Hello Bobcat. . .
Glad to hear you're getting back into figure and that you found this site. I'm
new to PlanetFigure myself. I'll mention my age because of the vision thing.
I'm a retired newspaper artist and at age 72. My eyes are not what they use
to be, and so for the fine details like the hot white highlight dot in
54mm eye balls is done with some magnification.
However, a word of warning that I was reminded of by another member here
some time back. I suggested a way of doing a technique, and he stated that
he'd done that and it wasn't the way to go, as it created problems for him.
Well, I'd been doing it for over 20 years, and never had any of those
problems!
My point: What I may suggest does not mean it will work for you. Why can't
things just be simple, right? Life aint like that there. I started with buying
a reasonably priced stand with a magnifying glass in it that was adjustable.
The only problem is that unless I used an opti-visor that fit over my head
and both eye were looking thru both left and right magnifying lenses, I
had a depth perception problem of about a half inch. When it looked like my
brush tip was touching the object, it was still a half inch above the object. I
couldn't adjust to it.
Once I got the type of visor that fits like a hat band over your head and has
optical lenses for both the left and right eyes, like a pair of glasses, I'm
meaning, I didn't have that depth perception problem. The good brands are
not cheap. And I would suggest going to a professional art supply store in
your own city, rather than buy something on line that you can not hold in
your hand before you buy it. Good luck and welcome to the fold.