Guidebot
New member
Hello all; I`m guidebot, new poster. Nice to finally post here.
I have almost perfect eyesight, but after a friend told me about wearing glasses for painting I gave it a try. I borrowed his pair, which make everything just a little bigger, and I was amazed at the difference they made. So, I went to a shop and bought a cheapish off-the-shelf pair that provide a (very slight) magnification (they`re a +1.5, whatever that means).
The main benefits:
-Fine detail work is much easier because things are slightly bigger. I found that this improved my brush control and overall quality of my work noticeably.
-Eye strain is reduced. Anybody who spends much time painting miniatures will know that focusing on small things, often close to your eyes, especially for longer periods of time, will strain your eyes. You can feel them getting tired and it can become a problem. I found that wearing these glasses means that my eyes don't need to strain so much, which is really nice. That said, I take a break (at least 20 seconds of looking at something far away) every 20 minutes to rest my eyes with or without the glasses and would recommend the same to anyone.
So I have two questions:
-Does anyone else here wear glasses specific to painting and miniatures work? If so, what have your experiences been and do you have any advice?
-Does anyone know if wearing glasses for long time periods (e.g. an hour or even a bit more) when you actually don't need them can do any harm? I`ve googled it to death and I asked at a couple of glasses shops but I have no definitive answer (the general consensus seems to be no). I've studied biology and very basic medicine and I can't think of a good reason to worry, if I take regular breaks and don't wear them too long, but I still worry a bit!
To anyone who hasn`t tried this, I`d say give it a go. You can get off the shelf reading glasses for almost no money and the difference to comfort and quality of work is amazing. I refer to my glasses as "cheat mode" to my painting friends because it really does feel like I can do things with them that are so just so much worse without.
Sorry for the essay =)
I have almost perfect eyesight, but after a friend told me about wearing glasses for painting I gave it a try. I borrowed his pair, which make everything just a little bigger, and I was amazed at the difference they made. So, I went to a shop and bought a cheapish off-the-shelf pair that provide a (very slight) magnification (they`re a +1.5, whatever that means).
The main benefits:
-Fine detail work is much easier because things are slightly bigger. I found that this improved my brush control and overall quality of my work noticeably.
-Eye strain is reduced. Anybody who spends much time painting miniatures will know that focusing on small things, often close to your eyes, especially for longer periods of time, will strain your eyes. You can feel them getting tired and it can become a problem. I found that wearing these glasses means that my eyes don't need to strain so much, which is really nice. That said, I take a break (at least 20 seconds of looking at something far away) every 20 minutes to rest my eyes with or without the glasses and would recommend the same to anyone.
So I have two questions:
-Does anyone else here wear glasses specific to painting and miniatures work? If so, what have your experiences been and do you have any advice?
-Does anyone know if wearing glasses for long time periods (e.g. an hour or even a bit more) when you actually don't need them can do any harm? I`ve googled it to death and I asked at a couple of glasses shops but I have no definitive answer (the general consensus seems to be no). I've studied biology and very basic medicine and I can't think of a good reason to worry, if I take regular breaks and don't wear them too long, but I still worry a bit!
To anyone who hasn`t tried this, I`d say give it a go. You can get off the shelf reading glasses for almost no money and the difference to comfort and quality of work is amazing. I refer to my glasses as "cheat mode" to my painting friends because it really does feel like I can do things with them that are so just so much worse without.
Sorry for the essay =)
