Hello from the Netherlands!

[ebi]

Hello!
I'm ebi from the Netherlands!

I picked up drawing 2 years ago, but due to a pretty bad case of RSI (5 years and counting) only really got into it last October. It's a lot better now, but I still have to be careful.

I'm an engineering student (wtf was I thinking XD) and during themes where the programming is heavy my RSI tends to flare up. So during those times, I usually have to stop drawing or risk a slew of sleepless nights from pain:/.

I try to draw as much as I can afford to, but it's a slow journey for me.

My guilty pleasure is to think maybe one day I can become good enough to be an illustrator or some such thing....
But my current realistic goal is to just enjoy drawing whilst slowly improving and to get over my fear of drawing in "the wild" before Summer.

I'm still a beginner, but I hope there'll be a place for me here :)
This community looks really interesting. I still have a lot to figure out though...
I read about live streams, groups, partners, studie thingies....

In any case, I'll pitch up a sketchbook in the SB section and hang out there for now, but I hope one day to have the confidence to join a sketch group or find a partner.

Thanks for reading!

[Kitsune]

Welcome ebi!

Hey, I was a biology student once, you know how it goes, society and family and so on. Good luck and I hope your RSI won't give you as much trouble.

[Vandall]

I believe you can do exercises for RSI can't you? I hope to see more of your work always cool to have new people around :)

[ebi]

Thanks for the welcome!

Yup! I do a lot of stretching exercises for my neck, shoulders and back.
Aside from that I get a monthly (used to be weekly) combo treatment of laser therapy and acupuncture (<---if you ever get RSI, try it. It really helps).
I have a little hand-held massager to try and get most of the trigger points out.
I use this topical painkiller like it's body lotion XD ( because it helps reduce the pain, and reduced pain means less stress which means better recovery).
I also use speech recognition, which is why my posts are always way too long.

So, I'm doing a lot of things for my RSI and it wasn't until I started doing the laser therapy last year that I really started to make progress.

So, regarding recovery I still have a long road ahead of me, especially because of the engineering course interfering with my recovery each time ( and if I don't pass all my exams this year I'll get kicked out ._. ). But I'm getting there.


Anyway, I feel like I'm talking about this RSI stuff way too much, while I should use the time to focus on drawing :D So with that, I'm out again.

Thanks again and nice to meet you!