found I couldn't tell what I was drawing or inking with my opposite hand. This will hopefully allow me to continue working until I'm 100. Anyone can do it, just takes patience, and getting interested in different art styles❤️😑🤘

some pictures drawn today...