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A general cane guide for writers and artists (from a cane user, writer, and artist!)

Disclaimer: Though I have been using a cane for 6 years, I am not a doctor, nor am I by any means an expert. This guide is true to my experience, but there are as many ways to use a cane as there are cane users!

This guide will not include: White canes for blindness, crutches, walkers, or wheelchairs as I have no personal experience with these.

This is meant to be a general guide to get you started and avoid some common mishaps/misconceptions, but you absolutely should continue to do your own research outside of this guide!

The biggest recurring problem I've seen is using the cane on the wrong side. The cane goes on the opposite side of the pain! If your character has even-sided pain or needs it for balance/weakness, then use the cane in the non-dominant hand to keep the dominant hand free. Some cane users also switch sides to give their arm a rest!

A cane takes about 20% of your weight off the opposite leg. It should fit within your natural gait and become something of an extension of your body. If you need more weight off than 20%, then crutches, a walker, or a wheelchair is needed.

Putting more pressure on the cane, using it on the wrong side, or having it at the wrong height will make it less effective, and can cause long term damage to your body from improper pressure and posture. (Hugh Laurie genuinely hurt his body from years of using a cane wrong on House!)

(an animated GIF of a cane matching the natural walking gait. It turns red when pressure is placed on it.)

When going up and down stairs, there is an ideal standard: You want to use the handrail and the cane at the same time, or prioritize the handrail if it's only on one side. When going up stairs you lead with your good leg and follow with the cane and hurt leg together. When going down stairs you lead with the cane, then the good leg, and THEN the leg that needs help.

Realistically though, many people don't move out of the way for cane users to access the railing, many stairs don't have railings, and many are wet, rusty, or generally not ideal to grip.

In these cases, if you have a friend nearby, holding on to them is a good idea. Or, take it one step at a time carefully if you're alone.

Now we come to a very common mistake I see... Using fashion canes for medical use!

(These are 4 broad shapes, but there is INCREDIBLE variation in cane handles. Research heavily what will be best for your character's specific needs!)

The handle is the contact point for all the weight you're putting on your cane, and that pressure is being put onto your hand, wrist, and shoulder. So the shape is very important for long term use!

Knob handles (and very decorative handles) are not used for medical use for this reason. It adds extra stress to the body and can damage your hand to put constant pressure onto these painful shapes.

The weight of a cane is also incredibly important, as a heavier cane will cause wear on your body much faster. When you're using it all day, it gets heavy fast! If your character struggles with weakness, then they won't want a heavy cane if they can help it!

This is also part of why sword canes aren't usually very viable for medical use (along with them usually being knob handles) is that swords are extra weight!

However, a small knife or perhaps a retractable blade hidden within the base might be viable even for weak characters.

Bases have a lot of variability as well, and the modern standard is generally adjustable bases. Adjustable canes are very handy if your character regularly changes shoe height, for instance (gotta keep the height at your hip!)

Canes help on most terrain with their standard base and structure. But for some terrain, you might want a different base, or to forego the cane entirely! This article covers it pretty well.

Many cane users decorate their canes! Stickers are incredibly common, and painting canes is relatively common as well! You'll also see people replacing the standard wrist strap with a personalized one, or even adding a small charm to the ring the strap connects to. (nothing too large, or it gets annoying as the cane is swinging around everywhere)

(my canes, for reference)

If your character uses a cane full time, then they might also have multiple canes that look different aesthetically to match their outfits!

When it comes to practical things outside of the cane, you reasonably only have one hand available while it's being used. Many people will hook their cane onto their arm or let it dangle on the strap (if they have one) while using their cane arm, but it's often significantly less convenient than 2 hands. But, if you need 2 hands, then it's either setting the cane down or letting it hang!

For this reason, optimizing one handed use is ideal! Keeping bags/items on the side of your free hand helps keep your items accessible.

When sitting, the cane either leans against a wall or table, goes under the chair, or hooks onto the back of the chair. (It often falls when hanging off of a chair, in my experience)

When getting up, the user will either use their cane to help them balance/support as they stand, or get up and then grab their cane. This depends on what it's being used for (balance vs pain when walking, for instance!)

That's everything I can think of for now. Thank you for reading my long-but-absolutely-not-comprehensive list of things to keep in mind when writing or drawing a cane user!

Happy disability pride month! Go forth and make more characters use canes!!!

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Here’s a collection of tips I’ve learned and use for coloring darker skin tones. I hope this helps people out who want to diversify their art!

Note; I’m not an expert, and I’m mostly drawing from experiences and my cultural background.

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disclaimer: I am east asian. if anyone who is not white sees anything wrong with my phrasing, inaccuracies, or insensitivity, or something I missed, please feel free to add on. I’m just one person with one perspective; none of what I say should be taken as The Singular way to draw an Asian character. if you havent done so already, please take the effort to expand your view of Asian culture outside this one tutorial.

if a white person reblogs this and adds something stupid I’m going to bite and kick you like a wild animal

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Learning log(??) + somewhat of a devlog on IRtH!

Hello! This log goes over things about In Regards to Hell and twl new pieces of software I am going to be learning.

Ok, so despite me says 'this is going to be in rpg maker mv!!' I am having some doubts on if I can give the experience I want to on that kind of an engine is possible. I also wanted to try new things with these characters.

So I am going to keep it open on which engine I use. With this in mind. I know now some new things I want to try out!

Before I say anything, I will say this. THERE IS NO GUARANTEE IRTH WILL BE 3D. This is more for me then anyone.

The prospect of learning a new software like blender is extremely scary. The prospect of learning a new skill is even scarier in my eyes. So instead of treating it like that. I am going to treat it like a hobby more than a new skill.

I hope you join me on this journey as learn how to 3d model! Pray for me.

I am also going to be attempting to learn unreal engine on the side. To see if I like the engine at all.

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Learning log 1: Learning skeletal animation with dragonbones! (+ other software I am using!)

Alright, so the game is being made RPG maker mv. With me making all of the assets myself. So I thought of this as a good opportunity to talk about what software I will be using to make some of these assets and things. (And MOST of the things I use are FREE!)

Game engine: RPG maker mv. (With too many plugins...)

Art: Clip studio paint and asesprite(mostly concepts)

Animation: Dragon bones (free skeletal animation program)

Music: Bandlab(free online tool. Mostly for concepts.) LMMS (Free tool that will need plugins for the finalized music.)

I know how to use csp and asesprite but dragonbones is extremely foriegn to me. So I am are going to have to learn it.

So join me as I go insane while trying to animate this picture of one of the characters!

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New game dev is approaching!

Hi! My name is Honeypie! I am a 16-year-old game dev who wants to share their journey on the games they create! We are pretty much accepting of everyone and anyone! And we would LOVE to have you around!

This blog is where I will be showing my devlogs and concepts. Hopefully getting info and insight from all of you and such! Especially from people from a specific community. You can ask questions about what I am doing too! I also want to know if you guys even like any of the concepts.

I am also going to be talking about learning some of the programs that will be used for the games! I think it would show some interesting insight into these programs.

We will also talk about any inspiration that the characters and environments I have! Especially if the characters have inspo from Tumblr specifically! As maybe you could see their art and learn some things!

tags:

In regards to hell (The main game I am working on)

Project: Genre World (A project I am planning to work on)

Honey's Devlogs (An easy tag so we can see the progress of some of the games I am working on.)

irth devlogs (Specifically for the In Regards to Hell devlogs)

Learning logs ( More for when I am learning new software for the game.)

Skeletal logs (learning dragonbones)

Blender 3d logs (learning blender! help me god)

3dOE logs (Game engine for 3d. I have plans for this btw)

Musical note logs (For when I feel like talking about the music for the games)

Inspo for concepts (Inspiration for the game! While not totally and utterly used, it's nice to get some inspo from other people.)

Things I use:

Art: Clip studio paint(paid), aespirte(paid), Blender(3d)

Writing: LibreOffice(free)

Animation: Dragonbones(Skeletal animation), clip studio paint(2d), Blender(free)

Game engine(s): RPG maker MV(Paid), GDevelop(free), Gdevelop(free)

Audio: LMMS, Bandlab, Audacity(all three are free)

Extra: Masterplan(paid), Tiled(free)

Plugins for MV: *I'll add later

Plugins for LMMS: *definently add later

I will also be on Twitter! (hopefully...) So you can follow me on there! Even tho it will be very similar to what is here.