hm, my body hates art.
In college (er, as you may or may not know, I'm an illustration major... so a lot of drawing) I had near constant back pain. Around my sacral triangle, where there is no muscle really that could be tense, so I was concerned it was a disc. In order to relieve pain? I don't know if it was relieving or just diverting, I would rub that area with my knuckle, thereby causing a lot of weird bruising. I don't know, it seemed to work while I was doing it.
We thought it might be due to the fact that I do not slouch... I in fact overarch my back at all times. My upper traps are ridiculously huge for my size, people don't tend to notice it unless I point it out, but they are overly developed :P I think it's from figure drawing. My lower traps that extend on the sides of the spine are also incredibly strong and pronounced. My boyfriend during college lovingly told me my big traps were to help my skinny and long neck keep up my giant head. (yes, he was joking) And now Rob always comments on how ridiculous my back muscles are.
Anyway, I overarch. If you look, I sit perfectly upright, even when on the muni I don't tend to lean back. Rob says this is why I don't need a sofa with a back, my muscles are so strong that it doesn't bother me to have nothing to lean against. When I was doing figure drawing a lot, I would either stand (overarching) and sit on a stool, which forces you to sit upright... more overarching. Anyway, this mostly subsided after college.
Now that I'm doing commissions, I am getting this really really horrible pain between my neck and my trapezius muscle. The pain around my sacral triangle exists, but it's not CONSTANT like it used to be. Instead, within about 15 minutes of drawing, I get sore and a nerve between my trap and my neck is getting pinched. In a couple hours I am in so much pain I cannot move my head and I have to stop. It takes longer for the pain to subside than it does to get so bad I can't draw.
It has nothing to do with the position I sit when I draw, I've tried it in all possible ways - maybe a drafting table would help, but I think it would cause me to have the sacrum pain from being upright. Although the sacral pain was non-stop even when I wasn't actively doing art, it was not as painful as the pinched nerve. I wonder what would be better for me.
It's that or I just stop drawing. Maybe my body is trying to remind me as to why I stopped in the first place.
We thought it might be due to the fact that I do not slouch... I in fact overarch my back at all times. My upper traps are ridiculously huge for my size, people don't tend to notice it unless I point it out, but they are overly developed :P I think it's from figure drawing. My lower traps that extend on the sides of the spine are also incredibly strong and pronounced. My boyfriend during college lovingly told me my big traps were to help my skinny and long neck keep up my giant head. (yes, he was joking) And now Rob always comments on how ridiculous my back muscles are.
Anyway, I overarch. If you look, I sit perfectly upright, even when on the muni I don't tend to lean back. Rob says this is why I don't need a sofa with a back, my muscles are so strong that it doesn't bother me to have nothing to lean against. When I was doing figure drawing a lot, I would either stand (overarching) and sit on a stool, which forces you to sit upright... more overarching. Anyway, this mostly subsided after college.
Now that I'm doing commissions, I am getting this really really horrible pain between my neck and my trapezius muscle. The pain around my sacral triangle exists, but it's not CONSTANT like it used to be. Instead, within about 15 minutes of drawing, I get sore and a nerve between my trap and my neck is getting pinched. In a couple hours I am in so much pain I cannot move my head and I have to stop. It takes longer for the pain to subside than it does to get so bad I can't draw.
It has nothing to do with the position I sit when I draw, I've tried it in all possible ways - maybe a drafting table would help, but I think it would cause me to have the sacrum pain from being upright. Although the sacral pain was non-stop even when I wasn't actively doing art, it was not as painful as the pinched nerve. I wonder what would be better for me.
It's that or I just stop drawing. Maybe my body is trying to remind me as to why I stopped in the first place.