Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Left Behind

My hand was still hurting quite a bit last night so I tried my friend PJ's suggestion and attempted to draw with my left hand. As you can see, not so great. Which made me realize something that became very apparent: while talent and ability is innate, developing it is skill and practice. Which I always knew intellectually, but not necessarily practically. I know I can draw, but yesterday's exercise just made me realize that while I know where certain lines may need to go mentally, my right hand is such a trained instrument in its strokes and nuances that it makes all the difference in the world. I might have the potential to do things, but it takes training and practice to really bring it out. I guess I sometimes take what I can and can not do for granted.

3 comments:

PJ said...

I hope your hand gets better - but I think its fascinating that you had to basically build your drawing from a bunch of straight lines. There's a jitteriness to the broken line work that makes the drawing vibrate somehow. I know its nowhere near as polished as you prefer but I like it.

tehkou said...

I agree, it's an interesting look. My art teacher is always telling us to draw from the arm, not the fingers (which would allow us to draw with either hand, the mouth, etc), but I'm still too scared of screwing up to do that. Maybe it will require daily practice.

Unknown said...

its still a great sketch for a left hand! most people wont be able to do that with their "strong" hand.