Questions for artist who work with traditional medium: how to do you set up your workspace?

[xin li]

@Amanda-Bancroft I think you are onto something with modify your studio setup with whatever you you. It is really smart. I ended up purchased an easel though, the type that is meant to be standing on the table. I tape my watercolour paper on a flat board, and doing pencil drawing on that, it worked great. The easel is simple to adjust the hight, which really gives me a lot better posture when drawing different parts fo the image. Also the one I got can be adjusted from 90 degree to 0 degree - quite flexible. I also tried to put my 13inch Cintiq on top of the easel, seems working pretty good as well. I will need to use it for a bit longer time to figure out if it is working. I have a 14 days return policy on the purchase.

I think tools help, but probably not enough. I have to remind myself to move often, excise, yoga, just to be myself healthy to continue painting. I was more or less painting 10h a day for about 6 month. I did yoga for 20mins everyday, I was mostly OK. But Then I fell out of the yoga habit, and I also picked up working larger paintings traditionally instead of doing digital painting only. I realised I need to both get back to yoga and optimise my traditional painting setup. I felt very newbie when I googled around: I still could not figure out how the purpose of an easel is different from a drafting table, especially for illustrators.

[Pamela Fraley]

@xin-li trying to deal with this problem too. I get going and don’t realize I e been hunched over for a while. I’ve just been trying to take yoga breaks.

[RachelArmington]

Pre-Covid, I had a great studio set up with an old ping pong table. It was at the perfect height for me and had plenty of room for working on multiple projects at a time. I stretch my paper on foam core art board, so my watercolors were light enough to just hold or prop up with rolled towels or the like.

For seating, I had a cheap medical stool with adjustable height.

I also had a floor easel that could tilt flat need be.

I don't have a photo of my ping-pong table set-up to share, only a picture of my ever-helpful cat.

[xin li]

@RachelArmington very cute cat.

[Judy Elizabeth Wilson]

@K-Flagg What an awesome set up. I bet you feel really inspired every time you sit down to create!

[Heather Boyd]

@xin-li I have a drafting table that for the last few years I kept flat which meant my neck and head weighed down. So now it's on a tilt. It's old but large, though unfortunately it has a lot of scared marks (leads to bumps in drawing and rendering -I need a fix!). But it helps tremendously for my head and neck. I can't advise on chairs because I need a better one, one that doesn't have wheels because my floor is on a slope. I also do stretches for the office (chrio) and take a lot of breaks. My space (corner of my parents basement lols).

[Heather Boyd]

@K-Flagg Nice Jake Parker comic -I have that also! Also what is that pad, do you draw on top of that -I need a solution to my cuts in my table. Thanks,

[demotlj]

@K-Flagg I want to know if your workspace looks that neat all of the time or if you cleaned it up for the photo. If it's the first, I am really impressed!

Seriously, I love the way you have organized your stuff. I need to work on that. This is what mine looks like most of the time -- I do not recommend it

[K.Flagg]

@Heather-Boyd haha I didn't notice that the Skyheart comic was even sitting there lol. I was using it for reference. I had the same problem with my table having some old screw holes in it so I covered it with an alvin cutting matte. Its really nice and cleans up easy. I think it's this one https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007VTP9TK?pd_rd_i=B007VTP9TK&pd_rd_w=4YxTs&pf_rd_p=ee186ce0-6bf7-4893-85b9-f3368b019e0f&pd_rd_wg=IJg60&pf_rd_r=W4N9X9K2QPJK68P0BM98&pd_rd_r=ed4c0d63-2f38-4097-b78b-1cc42b74ef25

[tomparsonsart]

Hi, @xin-li

I alternate between standing at my drafting table and sitting at my computer desk. I usually sketch sitting in front of my computer so I can look up reference.

Then I’ll paint standing at my drafting table. I made this adjustable easel that I use to avoid looking down at my table all the time. I also have a heavy duty cushioned floor mat which helps with feet, hip and lower back fatigue and pain. Hope this helps!

[xin li]

@tomparsonsart So cool to see all of your set ups.
@demotlj my space is never very neat. Personality thing, I think. Even my 4 year old commented on it: she said we are the family of messy people. hahaha...

Here is my current setup. I ended up bought an easel. It seems to be an improvement. The table height can be manually adjusted, which allow me to switch between standing painting and siting painting. I will definitely trying to add some heavy duty cushioned floor mat. I can feel the pain on my foot if I stand painting for too long.

[Heather Boyd]

@K-Flagg Thanks -will it work on an angle, how does it not slide off?

[K.Flagg]

@Heather-Boyd I have a thin metal lip that is screwed to the bottom of the table top so it won't slide off.