when i was up at like, 5:30 AM this morning, i kept fantasizing about having some kind of elevated hand rest to put on top of paper while drawing/painting. my hands have always been shaky and it's only gotten worse as i've gotten older.
anyway i decided to research if that's a thing or not. turns out it is! an "artist leaning bridge"... hohoho!!!!
back in college, i had a drawing prof who was really accommodating about accessibility options. he noticed me struggling to draw upright, and i explained sheepishly that i really need to brace myself against something when i'm holding up my hands/arms bc i tremble too much otherwise
i braced myself for getting chastised, but he just went "oh, just a sec", grabbed a long, wooden dowel out of a closet, propped it up against my easel and went "there, try leaning on that now". it was so much better
the wooden dowel - which over 10 years later, i have found out is called a "mahl stick" - kept my arm elevated off the canvas, so it wouldn't smudge my work. but i could still have something to lean against and keep myself steady
i was generally miserable in art classes and felt like a broken, backwards mess. except in classes taught by him. i'll never forget him. (he also encouraged me to keep drawing gay art, which i really needed to hear back then lol.)
@platinumtulip sounds like a wonderful man. Glad he could help you through that, and I'm sure he'd be proud of you talking about what you learned
I'll have to look into that myself
