Drawing with Both Hands: Final Images Day 6

So I decided to send along the rest of my drawings so you can see the progression. My left hand is not perfect, but is hard to believe it is the same hand that produced those scratchy drawings the first day. And it is interesting to see how my right hand improved merely by working so hard with my left. You can see how the way I was thinking changed and allowed me to become a better artist in such a short time.

Drawing with Both Your Hands Day 5

Drawing with Both Hands: Day 4

It is starting to happen...

you can't tell which hand I am using.

Not completely, but it is happening.

I am hoping it is happening for you too!  eep it up. 

Try using different materials. Try using different colors. 

Be well! Have Fun!

Stay Safe!

Drawing with Both Your Hands Day 4

So, You get to skip a few days ahead. This is fast forward four days.

My sixteen year old self is becoming a little more free with my drawing. Loosing up one hand because I can only be loose with the other.


Take the time to look at sketches by famous artists. DaVinci for example. How does he catch the essence of a figure or a face. https://www.leonardodavinci.net/drawings.jsp

I am definitely not Da Vinci.

Aspiration is good! And the reality is he did a lot of sketching... and so can you!


And here is a shout out to a sketch sent in! Nice work on their Day 1 sketch!

Drawing with Both Your Hands: Day 3

How is it going? You can see they are changing. 

 I started using dark backgrounds because I started looking at shapes. Rather than thinking about how I am drawing a hand, I am thinking about what the whole shape is.

Is it round, is it a triangle?
Not- is that a finger and that a thumb.?

I zoomed in here so you can see how loose the line has to become when I use my left hand to draw. I need to let go of the way I created outlines to draw. I start looking at the positive and negative space.
https://whitney.org/Education/ForTeachers/Activities/115

And when you raw your feet, do it after you have drawn both hands. So you can draw upon what you just learned from the experience.

Keep going, be strong and stay healthy!

Push your mind and your skills!

Drawing with Both Your Hands : Day 2

As I promised, my day two drawings!

How is it feeling for you? Awkward? Be patient with yourself... just like the world around you right now! Add to the fun, try switching to your other hand to eat your meals or brush your teeth. It forces you to slow down in life and really concentrate on your brain communicating with your hands.

And when you are done you could write everything backwards like DaVinci.

Have fun and be well!

Drawing with both your hands....

So this one is for all my teen and pre-teen art students.

I love to tell my students about the time I was 16 and took course at Moore College of Art in Philadelphia on a scholarship one summer. I would trek down to Philly on the trains with my huge newsprint sketchbooks to stand at an easel for three hours and do life drawings. As if that wasn't enough, my professor had us doing a sketchbook assignment each night. So after I finished my waitress job, I would curl up with my sketchbook and draw again that day. Really throwing my learning curve into high gear.

The beauty of the sketchbook assignments was that we were trying something completely new. Something I had never tried before and something I had never heard of... reaching the other side of my brain!My more creative side of my brain! And all I had to do was teach my other hand to draw.... wait that doesn't sound that easy.

It wasn't.

Every night for two weeks, i drew both my hands and both my feet.  When I drew my left hand and foot, I used my right hand. When I drew my right hand and foot, I used my LEFT hand. ( and yes if you are left handed this will help you too!)

This theory of learning to draw are based on the book : Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards.
https://www.drawright.com/theory

The first set of drawings was the normal experience of sketching and trying to draw hands and feet. I drew the way I had been taught to draw my whole life. I used past knowledge like riding a bike... it just came to me. Or at least I thought it did. When I switched hands, I reverted back to the days of childhood when you are learning that your hand has the ability to make a mark on a page. Yes, most of us don't remember those days we were so young. Yet, here I was wiser and able to retrain those ways of thinking, reprogram those braincells, rework the way I looked at line, shape, form, shadows, etc.  I took the time to re-learn how I made art, how my brain communicated with my hand, and how my eyes saw the world in relation to what I put on the page.

Ok... don't doubt me.. try it... take the challenge.

I will post my first drawing here. Take a look. Each day I will post my next drawing. Yes, I kept those sketchbooks all these years... not hundreds of years .... but many years. You will keep yours too!

You can do it! I believe in you!

(pencil is fine, but if you have charcoal or pastel try that too)

Email me your pictures, I would love to see your progress. And feel free to pass this on.