I never give much thought to my non-dominant hand so decided I'd finally put it to the test today by drawing with the left one 💪 This is something we used to do quite a lot of in our life drawing classes at art school as a warm up. It can be a useful strategy for loosening up and is a great exercise for the brain.

Using your other hand wakens more of the brain than when writing or drawing with your usual hand. It allows for more creativity because all your brain has to do is focus on the next move. It has no time or space for your inner critic to even enter its thoughts. As with yesterday's blind contour drawings, using your non-dominant hand can be used to help express and get closer to your inner most feelings.

When drawing with our dominant hand we tend to get hung up on this idea of perfectionism and the notion that we are not true artists if our drawings don't look identical to the subject we are striving to depict. This often leads to major, unnecessary disappointment and frustration. We must remind ourselves that nothing is ever perfect and this is a lesson, I myself have really had to learn over the years with my artwork. By making time to do drawing exercises such as this, it gets you out of that 'perfect' mindset and takes you somewhere deeper, somewhere with so much more meaning and expression. 

While I was drawing these in my sketchbook today, I found myself throwing a little blind contour into the mix too. By taking it that one step further and combining the two practices it really allowed me to focus on the reference image I was using. I was amazed at the results. It's as though someone had turned off that 'perfection' switch and allowed my brain to relax and just go with the flow. They weren't bad considering I was using my left hand. I wanted to keep one as a linear sketch and the other two with shading. 

The act of drawing with my left hand felt very peculiar, especially when I was applying the shading. I was beginning to notice that I was making marks that I don't feel I usually make, due to the weird angles I was holding the pencil. It was quite awkward and was as though I was learning how to draw all over again, having to re-train myself on how to hold the pencil and how that grasping the pencil in different positions can create a whole variety of different marks. It didn't feel natural to begin with but the more I did it, strangely, the more comfortable I felt and the more excited I was becoming. I admit the proportions are out on all three of these drawings but the self expression is there and that's the most important thing to me with these. 

If you're interested in reading further about drawing with your non-dominant hand I've found a fab website called Create Mixed Media offering a free download from the book, The Artist Unique by Carmen Torbus and artist, Lynne Hoppe who explain the steps of the exercise in detail.

I absolutely loved doing today's drawings and definitely want to do more of these 🤗.