Week 35 Allow me to tell you a cautionary tale about arm strains…

Not much progress at all this week so don’t look if you only want to see art…I just want my arm back.
I’m alive…I just need time to heal.

Let’s go! Journal Time!

11th Wed

• Packed learning session leaving me extremely sleep deprived than normal
• PV doodles: decided to not do a full illustration poster for Position: Vacant after drawing out these. Perhaps I may do portraits. Not sure yet. I shouldn’t even be drawing; looking back in hindsight.

• PV progress: some mistakes from me left the most of the renders running over the weekend useless (at the time I was sure I did follow the process, but I overlooked something); we will slowly get there and focus on getting it done, despite another setback (this time because of me). Will has gone through and knows the whole lighting and rendering process too so hopefully things go somewhat faster from here. Crunch time month continues. My arm continues to hurt as I still won’t let it rest; I shall refrain from drawing though and use it minimally until it recovers. Managed to light a shot or so and am project managing things as best I can.

12th Thurs

• PV progress: troubleshooting rendering issues continue but we all knew that it was part of the process. We are definitely slowly getting there, making sure all communication channels are running as we worked in case that any issues come up. My colourful spreadsheet of managing this project is also being used and edited by Tony for his use so I’m glad!
• Can safely say I have some form of RSI since last Friday (ironically because of lighting and rendering at a non-ergonomic chair height and then it got worse due to art making) so no drawing until I recover my dominant arm. Had to constantly massage as I worked on lighting and rendering.

13th Fri

• PV progress: Got told to stop working until I recover but did a bit of setting renders and kept track of the team’s progress somewhat. This is to ease a bit of the guilt of not being able to help during crunch time. Feels very odd not being able to draw or do much but I did get a lot of advice and insights on the matter from kind people (Heath and Brendan especially). (:

14th Sat

• Unidentified portrait of Uhubb: I thought my arm strain was starting to go away as I did this…

• The pain is not as bad but it’s still there. I am taking frequent breaks and working in small amounts. Still, this is turning out to be a boring post! However this is part of the journey; hence the inclusion as there’s the good and the bad. Of course the good is much more than the bad! It’s just not my week.

Side story: I finally started playing Pikmin 3‘s story mode but had to stop at Day 6; I found that I was more tense than ever and it’s not helping my arm at all. I do find that I’m stubborn when I keep repeating Day 3 and Day 5 because it didn’t fare as well as I wanted it to and because of witnessing more of my pikmin getting horrifically murdered. Had to stop playing because my arm strain…got worse. Shame on me. Thought maybe I could take this resting period as a chance to play something…but back to no game playing once again.

• Tested whether the 3D move tool worked on my version of PS CS6 Extended and it does! He won’t ever read this but thanks Brendan! I was so stumped!
• PV Progress: updated on our project’s progress in preparation for next week.
• Research Project: wrote a bit more on the topic; have yet to source more content. But I have now made a clearer outline on my approach, now that I know that I have till November to get it done.
• My Own Powers Project: doodled to figure out a style to go for. Uh…you don’t know this person. Nothing to see here.

15th Sun

16th Mon

17th Tues

• watching & reading things continued…using my left hand as much as possible instead. I have resigned myself to do very little with my right one.
• DTP: Early research stages

Reflection for the Week: Cautionary tale to be continued!

If you start to feel pain in your arm/hands; just stop working immediately and get away from the computer, exercise, relax and do something else. Or you’d end up with my fate and make things worse. ):
The thing is, I know I should be taking breaks and take care of other aspects of myself but when one tends to lose track of time and/or simply ignores it in order to keep working…

I digress, treat this as a reminder and warning for you; your arms/hands are so important so heed the red flags of pain, aches and fatigue. I know this is a common thing in this industry as well.

It’s no drama, though I’ve learned my lesson the mildly hard way as I can’t work at all without prolonging it and making it worse. I just need to make sure it gets better and that I take preventative measures I can do consistently! I hope the next update brings me better news. Again, heed my warning and actually take action!

Takeaway for the week: Take consistent measures to care for your own heath (physically & mentally)!

Extra takeaway: everyone is drawn to people they admire/aspire to or want to learn more from. Cherish those the rare times where the feeling is mutual. (:

Update notice! No updates till further notice. Or in 2 weeks.
I will probably bunch up subsequent weeks’ updates into one post if the lack of art keeps going. This means no more updates until I have something to show. See you on the other side fully recovered and hopefully soon, ideally in 2 weeks! In the meantime, I shall take care of my RSI and learn the ways of a better lifestyle.

Thanks for looking, especially those who have been reading this shorter than usual post! (:
Until next time, Leonie
(UUUinfinity/TripleUinfinity)