After studying how to draw for more than 2 years from online courses at home, I've figured out some practical setups to ease my back and shoulder pains. It has worked nicely for me, so I hope it will help you to put an end to your suffering too. Let's go!
Chairs!
I used to think that a simple wooden chair like this one below was more than enough to start my artist life in 2018, but I was wrong.
'Thanked' to this wooden chair, my back pain appeared one year after I started my drawing journey. Besides, I got shoulder pain as a bonus as well. The pain was so unbearable that I didn't want to sit down to draw for a few weeks.
Then, I thought that "what if I can lower all the stresses my poor back is carrying, will the pain go away?". That was when I started hunting for comfortable chairs by visiting online and local stores. Through sitting on many and many chairs to test their comfortable level, adjustable armrest, and headrest, I had found a wonderful candidate. It is this one in the picture below that I've been using till now.
As I thought, my body weight is now supported by the headrest, two armrests, backrest, and chair cushion. It felt like heaven the moment I first sat on this chair to draw, really, because I was in great pain back then. So, the chair was just like a miracle to me!
Therefore, a comfortable chair with adjustable heights, armrest, and headrest is super important for my daily drawing sessions.
Keyboard tray
I tried to take advantage of the adjustable armrest of my chair, so I asked a local furniture store to build a keyboard tray that is wide enough for my armrest, keyboard, and mouse. Now, it's at the right height for me to start writing blogs and pressing Photoshop shortcut keys for days.
Inclined Drawing Surface
I learned to draw on paper one year before drawing on a 13-inch Cintiq. Thus, a wooden drawing board, to create an inclined surface to put my sketchbook, drawing paper or Cintiq on, has been super important too. This works great with the comfortable chair I bought too. The drawing surface is now inclined, so that I can just sit back and rest peacefully on the chair to draw. This combination is helping me sitting longer with way less suffering.
Remote Control + Wireless keyboard + Easel
The Wacom Express Key Remote control (an extra add-on that I bought this January 2021) works beautifully with my 13-inch Cintiq resting on the wooden drawing board. I put it on the left of my Cintiq in the image below. It has given me the closest feeling to traditional drawing experience whenever I'm drawing in Adobe Fresco (a rather new drawing app from Adobe) using my Cintiq and Wacom Remote Control. I only need to hold the Wacom pen and press customized shortcuts assigned on the remote to create artworks. I love this minimalist experience! The wireless keyboard, resting on an easel on my left-hand side, is for typing file names and pressing some less commonly used shortcuts.
Monitors
After reading online advice and being suffered from neck pain even I was sitting on such a comfortable chair, I have realized that my eyes need to be higher than the center of my monitor a bit. If I put it even higher or lower than that I will suffer! It's like a sweet spot that I must, through many trials and errors, find out. A monitor with adjustable height is, therefore, a really nice feature to have. Otherwise, I must use a stack of books or A4 office papers to make the screen higher, but still, I can't make it lower.
LED Desk Lamp + Screen Brightness
When the sky gets dark or at night, I turn this lamp on. If it is higher than 5W, it hurts my eyes. Therefore, 5W LED lamp is working nicely with 3% brightness and 50% contrast of my DELL U2417H monitor. I love having warm light at night, it just feels great to me.
Workouts
I've been using an app called Sworkit (it works for both Android and iOS) for more than three years. It's super convenient for my artist life, and especially, during COVID period like these days. I can work out with my own bodyweight, from home, for a very affordable yearly subscription, to strengthen my body to keep drawing and painting for many years to come.
Have fun drawing and keep finding better ways to get rid of the pain, everyone!