Post Sections ⇅
- Starting Off Slowly
- Early, Rough Gaming Characters
- Early Animals
- A SWTOR Gift for a Friend
- Character Caricatures Categorically Characterised
- So Long, and Thanks for all the Frozen
- What’s Next, Then?
- TL;DR Drawing Despite Chronic Pain
Starting Off Slowly
Reignited Enjoyment
But sketching these maps ignited both my imagination for my novel and my enjoyment of drawing. Yes, my hands hurt doing it, but so long as I kept my compression gloves on and my deep heat cream on standby, time went surprisingly quickly.
Early, Rough Gaming Characters
Looking back now, I can see just how rough these are. But in all things you start off bad (or, at least “not really great”). But I had overcome a drawing fear: humanoids.
Early Animals
Painful, but Necessary
However this is a good example of why drawing with chronic pain is really tricky. Anything involving hair, fur or feathers really hurts my hands. Fur especially, because I have to draw a lot of tiny lines. Normal “sweeping strokes” or even filler colour doesn’t hurt as much as that. But the tiny details really matter and can make or break a drawing.
A SWTOR Gift for a Friend
This year I also picked a random SWTOR-playing friend and chose to draw her Mirialan Jedi, Khessya. It wasn’t going to take many weeks originally. But then that character is married to Theron Shan, so I felt it was more representative to draw both of those together. That added months to the drawing. Turns out, drawing white-skinned people is way harder than green-skinned ones. Who would’ve thought?
I honeslty found this hard and didn’t feel I did the character any justice at all. But I did my best.
Character Caricatures Categorically Characterised
True & the Rainbow Kingdom
In (re)learning to draw, I had to decide from the outset not to pigeonhole myself. So I’ve tried to do things in different styles. One of those is a style of art I can’t quite pin down. My young daughter (NJ) watches a variety of kids shows, but one of them is True and the Rainbow Kingdom. The humanoid characters in that have huge heads, tiny bodies, button noses and eyes so big they could swallow you whole. And most of them are really cute. So I made an
My LOTRO Characters
Once I had figured out this style, whatever it’s called, I did an experiment to try to draw my LOTRO characters in that style too. I think it turned out pretty well!
So Long, and Thanks for all the Frozen
The real issue is that I’ve gotten better at drawing since doing Elsa, especially. I’m trying to resist re-drawing her!
But I have to say that through these three drawings, I’ve improved what I do. I’m also finally learning how to temper how much drawing affects my hand pain too.
What’s Next, Then?
That’s pretty much my last year of drawing in a nutshell. I think I’ve improved in that time and, in some aspects, by quite a lot. Before my daughter requests another Frozen character, I’ve started a special drawing attempt for my wife’s birthday present. I also intend to go back and draw some of my SWTOR characters again, to see my progress. And then likely my LOTRO ones too.
I won’t ever do commissions, but I am happy to take suggestions and ideas of what I could draw next, so feel free to ask!
TL;DR Drawing Despite Chronic Pain
Drawing aggravates my hand pain, but nowhere near as much as typing. If I get my posture wrong, I can also do my back in. But on the whole, it is relaxing and, now I’m starting to see improvements, it is also satisfying. I have now worked drawing into my Fibromyalgia Daily Routine. Hopefully I can continue to develop and improve it, while making sure I only do it when I want to, not because “I have to finish something”. Turning rest into stress isn’t a good idea, in case you weren’t already aware!