PAIN(T)

I need to start using an easel. Sometimes after I've been drawing or painting for any length of time, my neck will cramp up and not stop hurting for a month or more. It's not an exaggeration to say it feels like someone hit me in the center of the neck bone with a hammer. I've been making a conscious effort not to crane my neck over my work like a vulture, but I forget over and over. It's the kind of thing that just slowly occurs without my knowlege.

Those are 44 cent Apple Barrel paints from Walmart.

An easel helps the neck, but not the arms. When I hold my arms out with no support under my elbow, after a while my hand will get shaky. You may say, "Keith, that means you need to lift weights and strengthen your arm muscles."

I say it's because my arm muscles are just so massively huge and bulky and weighty, so it's a lot of work for me to lift them. It's logic!

A lady at work puts a tennis ball on the end of a 3 ft. stick, and uses that as a support to rest her elbow on when she paints. The tennis ball is there so the end of the stick won't scratch the painting. She just holds the stick in her other hand and locks it against her body.