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Another Hand update

🕑 Added 2024-04-24 11:01:22 +0000 UTC

Comments

neet-oh

Do what you’ve gotta do and take your time. Your art is incredible wether you are inking or not.

Michael Butchin

I am glad that a lot of it seems to be overwork and fatigue, and that rest, ice, and exercise are helping. I hope nothing is so seriously wrong that you'll need surgery. As far as Alfie, we're willing to wait. That said, why not use your new "no-inking" style on the last bits of Alfie? Maybe it's cos I'm not an artist, but I don't notice any difference in quality in your Monster Hunter series. It's a slightly different style, sure; but it's just as good as your previous stuff. And you've experimented with different styles of art while doing Alfie before. I think it would work out well. But again; your health is more important. So none of us will mind a hiatus, I'm sure. Just get better and we'll be there when you resume. We're not going anywhere.

Grendel's Stepmother

Best wishes and hopes. If you ever do want to go back to an inked-line style, have you thought of getting an assistant? There's bound to be people who specialize in inking just as there are people who do flatting. You could hold a contest. And no, I'm not angling for a job. I doubt I would be good enough.

Sarqful

I have to ask as a fellow artist: Have you loosened your death grip and tried doing precise lines with a looser grip on the pencil/stylus? and it felt any better in terms of your "hand stamina"? get better soon and don't feel bad about slowing down while you're recovering. We'll still be here because of the work you've done :) Also, you're new slim lady image is gorgeous! I doubt anyone will mind having the rest of Alfie in that kind of style, but of course the final choice is yours.

Ceer0

All the best to your recovery, take all the time you need :)

Paul

All the best for your recovery! Take it in your tempo (even though I understand that there might be other things forcing you not to).

Matt

Good to hear that you're making some progress on diagnosing it, these things can be a huge (literal) pain to do that for. I hope you continue to recover well, and no pressure re: doing any work with it!

Dale

One common problem is that there are multiple trigger points from fingertip to elbow. Any one, or combination, of these will severely impact the joints if rested on for too long in the application of any task. Changing you drawing environment, or using a different drawing surface can identify the habit or position that maybe impacting the issue. The cure for this is usually acoustical impact therapy; curiously, this is used widely to solve erectile disfunction. Since your drawing has the same effect, clearly this must be the solution ... Hope this helps.

Made In The Rain

I had a very similar experience from overworking a couple of years ago and maybe my experience might be helpful. I was learning and working 8 hours a day sketching and painting and began to experience a nebulous pain in my wrist and thumb. Pushing through was fine for a couple of weeks until it exploded into full cramps. I had pushed myself too hard and there was some acute injury. Some strain in the tiny muscles of my hand. Likely tension had been building up for so long. A combination of stressors led to them breaking through and lashing out hard. I went to all sorts of doctors, specialists and naturopaths and all of them had different hypotheses on what it was and how it would be fixed. None of them worked. And it went on and on. I was diagnosed with an RSI. Drawing is so important to me. Art is so important to me. The idea that I couldn’t draw, that I had injured myself was too much to bear and I became deeply depressed. The pane waxed and waned. Sometimes it became much better but I would always find a way to overdo it and it would come back full force. Recently a book called: The Way Out by Alan Gordon helped me understand that whether or not I was physically injured any longer was unlikely, that my perspective and aspirations with drawing, the emotion I felt towards it all, was going to be the barrier for true recovery. It posits that chronic pain is our fear turning the volume of the pain up. This happens more so when the source of the pain is important to us. In other words, the more violating and scary the issue, the more likely it is to become chronic pain. There is likely an issue of some sort going on with you. Maybe your muscles are stressed. Your fascia tight. Maybe your posture and ergonomics have imparted poor habits on you. But know that if you are injured, the pain will be temporary. Our bodies are incredible at healing themselves. Baby yourself appropriately but not to the point that you are preventing healing. Healing requires progress. Don’t fall prey to the dark forces in your mind and you’ll come out of this just fine. You’ve got this. Other books The Mindbody Perscription by John Sarno When the Body Says No by Gabor Mate

Thril

Please don't force yourself to work. Seriously, we'll understand; prioritize your health! I'd recommend playing it safe and hold off on drawing and take it really easily until you have a full diagnosis.

Tim Kirk

Firstly, good luck with things. Hope you don’t need the surgery, good that the X-rays were clear. (Edit to add the rest… stupid touchscreen typing…) I built-up some of the classic wrist & grip problems over years of not caring much about ergonomics whilst working on computers. In the end simply getting better desk layout, and making myself take breaks did me more good than most of the technical fixes (vertical mice and ergo keyboards nothing much for me, but I’ve seen them work for other people). The other change I made was using larger mice, and bulking out the handlebar grips on my bike, my badminton racket handle, and various other things so I wasn’t ’death gripping’ so many things so much, just being able to hold lots of things without clenching my fingers so much seemed to relax a lot of the muscles up the lower arm over time. I’ve also known people who have had success using various of the modelling thermosetting putty materials to shape their own support grips for pen or stylus. Things like that might help. Hope I’m not just teaching you to suck eggs. Thanks for the art, and hoping there is much more to come without you crippling yourself.

Scott

Take care of yourself first. Your work is worth the wait. Glad that there isn’t a lot of pain involved. Take care of yourself

Apocynum

Maybe you could hire an inker, if you don’t want to change up at this point. There’s bound to be people who will do that for a couple months’ worth of payments and maybe a li’l credit.

Kyo Mibo

Like Oscar Wilde said: the problem is not getting old, but what we did when we were young. Take this time to relax, reflect and recover. You have an amazing talent, but you won't be able to give fruition to this talent if you are depleted. Trust that all's gonna be alright!

Tannerbot

I wish you luck in your recovery. Also, thank goodness for modern medicine.

phosphor112

Take it easy, dude. Hopefully you get things resolved.

GrassyKnoll

Wish you a successful recovery. Rest as long as you need!

Christopher Vollick

Like everyone else is saying, a bit of rest now to prevent a complete collapse is totally worth it. But I had a thought about "precision". With a digital workflow, is it not possible to zoom way way in, at which point a single thin stroke, like an inkline, could become a much more forgiving band of colour?

Sharwyn

Listen if you can take it slow, take it fucking slow.

frank sands

Hope you get well soon. I can say that for me, your art has always been incredible, but what hooked me from the start was the characters and the story. So, if you need to stop inking or change the style of the art, it's fine by me. Please go easy on your hand, your health is the most important thing. We can do everything else with good health. Be well

InCase

Right now that's what I am leaning towards. I don't like the idea of changing Alfie's visual stale in the middle of the last chapter BUT it would be the easiest way to finish it. We'll see.

Cass

Glad your recovery seems positive - you've got the right mindset and that counts for a lot. We're all cheering you on as you go though this :)

25shadow25

I hope for the best. Also if in the future you can't do ink and current painting process you use for your Hunter project isn't stressful for your hand I don't see why you couldn't use it for Alfie. It isn't a huge difference and you art style is still easily recognizable. but your recovery takes priority (that goes without saying).