Draw Stronger
Self-Care For Cartoonists and Other Visual Artists
Finally, Draw Longer, Draw Stronger is here! You're a cartoonist. You take care of yourself to prevent drawing injuries. You do your stretches, take regular breaks, and draw with perfect posture. What happens? You start experiencing pain when you draw anyway! A perfect example of bad things happening to good people. What should you do? Go to the doctor if it's serious. But, if it's a minor injury, go to your bookshelf and start reading Draw Longer, Draw Stronger! This little tome can be used to help reduce discomfort until you see a healthcare professional, or it can provide guidelines for managing mild drawing injuries that don't require medical attention. Explore Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation Therapy (R.I.C.E. Therapy) from the perspective of a committed drawer, learn some tips for understanding your pain, avoid worsening your injuries, and more!
Cartoonist Kriota Willberg draws from decades of experience as a massage therapist and educator in health sciences and the arts, creating a comprehensive guide to injury prevention for cartoonists. As a massage therapist, Willberg focuses on the treatment of orthopedic injuries and has worked with populations ranging from the New York Giants football team to patients at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She has taught at a variety of institutions including the New York Academy of Medicine Rare Book Collections Library, the Center for Cartoon Studies, Marymount Manhattan College, New York University, and the Society of Illustrators.
Willberg’s creative work focuses on the intersections between the body, science, and artistic practice. As a cartoonist she has made three volumes of self-care comics for artists, a series of autobiographical comics about life as a massage therapist, and a gag cartoon/performance series centered on nding the humor in disease and physiology (Pathology Laffs). Her comics appear in The Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine, the anthology series SubCultures, the book Awesome ‘Possum Vol. 3, and the upcoming Comics For Choice, and Graphic Canon. She is the rst-ever artist-in-residence at the New York Academy of Medicine Library.
