I need advice on posture while drawing.

I have been drawing for about 10 or 11 years by now. I would say that only about half of those years I was drawing with notable enough frequency. However, I’ve recently come to realization that just because I was drawing frequently, doesn’t mean that I was drawing seriously.

In the past week, I’ve been thinking of art more like a skill I have to actively dedicate myself to learning, and drawing with diligence and intention. I still make time for the art that I have fun making, but I dedicate at least an hour to doing gesture studies among other practice.

The thing is, with all the time that I’ve spent drawing over the years, I was doing so with the very bad habit of drawing ‘from the wrist’. I knew that it was bad to do that from the start, but I was much younger and not used to doing it any other way, so I was stubborn about it. It didn’t cross my mind again until I started studying.

For the sake of being able to draw looser and trying to prevent myself from having future issues with my wrist, I started drawing ‘from my shoulder’ as you’re supposed to.

The important part:

Before this, I usually rested my arm on the table, drawing on my iPad at about a 45° angle.

When I started drawing from my arm, my entire arm now floats above the table. it wasn’t uncomfortable to draw this way at first, but after about three days, I’m feeling a lot of muscle soreness in my shoulder. It’s also resulting in some mild back pain, even though I’m making sure to sit up straight and take many stretch breaks.

I know it’s likely more comfortable to rest my arm on the table like I’m used to and draw from my elbow, but I was hoping to grow accustomed to drawing from my shoulder in general before relaxing into the easier habit to have. Should I just draw from my elbow for now until my shoulder feels less sore? Will the pain go away if I’m more used to it?