Draw Stronger: Self-Care for Cartoonists and Other Visual Artists

"Kriota Willberg's Draw Stronger is a life-saver. Every artist--pro and amateur alike--needs to memorize this essential little book." -- Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics, The Sculptor

"Kriota Willberg's Draw Stronger is an indispensable guide to help artists and writers practice self care and sustain their artistic practice. The ups and downs of the creative process can be a pain in the butt but it doesn't have to be a pain in the neck, back, and arms too." -- James Sturm, Director of The Center for Cartoon Studies (CCS)

"A concise, thoughtful, and informative manual that should be required reading for all aspiring (and aging) cartoonists." -- Adrian Tomine, author of Killing and Dying

Draw Stronger is a comprehensive self-care guide for artists interested in preventing repetitive stress injuries and sustaining a pain free life long drawing practice. Understand how injuries happen and what types of injuries commonly affect drawing professionals. Use practical first aide to help manage pain in the event of injury. Learn what types of symptoms should be diagnosed by doctor. Practice simple exercises to help correct posture and reduce fatigue and pain. Clearly illustrated, informative, and packed with wholesome corrective goodness, this graphic novel can get you started practicing simple routines that will help take care of your most important drawing instrument - your body!

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. Her comics appear in: SubCultures, Awesome Possum 3, 4PANEL, Strumpet 5, Comics for Choice, Graphic Canon; and the journals Intima and Broken Pencil. She is the first-ever artist-in-residence at the New York Academy of Medicine Library.

Author: Kriota Willberg
Publisher: Uncivilized Books
Published: 05/01/2018
Pages: 200
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.35lbs
Size: 7.40h x 5.20w x 0.50d
ISBN: 9781941250235
Audience: Young Adult


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 02/05/2018
Library Journal 04/01/2018 pg. 55

About the Author
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.