Draw stronger : self-care for cartoonists & visual artists /

Torn muscles, ruptured discs, swollen hands, -intractable pain. If you're thinking sports stars, think again-cartoonists and visual artists can have these injuries as well. Do see a medical professional, advises Willberg (contributor, Comics for Choice, among others), and recognize pain as your frenemy. Combining and expanding content from previously published minicomics, the author points out that one's drawing instrument is not just one's hand but entire body. Describing numerous possible injuries, she urges sufferers to think and live like a "cartoonist athlete" and prescribes plenty of basic exercises plus pain management strategies. Her tan and rust-peach art varies appropriately from simply drawn humans in various predicaments to more detailed musculoskeletal anatomy. Willberg's credits include work as a dance choreographer, massage therapist, health science educator, and the first artist in residence at the New York Academy of Medicine Library. VERDICT Willberg's straightforward yet lighthearted delivery makes her advice enjoyable and easy to follow. This lively self-care guide should wake up artists, amateur and pro, and also apply to anyone who sits at the -computer all day.-MC © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.