My Hand Broke!
 

Hi Linda,
Lots of hurt hands out there. I badly broke my right hand last November. I wasn't sure I would be able to paint again. When I did start back at it, in March, the cramps were bad.

I found that squeezing stress balls (or most any rubber ball) helps. I also massage it and simply shake it out. I am avoiding saying that maybe "arthritis" is starting to set in...oh my gosh no....lol

If anyone finds a cure for sore hands please let know.

The first work I did when I was able to begin using my hand again, was a commissioned nude pencil portrait. This is the url: http://www.angelfire.com/biz/portrai...ait_amber.html

By the way, speaking of computer mouses, my hand was fine until my optical mouse stopped working properly when I upgraded to Jaguar, and I had to go back to my old non-optical one which came with my Mac. Since then I've purchased another optical mouse which works fine, but since it's smaller and requires a different grip it doesn't seem to offer the same relief as the larger optical mouse did. Something else to think about, though.

The one I liked was by Macally; this one is by Adesso.

Sacrifice
 

Albrecht Durer has a drawing of hands, his brother's hands, deformed by hard labor.

Who can tell the story befind this drawing?

Mr. Wang,

I suspect you might be referring to Albrecht Durer

Linda, sorry I am so late jumping in here. But I have adjusted my brushes to help my hands because of my arthritis.

So I was thinking maybe the brush handle or the way you are holding it could be the problem. You can move your brush around in your hand - Bill Whitaker had us follow him while he painted, much like a baton in our hands.

Another thing I do, which makes the brush a little easier to hold is I buy plastic tubing from the hardware store and fit it over my brush handles. I makes them a hair softer but gives them a much larger grip.

I hope you are working things out!

Life is truer
 

Mr. Sweeney,

Amazed by your efficiency, it was "Kennedy can", now "Sweeney win". Also on the issue of "Did Sargent make a mouth wrong", your judicious reply is worthy.

Image
 

the Praying Hands

For carpal tunnel, often making sure you sleep with your wrists in a neutral position will help. I recommend cock-up wrist braces to sleep in to help with this, which you can get at any pharmacy. Look for those with velcro adjustments, as they are simpler to adjust, put on and take off.

I have stage 2 carpal tunnel in my right hand, and stage 3 in my left, and dominant, hand. I have had my hands go to sleep in the middle of life drawing sessions, watercolor class, and during all of my pastels sessions. Mine is a combination of CTS and peripheral neuropathy, as permanent side-effects of medications I have to take for Crohn's. My feet are actually worse than my hands, and prevent me from hiking in to the kinds of places where I used to like to do plein air work.