Art related injuries

One of my favorite artists, Lois Van Baarle, recently revealed her struggles with an industry-related injury she suffered to her drawing arm. It's rough, and MOST of us who live to tell stories through visual media WILL suffer something similar at some point in our lives.

Here's her story.

I have gone through similar injuries that poor Lois is going through now... twice.

And in response to her painful experience with her injury, I thought I'd share my own.

Injury #1
I've been using computers as one of the main tools of my trade for over 16 years now. Graphic design, storyboarding, print layout, and digital illustration. About 10 years ago, I started to have terrible pain in my wrist and elbow. It was like a dull, throbbing, jolt of electricity pulsing throughout my upper arm, elbow and wrist. And every pulse made my arm feel weak. I could barely close my fist without feeling pain course up and down my right arm from my shoulder to the tips of my fingers.  I was quickly reduced to using a wrist-brace just to be able to do any drawing at all.

I was lucky in that I happened to know a local occupational physical therapist who took pity on me and gave me some suggestions. She explained to me that my biggest problem was the INTENSITY in how I approached my artwork. I was so INTENT on what I was drawing or constructing while on the computer, that I was literally damaging myself.  I was locking up my elbow and shoulder at the joints. My wrist was clenching the stylist pen, or mouse with a death grip. And all the intensity of my concentration was building up pressure in muscles of my right shoulder!

Sound silly to you? Try this..grab a tennis ball, sit down at a table and squeeeeze that tennis ball with all your strength with your fingers. At the same time, use the force you have in your arm and shoulder muscles to try to really...rrrubbb... that tennis ball down through the wood of the table! Now, do that for 4 hours at a time... for several days in a row... and see how that feels.

"What kind of fool would do that to themselves?!?" you might ask.

Well... me.. for one. And thousands of other people too. This happens to passionate people who really care about what they do. People who become so lost, so focused, so passionate in what they are doing, that they don't realize the pressures and intensity they are pouring though their own shoulder-arm-wrist-fingers...

The therapist (her name was "Janet") taught me that I needed to learn how to relax. To take breaks. To stand up once in a while and move my joints around for a couple of minutes. She taught me to adjust my work-station so that my elbow was at as close to a 90-degree angle as possible. She explained that I needed to STOP every once in a while. Several times a day. And take a moment to loosen up my joints, shake my wrists around a bit. Wiggle my fingers, flex my elbow and lift my arm above my head a few times. 

I want to point out that she helped me out of kindness. I had no money and couldn't pay her for her help. But she could see the pain I was enduring and chose to help me anyway.

A real sweetheart. I will always be grateful.

Eventually, I hit on the idea to practice juggling on those breaks. Taking a break to practice juggling for a couple of minutes gives me something fun to look forward to, and something else into which to dump my pent-up intensity. I could focus on the choreography of tossing the balls while at the same time, I was loosening up my joints. I'm not a good juggler. But that doesn't matter. It's fun to do, and it loosens up my arm beautifully.

The pain has gone away and I haven't had to use the brace since then. Mind you, the pain will come back if I forget, and allow myself to get to uptight... but when that happens, I've learned to recognize it as a warning to take a break, and relax. Than I'm fine again.



Injury #2
The second injury to my drawing arm was a broken, right shoulder-blade. Happened just a couple of years ago. Aahhh yes, I'll never forget that backwards, 5-foot fall from the top of a ladder, down to the cold, hard concrete below. The sickening "CRUUNCH" as my shoulder-blade took the brunt of the impact. And the following, three months of living as a one-armed man. I couldn't use my right arm at all without experiencing a lot of pain. The doctors had me put that arm in a sling and told me to "NOT MOVE IT" for those three-long-months, till my shoulder-blade bones could knit back together.

I still had to work. Had to pay the mortgage and feed my children. So I went back to work as an Art Director at the advertising agency I worked for at the time. And did the best that I could with my left hand instead. I was slower, yes... but my creativity... My talent for inventing new concepts... and my ability to make decisions about line-quality, color, composition, value and chroma were just fine thank you very much. I discovered that my artistic talents reside in my MIND, not my arm.
So, I made do. And I learned to trust in my own mind's ability to coax what was needed from my inexperienced, albeit willing left-hand.

I now know that if I had to, I could use my feet, or my teeth even, to create artwork as beautiful and as effective as I've ever created before. Because the talent resides in the mind.

The doctors explained to me that I MUST go to physical therapy if I wished to regain the full-use of my right arm again.

"okay, fine. How much will it cost me" I asked.
"It will cost you about a million-kazillion dollars" was their answer... more or less.

I didn't have insurance. Couldn't afford it at the time. So I politely declined. Went home. Endured the three months of pain and sleepless nights with my right arm in a sling... and then went back to living my life as I'd always done before. Picking up my children and hugging them. Mowing the lawn. Drawing. Lifting heavy boxes up onto high shelves for my wife. That kind of stuff.

But, I'd remembered what I'd learned in my first experience with my injured drawing arm. I worked. I DREW... But I took care to listen to my body. And took breaks... I started juggling again. And yes, at first, it hurt to do those things.

Two years later and I'm fine... I draw every day. And I use the computer everyday. And I make sure to relax everyday as well. Sometimes my body gets tired before my mind... but I've learned to be aware of the warning signs and be patient.

With these experiences I hope to be able to maintain the ability to keep drawing till the very day I die!


David Church

Clash of Classics by TikiMachine is now available

One of my illustrations can be found in Tiki Machine's latest artist collaborations book release "Clash of Classics". The theme for the Clash of Classics book is...well... literary classics. With an emphasis on the conflict between good and evil in the stories.

I did my piece on "The last of the Mohicans" by James Fenimore Cooper.  This one was painted in water color on cold-press illustration board. Monochromatic. I wanted to play around with the negative shapes and see how much of the story I could tell with my self-imposed limitations. As hard as I tried to use the negative shapes in the best way possible. I STILL managed to create some accidental, yet intriguing imagery. My favorite is the profile of the beseeching young woman found within the negative shapes of Maguas' spear and feathers. As tho she's pleading with Maqua to stop chasing the Monroe sisters ahead of him. It looks so deliberate, that I'm going to lie and tell everyone that I planned it that way. Hah! I'm an artistic genius!

Feral children

This past Sunday afternoon, just before dusk settled in, Heather and I are in our bedroom talking... when it begins to dawn on us that the house has gone quiet.
I open our bedroom door to utter silence. No sounds echoing down the hallway and bouncing off the walls and our heads. No screaming. No banging. No off-key singing. No arguments. Where'd those little monsters go?

Eventually, through expert sleuthing, I detect muffled noises coming from behind the kitchen garage door. I swing it open and find…

The normal gloom of a typical garage. A poorly set-up step ladder. And, a swirled pattern of light… cast from the spinning air vent I'd installed in the roof last summer. The light dances over the crouched forms of my five children. They're huddled over a clear, plastic storage box of stuffed animals that they had ILLEGALLY dragged down out of the rafters from above. How on earth had they managed that without hurting themselves? It would have required cunning, planning, and a level of cooperation that I had previously never suspected of them.

Crouched over the box and it's contents like that. They looked… for all the world… like a pack of coyotes quarreling over the remains of a dear carcass. Arguing and muttering to one another as they tore into the dear…er… box. Occasional scuffles breaking out over a particularly choice..er..toy.

And backed into a corner is Holly, the baby. A stuffed dog cradled in her left arm and a purple, stuffed "My little pony" clutched by it's rainbow-hewed mane in her right fist. She glares and shrieks at her siblings whenever any of them turn to see what she might have claimed for herself out of the carcass…er…box.

I swear, at this point, she'd gone completely feral.

"WHAT ARE YOU ALL DOING IN HERE?!" I holler with my best "Daddy's-in-charge" voice.

Five pair of eyes suddenly focus on me…. glittering out of the gloom of the garage.

_Jeepers that's creepy_

Than the noise starts. A cacophony of apologies and "I didn't do it's" and "We just wanted one of the monkeys!" and "Please can we..?"….etc.  All at once. Peppered with a couple more shrieks from the baby, who felt she ought to have her say as well.

"AllrightallrightALLRIGHT! Just… Out of the garage! Take the box with you, and we'll talk about this later. Come on. All of you. Out!"

Chittering amongst themselves happily, my sweet little angels fall upon the savaged box again. They drag the box and it's remaining contents out through the garage side door, tugging it around the corner into the darkening light of dusk… like… like a… pack  of coyotes maybe….dragging a….

"OH, STOP IT! Stop it with the "feral animal" analogy.

_Jeepers_

storyboard artwork

I thought I'd upload some more of the storyboard artwork I do. Usually, it's a quick rough drawing using a light-colored animators pencil... and then going over that same drawing again with a darker color pencil. Picking out what what I like for the final drawing. These are fast drawings. And sometimes I don't like what I end up with. In such cases, I have to continue on anyway and hope that I have enough time to redo that particular drawing later.

storyboard drawings

I often have to bang out a bunch of storyboards for TV spots at work. In the heat of the fire, there isn't time to noodle the drawing to perfection. In fact, most of these drawings are whipped out within a 10 to 20 minute time frame. I have to just except what I've drawn and move onto the next panel or frame in the storyboard.

When I do these drawings, I tend to grab the nearest light-colored "Col-Erase" animators pencil on hand. Then I go over my scribbles with a darker color... picking out the lines I want.

Simple, and rough, but hopefully, able to communicate the idea.

Here are a few samples.

drawing during a meeting

Meetings are important...yes... but they also result in some of my favorite little sketches. Like, for instance, this one I did last Friday during a planning meeting at work.

I don't know why there is a bunny.

Black Yei Illustration

Here's the final version of the Navajo Diety "Black Yei". I wanted to have him glowing from within with the cold brilliance of starlight while being bathed in the warm reflection from the flame held in his hands.

You can see the glow of the starlight shining from the symbol of the seven sisters star cluster on his left brow and from his eyes.

I'm not happy with the background. Although I'd wanted it to be simple, with flat colors, I'd like to work it some more sometime.

All in all tho, I still like the final results.

I fractured my right shoulderblade over the holidays. Fell off a ladder. Wish it had been while wrestling a bear or fighting off a pack of ravenous wolves... alas... a freaken ladder. Couldn't draw at all for several weeks. Still wearing the sling now, but mostly as a reminder to take it easy until the bone has healed completely.

I wanted to upload final examples of my two entries into the Deities book. Looking back at the finished work, all I can see are the obvious flaws and silly mistakes. But I'm still pleased with how they both turned out.

Here is a shot of the final version of the Buhdi Pallien piece. Watercolor and lead pencil on cold-press watercolor board. We (the viewers) and the one little boy manage to see this larger than life, glorious feline goddess lying within touching distance of all the tourists. This was a fun one to do. Watercolor requires an enormous amount of self confidence and an ego to match.

My second entry for the Deities themed book from the guys at Tiki Machine is based on a Hindu goddess named Budhi Pallien. She's one of the earlier, elder gods. It's said that she liked to roam the jungles and forests of Northern India in the form of a tigress. Aaaand... it's said that she still does so today.

Well, that got me to thinking. How would a 10,000 (or so) year old tiger-goddess respond to our world today? What would she think of us? How would she interact with us? If at all.
And, how would we react to her?

I did some rough sketches of how she might look...




...meh... although I did like the simple stripe treatment.

And then decided that she HAD to be bigger than life. She's a freaken goddess. And I wanted to place her in plain site, yet be unseen by those all around her who can't be bothered to see the world around them.



This piece will be a simple one. A rough pencil drawing with water color washes on cold-press illustration board.

Been working with the guys over at The Tiki Machine on their new book.
The theme for this one is on "Deities". Kinda cool.

There will be two of my illustrations in the book. I wanted to do something from the native American peoples (specifically the Navajo) as the subject matter for the first illustration. Black Yei is my current favorite. Basically, he's the guy that's in charge of the stars and constellations, and he's the one who invented fire. The story goes that he used to keep the constellation of the Seven Sisters tied around his left ankle. However, whenever he danced, that star cluster would fly up from his kicking feet and smack him on the left brow. This happened so frequently, that he finally just had the Seven Sisters constellation mounted to his brow permanently.

I like the gentle humour found in many of the stories about the Navajo deities.

Can't show the final piece, but I can show you a rough sketch. This one will be digitally painted. I want to have the flame glowing with warm, yellows and oranges, while the stars glow with blue light. If I can pull it off, I also want the eye holes of his mask and the Seven Sisters star cluster to glow with the same star light. He IS a god after all.

Here's a quick, pencil sketch of another paper model design. It's an... a... er... Idunno. A steampunk vehicle thingy. Designed for exploration of rugged terrain. Lightly armed with a turret-mount machine-gun for protection. Lot's of rivets, gears and rust.

Will put this design in-line behind the other paper model projects I need to finish first. Must... finish... the... Kolywopter...

Monster Mythos

A friend of mine in the animation industry recently announce the release of an artbook. Something he'd dedicated a lot of time to bring to fruition. Monster Mythos, a collection of artwork based on theme. I love these types of artist collaborations. It gives us all a chance to see the impressive diversity of the creative human mind.





In his own words..
"Monster Mythos is an art book of legendary beasts, fiends and mystical creatures pulled from folklore all over the world. These spirited tales have been beautifully re-imagined and brought to life by a collective of artists from the animation and illustrative fields. Their hope is to bring the same inspiration and wonder to those who might not have heard of these beasts, as these legends have to generations before."

Dig it man.

Check it out at tikimachine. I'll be picking up my own copy soon.

Two-Headed Chicken Paper Model

This has been a fun project. I began this a couple of years ago when I first discovered the art of paper craft. I had wanted to create a model of my own design that anyone could download, print out, and then build for themselves.

Something that reflected my own style as an artist.



The two-headed chicken is about simplicity of form and color. The design deliberately relies on simple shapes and solid colors.



I think my favorite part are those big-ol feet...



and the curled, pink tongue.



I dig'em man.

This model is available as a FREE download from my website.

I don't know who originated the "Cows Analogy to Political Idealism"... but I've improved on it a bit. Hope it makes you laugh. Irregardless to what "ism" you may belong.

REPUBLICAN: You have two cows.
You mortgage your house to the hilt, borrow money to buy a bull and hire your neighbors to help you take care of the growing heard. Some of your neighbors in turn do the same and they also hire even more neighbors to care for their own growing herds as well.

DEMOCRAT: You have six cows. Your neighbor has four cows and a poor neighbor has only two cows.
You feel guilty for having six cows, so you get Ted Kennedy who has 10,000 cows to raise taxes to make your greedy neighbor with four cows give one cow to the poor neighbor. Now both neighbors have three cows each and everybody is equal. Of course, YOU still have six cows. But you can live with the guilt because Barbara Striesand sings to you and Michael Moor makes movies about the evil and greedy Republicans.

LIBERTARIAN: You have two cows.
You borrow money (without government interference) in order to buy a bull (without any government interference). But because there is no law against drug use (see without government interference) you can’t find any neighbors who aren't stoned out of their minds to help you take care of the heard.

SOCIALIST: You have two cows.
The government takes both cows. The government mismanages the care of the cows. One cow dies.
The surviving cow yields only half the milk, so milk is scarce and expensive. In desperation the government shoots the other cow for food and taxes the evil and greedy Republicans to avoid starvation.

LIBERAL or "Progressive": You inherit your grandfathers cattle ranch with hundreds of cows.
Your family sells the cattle ranch and becomes very rich by investing in cattle markets. You go to a fancy college and learn all about socialism and join in the protest against the evil cattle ranchers. You protest against people who eat cows because cows are people too. You protest against the cattle ranchers because they give drugs to the cows and you believe drugs are only for people. You protest because cow farts are causing methane gas which contributes to global warming. You protest because the cattle ranches are making a profit. You protest because cows are destroying the habitat of the yellow-bellied titsy-fly. You protest because America has the most cows. You protest by throwing cow blood on people who wear leather products. You protest against the use of the term "milkmaid" because it’s gender-specific. You protest because men are touching a cows naughty bits when they milk them. You become a trial lawyer so that you can sue the evil and corrupt farmers because milk and cheese products are making all the poor children fat and it is obviously the farmer’s fault. You use your family’s money to get into politics so that you can FORCE people to give you control of all the cows. You mismanage the cows and they all die (see socialism) and since there are no more republicans to tax and steal cows from, the people starve and become desperate. For the good of the republic you have to shoot a lot of the people to maintain order (see communism). You institute reform by forcing the people back to the farm where they can raise cows. But you’re ok because you still have the money your grandfather made on the family cattle ranch.

ENVIRONMENTALIST: You weep for the cows.
You paint cow spots all over your body and dance naked in the streets of New York to protest "bovine abuse". You join militant protest groups and stage midnight raids to free the oppressed cows from their slavery to mankind. You make up fake studies with false statistics and pay Al Gore to make a movie about them. You fence off vast tracks of land to keep everyone out for the good of the world community. And no one but the cows are allowed access to the land... Well... except for yourself, Al Gore and Robert Redford of course.
You pass laws prohibiting the use, sale and possession of cows or dairy products for the good of the world community. Of course, those of your neighbors who were formerly employed in the care, production, processing, transportation, maintenance, inspection, and sales of cows and dairy products are now jobless, homeless and starving along with their families. But that's okay, because there are TOO MANY PEOPLE on this earth anyway and it's ABOUT TIME we reached a SUSTAINABLE POPULATION for the GOOD OF THE WORLD COMMUNITY! Besides, you need the extra room for your own four cows.

COMMUNIST: You have two cows.
The government seizes both cows, shoots you, and sells your cows to the Americans for the good of the people.
The government makes lots of money, buys lots of tanks and has big parades for the good of the people.
Your family dies of starvation and the UN condemns America for selling you the tanks.

DICTATOR: You don’t need cows.
Because you torture and kill your neighbors to force them to give you the milk from their cows. If your neighbors don’t produce enough milk, you torture and kill their families. If they complain, you torture and kill their families.
If you time it just right, you can escape with your millions before the Americans come. The Americans clean up your mess and give free cows to everyone. You then publicly blame your bad behavior on racist and oppressive American Imperialism. Time magazine makes you person of the year for your courageous stand against the Imperialist Americans. Sean Penn places an ad in the New York Times demanding that you be returned to your rightful place as "benevolent dictator" over your neighbors.

character development

Here's a rendition of the characters for a childrens book. This character set is already changing... I need to modernize the support characters a bit to match the current eddy and flow of the times today.



Aand here's a look at one of the spreads.... The "butterfly spread".
I like the little house in the background.

the statue

Here's a fun project. What you see in the pics is my own representation of what the 4-toed statue from the TV series "Lost" looks like.

After lots of research watching several episodes of the series..(I'd never watched the show previously)... I drew up some 3-way sketches of the statue and sculpted a 13" tall version using super sculpy.

Once the original sculpture was completed, I used it to make an rtv silicon master-mold.

The project required 10, hand-painted statues and numbered statues that the client plans to present as awards to the finalists of a video contest they've been hosting.

I think they turned out really nice. In fact, the client was pleased enough with the results that they ended requesting another set of 8 statues cast in ebony black.

Working on it now...

I'll post more images in a bit...

The dangers of working late into the night

A few days agoe I'd been working late into the night... or rather, early into the wee morning hours of the day to come. As I was driving home, I stopped at a 7-11 for somethingorother. (I've long ago discovered that sleep deprivation consumes enormous amounts of my body's energy reserves. And thus, I find myself craving protein at around 2-3 AM or my body will shut down completely.)

Agreed, that 7-11 isn't the best choice for a nutritious pick-me-up... but hey, it 2 AM after all. Anyway, I know I wasn't thinking clearly. And so I won't bother to attempt to defend my snack choices.

There was a pleasant fellow of Indian or Pakistani descent manning the clerk station that night. And he obviously felt that someone HAD to say SOMETHING to the poor fool who brought the hideous combination of a package of stale crab sushi and a bottle of Nestlie Quick chocolate milk to his counter top.

"Ahhh... are you sure you want to do this?" He implored with obvious concern."

I stared bleary-eyed at the sushi and chocolate milk... then staggered off to a nearby snack display.

"There! That should do it!" I declared. Triumphantly placing a package of spicy pork rinds next to the other items.

Obviously concerned for my sanity as well as my health... the clerk shook his head and rang up my purchases.

As I said before... I was tired.

And NOT thinking clearly.

progress... of sorts..

I sold one of my paintings today to a private collector. However YOU can still download a paper model of that painting from the papercraft section of my website. I must say that I am profoundly grateful to live in a capitalist pig-dog country where any man or woman can make a buck from their own engenuity and talent.

yeah yeah yeah...

Heather and I've been spending the last half-year or so looking to buy our first house... a soul consuming task to say the least. Now, suddenly, we find ourselves in the position of being able to choose between two different houses who's lenders have accepted our offers. Sure, we've recovered from the shock of having a lender actually accept our offer... but now what? New territory.

In the midst of all that this year I'd received a commission to sculpt an iconic statue from a popular TV series. Cool man. Was fun to do. I'll post photos once I'm sure that it's legally ok to do so.

Paper craft

In between searching for a new home for my family, sculpting new rubber parts for the vintage motorcycles I restore, and my responsibilities at work... I've been focused on some of my paper craft designs. I've had to train myself to use some simple 3-D design software to be able to adequately produce project designs that will unfold into usable flat parts. You can see some of the designs I'm currently obsessed with. The design that is closest to completi0n is the "Kolywopter". A cross between steampunk and science fiction design. The majority of the model has been flattened into parts and even assembled as an actual model in real life. I still need to complete the engine nacelle, and the wings...

I'll post pictures of the Kolywopter later. But for now, here are the exploration sub and the eel powered lantern vehicle as designed in SketchUP. Ready for flattening into parts sheets.