#//small cooldown doodle because why not

[mechahero]

//He can have ONE☝️ somewhat masc outfit!

[theelvishfiddler]

AN ARTIST'S GUIDE TO HANDS

No, sorry it's actually not an artist's guide to drawing hands. Those are just warmup studies (which I'll talk about in this post.)

This is a guide to Your Hands and how to take care of them when making art.

No one ever sits down and teaches artists how to take care of their hands. They didn’t even teach me this while I was in art college. This is just what I've learned myself through years of pain and scouring the internet for advice.

This is going to be a long one and geared towards illustrative traditional/digital/pen/pencil artists specifically, but artists of other mediums and crafts should take care of their hands too! Well, we all should take care of our bodies in general, but this is about hands.

(advice is below the read more)

First off I'm not a professional or anyone with actual medical advice. I'm just some guy with chronic hand pain who makes art. This advice is free for you to use or discard.

WARMUPS!

Ever sit down in the morning to draw and wonder why your art is so stiff and looks so much worse than what you were drawing last night? It's because you didn't warm up!

You know how for physical sports they all warmup and do stretches before getting into the actual sport. To prevent injuries and all that? Yeah, it's good to do that for art too.

One way to warmup is to just draw lines. Try to keep them as straight as you can. Going up and down and diagonal. Draw squares. Big squares. Small squares. Circles! You are warming up, keep it loose and relaxed! Basically just scribble away.

(examples. I usually keep going until there is no paper white left. This can double as practice for drawing straight lines without a ruler, which is a great skill to have when freehand city drawing.)

Before hopping right into drawing people you can try doing some quick gesture drawings. Line of Action has timed sessions with a large variety of clothed or nude models. I usually do the 30 min class as it has a nice balance of short and long timed poses. The point isn't to draw nice art, but to warm up. Try to get the basic form down, not the details. I find that doing a full class session can really help my drawings feel more loose and grounded in reality for the rest of the day.

Some examples I found in my folders. I suggest looking into what a line of action (not the site) is and giving it a try with some of the studies!

COOLDOWNS!

For sports it's to return your body back to your everyday baseline after a workout.

Example; you are working on a big project! A masterpiece! It's detailed and cool! You have been focusing on this for hours and drawing so intensely. But you need to stop working for the day.

A cooldown is for winding down out of the go go go mindset. Put away the big project and do a couple small doodles and sketches. You are relaxing your hand and letting it stretch out. Keep the sketches loose. Let the art happen slowly. Don't polish anything, that can happen another day. Just ease yourself out of drawing.

...

Cool! Now we get into the meat of this thing.

HAND PAIN

How to avoid it and how to manage it if you already have it.

I love you artists and creatives, I am begging you to please take care of your most important creative tools. I really don't want this to sound like scare tactics like "oooh you better do this or blah blah!" Nope. I just had to learn all this the hard way and I'm extremely passionate about it.

Take this advice or don’t ╮(ﾟ～ﾟ;)╭ I can't tell you what to do, I'm not your dad

Adjustments and Small Solutions

If you are feeling physical discomfort while drawing there are many different solutions to try! Here are some suggestions that may or may not work for you.

Hold your pencil more loosely. Stop gripping that thang so tightly!!! Relax that hand! They make these… squishy pen grip things... I think they are called Adaptive Pencil Grips or Adaptive Writing/Drawing Aids? They stop your hand from being all cramped up by making your drawing tool wider. It's going to take a bit of time to adjust to drawing with it, but it's worth it for those who hold pencils too tightly.

Don't press as heavily. For traditional art, if you find yourself pressing really hard to get darker lines try moving to a softer pencil. Most standard pencils are HB, the B pencils have softer graphite. Experiment until you find the right one for you. For Digital, adjust your pressure settings so you don't have to press as hard to get thicker lines. You should not be pressing so hard all the time, it wears out both your hand and your tablet! It takes a bit of time to adapt to pencil or pressure changes. Try doing some unimportant sketches, they don't have to be good. You are just training your hand and mind to adjust using less pressure.

Draw with your arm and not your wrist! It's small repetitive motions that cause the most strain. You probably hear this one a lot, what does it even mean? It means moving your arm with the motions of your line, and trying not to make too many tiny movements with your just your fingers or wrist. This one is hard! It takes time and conscious thought to change the habit. Tips? Work bigger. Zoom in more. Use bigger sheets of paper.

(Motions exaggerated for a clearer example)

Change the angle of your drawing surface. They make angled tablet holders, angled desks, angled desktop raisers. Experiment, find and angle that is comfortable and the one that causes the least pain. (It's also good to make sure you don't have to hold your head at an uncomfortable angle when drawing. Staring straight down or hunching over a paper flat on the table can cause pain!)

Compression Glove? Wrist brace/tensioners? Some folks use them and I've been thinking of getting one for years now. I can't give advice on this one, because I don't have experience with it. Look into it if you want!

Managing Pain

First things first.

IF YOUR HANDS START TO HURT WHILE YOU ARE DRAWING. STOP! Put the pencil/pen/paintbrush/whatever down. The art will still be there for you to continue tomorrow.

I know from experience that it's extremely hard to pull away when you are hyper focused on an art piece. It's hard to remember all sorts of basic needs like food or bathroom when hyper focused. But you Need to stop when you feel that pain. (Preferably even before the pain…)

Take Breaks! Let your hands rest when you can. Just like a machine, if you don't schedule maintenance, the machine will schedule maintenance for you. Often that means having to wait a few days for it to return to functional. Best to take a day off from heavy usage or take an occasional 30 min break throughout the day to let your hands rest.

Stretching is important! Full body stretches are good; your arms, shoulders, neck, and spine are all connected, but I'm specifically talking about HAND and wrist stretching. There are a lot of stretches and massages for carpal tunnel and arthritis out there. I find they work for hand pain in general. Move into and out of each stretch slowly. Do not push a stretch if it hurts!! Be gentle!!

I am not a qualified professional and I will not be giving out specific stretches (that is beyond my personal comfort level). There are other artists out there who have made helpful stretching info-graphics which are cool, but I will not be because i don't want to be responsible for someone accidentally hurting themself. Ask your doctor for stretches & advice or look some up on your own.

Don't feel bad about forgetting to stretch frequently! Of course it is good to do it regularly and frequently, but I would be a hypocrite if I said that I remember to stretch daily. Setting timers for stop and stretch sessions can work for some people, but also doing stretches whenever you remember is fine! If you are sitting on the toilet you can idly do some hand stretches. On the bus? Laying in bed? At the beach? Do a couple stretches! Even just once a week is better than… nonce a week.

Using Cold or Heat to treat pain. If you really overdid it, put your hands in some cold water or wrap a cloth around an ice pack and apply it to your hand. Cold works best for me, but warmth works for others. This is just pain reduction and reducing inflammation from overuse! This is not a permanent solution.

If your hand hurts a lot! Frequently! Talk to your doctor? Idk mine has never given real advice. Just gently poked my hand and told me there isn't much to be done about it :/ but there are really good doctors out there who will care and give helpful advice!

Again. IF IT HURTS TO CONTINUE DRAWING. STOP DRAWING! This is not a "no pain no gain" type situation. Drawing so much that you hurt yourself isn't noble, it's just… limiting yourself. You only get one set of hands. These things are very handy to have.

Other Advice

Things I couldn't figure out how to fit into the earlier sections.

Your other hand can't handle the strain! Lets say you hurt your drawing hand... the other hand is right there free to use for art. Right? Wrong. Your other hand can't keep up with the demand, it hasn't been trained to the same extent as your dominant hand, it does not have the built up muscle. If you want to use that hand for drawing you are going to have to use it s l o w l y and train it bit by bit over a long period of time. When I tore a tendon in my right hand I decided to just keep drawing with my left and I got Really Good at it. It only took like two months before my left hand hurt too much to move. Then I had 0 functioning hands to pull up my pants. Not fun!!

People who draw on phones. That is extremely impressive! I'm amazed by the things people can create on such a small space. But phone artists are the ones I see most frequently mentioning hand pain. please please please make sure you are taking breaks. Would a stylus work instead of using a finger?

Outside of Drawing. Sometimes it's things outside of drawing that are causing the pain. For me there are multiple sources, but I also have tiny baby hands. Holding a phone too long causes pain. The handheld mode for my Switch causes A Lot of pain. The way my hand rests while typing on my laptop hurts! Playing tense videogames for too long hurts! Find the source of your pain and make some changes. The same things will apply to most; take regular breaks, do some stretches, and find soft things to prop up or rest your arms on.

Change your Artstyle. This one is more of a last resort. You might have to change your art style if you are getting sharp pains every time you draw. I loved drawing tight clean lines and many small fancy details, but drawing like that left me in so much pain at the end of the day. In 2023 I had to take the better part of year off from illustrations just to learn how to sketch and draw more loosely. I had to learn how to be gentle. To stop gripping my pencil so tightly. Learn! Adapt! You might discover a new style that you love even more!

A lot of this stuff gets more complicated in a work setting where you have to draw fast and long in order to get paid. Things like reducing your workload can help, but that can be... financially rough. But outside of that, it’s ok to be a slow artist. Going full steam and hurting yourself is not worth it.

Aaaaaanyway, thats all folks. Today's rant brought to you by me! The guy with chronic hand pain who always forgets to stretch! The guy who got frustrated with a sketch yesterday and decided to push to keep drawing for just one more hour! The guy who woke up this morning and had to spend 2 hours massaging and stretching their hands. The guy who probably shouldn't have typed all of this out because ooww ow ouch

If your hands do hurt, it's going to be ok! You don't need to be a speed demon who draws all the time. It's ok to take your time and take frequent breaks. You are going to do great things! Just be gentle with yourself...

[lioden-sim]

MAY EVENT!

MAY EVENT

It’s May! The annual Championship event starts and calls for all lions from the surrounding lands to come and participate! A battle Arena was organized in a giant dried gorge for all lions to enter and compete in hourly matches to win Manticora Beetles and other fabulous prizes!

CHALLENGES - earning Arena Tokens Arena Tokens are needed to enter the Arena and win prizes - To earn one, you go to Event Page. Here you can press a button - script will pick somebody that is online. Notified by the game, they have 15 minutes to defend - the fight will happen and the token will be granted to the winner. - If the challenge expires before the person defends, the attacker has a small chance of winning the token still by a surprise attack! - Anyone online in past 15 minutes can get challenged, even if they are in the kitchen getting a snack. - If you post in chat but not browsing the game you're still considered being online. - You can Challenge 1 player every 15 minutes. - One person can be challenged by multiple people at once. - Stats do not matter during Challenges, only for Arena. - Nobody loses any Tokens during challenges, the Tokens are generated for winners by the game. ENTERING ARENA The Arena is divided into weaker and stronger lions so you need to enter a proper Tournament based on your stats! You can enter 10 times per hour, as you’re allowed to fight more than one match! The Tournament is going on, and at the hourly peak, the closing ceremony is hosted by judge lions as they announce winners and send out the prizes, based on your score! Don’t worry if you lose, you will receive a consolation prize too! Some are toys or food, but some are just not usable trophies that you can sell (or maybe craft soon? :D). Every win or loss still grants you Manticora Beetles, just different amounts. *Clarification: During Arena battles, your stats matter and the score is generated using them as base. However, we made it so, with enough luck, a 25 stat lion can still win with a 50 stat lion, it's just less likely. - the more entries, the higher chance you'll win! but... you spend your tokens fast. - if you're the only one in your Tier, you still will win consolation prize. *ARENA TIMERS: You can enter after 15 minutes peak (ie 3:15 am for example) and you have 45 minutes to enter. At the Peak (4:00 am) the winners will be announced and the judge lions (Lioden server) needs time to count all the winners. Raising Bars All the Championship participants work hard to unlock a new Champion Shop where you can spend your Manticora Beetles on rewards! For every win, the special bar will raise by 5 points, and for every lost match the bar will raise by 1 point! Explore You can also meet Championship participants and fans in the Explore! Fun! They might give you Manticora Beetles if you win a battle with them! And maybe if you claim a lioness fan, she will give you some too? 2017 tweaks: - Show lion stats in the arena list - Suggestion - Enter number of tokens instead of 1 token entry at a time - Suggestion - You get listed first in the entries of the arena - Suggestion Things that will appear: - New tier 1, 2, 3 items in shop (not only decors!) - Tier 3 will fill up with Lion Scrotum and Red Bull items! TRAIN HARD, BOIS - Two craftable items from the Arena trophies! (tooth and claw) - High possibility of more crafting of trophy items appearing if artists have time! - Notorious Loser encounter art has been redone as the anatomy was bugging me [Keep in mind I want to catch up with adoring challenger, flesh and other decors for female poses, but because next fridays are coding fridays it might happen at the end of the month] Go forth, brave warriors, challenge each other, and participate in the Arenas!

MAY EVENT STARTS ON MAY 1ST 00:00 AM AND ENDS ON MAY 31ST AT 11:59 PM. All currency is stored on your account and unlocks annually.

MAY STORYLINE

We have LAUNCHED! May storyline is different from how April worked. Let me give you a summary!

Originally, Every new Tier (including Tier 0, before bar is unlocked), a new Chapter of a visual Novel will be accessible in new area in the Event Page - "Brotherhood of Zeal". The Novel will place you in a roleplaying story with first ever small branching choices.

Because of server delays we have decided that Chapter 2 will launch on May 10th instead of Tier 1 - however in 2018 it will match tier as it should.

Tier 0 - Chapter 1 Tier 1 - Chapter 2 (May 10th in 2017) Tier 2 - Chapter 3 Tier 3 - Chapter 4

Take note that if you start this later in the month, you will experience chapters one after another in a row.

How do Chapters work?

You will be presented with a visual novel with choices. As you click buttons, you will progress in the story and your choices marked with *'s will have special outcome or will affect your daily quests! (Do not worry the button will for sure tell you what is the outcome!) Some multiple answers do not have *'s - they are just for your personal roleplaying character preferences - the outcome will be the same.

This is the only time we're introducing *'s so that you guys get used to how things work for the first time we're doing branching storyline! In July the buttons won't reveal if your choice is important! Chapter 1 will introduce to you a first optionable choice that will affect your daily rewards. You will see what it is as you play the game - but we hope it's obvious enough and you'll enjoy the boost (or lack of it). In case you want to change your mind, in shop, tier 1, a cheap item will appear that will let you change the choice you made in Chapter 1. Again, we're making it so easy ONLY because this is the first storyline like that ever on Lioden and we want everyone to make sure they understand new mechanics and enjoy the exciting, new feature. Now, Chapter 2, 3 and 4 will give you some choices as well - if you regret your choice in Chapter 2, next two chapters will let you change your mind two more times as you progress in the Novel. Daily Quests There are 4 Daily Quests you can do for your Brotherhood bro. They can be taken each day, but they will reset at rollover no matter if you finish them or not. They reward you with reputation and Arena Tokens.

What is reputation for? Special Reward of course! Reputation is "currency" you gather by doing daily quests for the NPC. The reputation is separate for each NPC you can side with. Reputation you gained with V'Kai does not carry over to Vashkartzen. You spend the reputation points on Special reward each NPC offers. Since Chapter 1 introduces V'Kai exclusively for now, you can spend the reputation only on his reward - it has 6 hour cooldown and costs 8 reputation to activate each time. I hope the disclaimer about the reward is enough information for you, but if you have any questions I can update this section of news with more stuff! Special Reward for V'Kai details: By spending 8 reputation you click on a button that auto-claims a lion for you. You need territory space. Your claimed lion will go directly to your den. There is no "Claiming minigame" like in explore. Newly Claimed Groupies have similar generating script like NCLs, however: Unique groupies have a tiny chance of having a rare base (kimanjano is not included here) Unique groupies can have ANY eye colour and personality Unique groupies have a small chance of having a pose Unique groupies have a very rare chance of having a mutation Unique groupies have a small chance of being a teen male (if you chose a chapter boost the chance will be bigger) Unique groupies have 2 markings randomly chosen by script, including rare ones (Mottled Rosette is not included). Who are the NPC's? Now, for people who are into the storyline as much as our AMAZING TESTERS were, let me say that we are introducing two NPC's here, to a degree of missing detail. You still are left with a big void for your imagination to work - invent the rest of the story, or backgrounds, relations and aftermatch. The Novel ends with an open setting enough for you to imagine the rest. Both V'Kai and Vashkartzen are brothers for storyline and are not claimable, that's why this time I will share with you their wardrobe details: Vashkartzen details V'Kai details

If you want to fanart the May Storyline stuff, you're welcome to join the official fanart thread! At some point after all chapters are out I will also make a package of all doodles and sketches for may storyline and post it here on the bottom for you to enjoy :D