 |
| © Melissa Gaggiano |
I rarely use my left hand. Mostly my right hand is used for fine motor skills, such as drawing and writing.
Though I do occasionally switch hands like when I am washing the dishes. I am used to holding the dishes and cutlery in my left hand. I clean with the right hand, then switch the items to the right hand, just so that I could move them to the drying rack on my right. Talk about over complicating it. Now, when I remember to, I use my right hand for manual lifting and left hand for the fine motor cleaning. It just makes more sense.
I decided to do a right hand-left hand drawing exercise, wanting to see how differently my hands respond to the same object. I chose a shoe photo I found on Pinterest – here is my response to the exercise…
Right hand: I first illustrated the shoe using my right hand. It was the natural choice for me. I am a rough illustrator, admittedly my style is more tense and shaky when using a wacom device because my eyes are on the screen and not my hand. Apart from that the network between brain and hand feels familiar.
Left hand: The left hand presented different sensations. Something in my head felt confused and I had this urge to not start. When I did begin drawing I felt tingly, tight nerves in my hand – I felt genuine, low grade pain. I tried drawing smooth curves, but wound up with squiggly lines. Despite this, I pushed through and finished the illustration as best I could.
In all fairness to my left hand, my right hand has had well over thirty years drawing experience. Whereas my left hand has had an accumulated half hours worth of doodle time over that entire period of existence. So this exercise wasn't so much about which hand was better, but simply what the left hand could do when pushed. The real question I have for myself is this – What would my left hand be capable of in a years time, if I were to draw with it every single day? How would this reprogramming change my brain?
