I love my Walking Stool.  I’ve been using it for two years and it still looks like new, in spite of use nearly every day.  They’re more expensive than most tripod stools but so much more comfortable and I need my butt to be comfortable when I draw.  Mine is the 18″ tall seat and I had the opportunity to try out the 22″ seat and wanted to see if I preferred it.

The first problem I had to over come was what to sketch and where.  It’s still too cold to sketch outside so I set up a statue on my kitchen table and, sitting in the middle of the room, started sketching.  The first thing I noticed was that my drawing support was gone.  The taller stool unbent my legs to a point where I no longer had a lap upon which to rest my sketchbook.  Bummer…I like my lap.  I need that support.  Or do I?

A problem I have as a sketcher is bending over too much to sketch.  This causes two problems.  The first is that it hurts my back to be bent over for extended period.  I’m old and back pain makes me grumpy.  The other thing is that I have to move my head a lot more from a bent over drawing position to an upright viewing position, in an extreme form of the typical bobbing-head sketcher behavior.

The taller stool forced me to figure out how to hold my sketchbook against my body.  Lots of people do it.  I struggle with this but I really should learn how.  I’ve been drawing for three years and should have figured it out by now.

In the end, this taller stool weighs a bit more than my shorter one, is a bit harder to carry, and the only thing I “gain” is being forced to learn to sketch like a big person.  I guess I’ll stick with my 18″ version (I’m 6-feet tall by the way).

Here’s the sketch I did during this experiment.  I used my Pilot Falcon and De Atramentis Document Black ink.  Watercolors are Daniel Smith.  Sketchbook is a Stillman & Birn Beta (6×8).  Hope you like it.