Ambidextrous Song Search!

In August I finished my last Ambidextrous Drawing Lesson video, where I drew my Two Hands Two Crowns logo, you can see all the videos here. I haven’t been practicing writing and drawing with my right hand nearly has much since I have gone back to school…. but recently I thought of a new approach to the Ambidextrous Drawing Lessons that has peaked my interest again.

I’m going to do two handed drawings inspired by song lyrics. The edited videos will use the songs as their soundtracks. So, I’m looking for some catchy (but not overplayed) songs. Any suggestions? Leave them in the comments below. If I pick a song you recommended, you’ll get a little mention in the video!

Writing Right: Wrapping Up

Well, learning to become ambidextrous over the last seven months certainly has been a tiny adventure. I definitely have more control over my right hand than I used to and I have a lot more confidence using it for everyday tasks. Notably, there have been a few occasions when my left hand has cramped up after hours of illustrating digitally (tablet pens are not very ergonomic) and I have been able to switch to my right hand for simpler parts of the drawing.

Here’s the link to this month’s Ambidextrous Drawing Lesson video. As school will be starting soon this will be the last of the Writing Right project for the time being … However, a few weeks ago I received an email from a filmmaker who is interested in making a professional ambidextrous training video with me. With school, I’m too busy to take on this endeavour now but we’re going to visit the idea again in the spring to see if production will be possible in the summer. I bet it would be a hoot!

Writing Right: Five Months In

In June my ambidextrous lessons took the backseat while more important projects (ie. paid work) took priority. I scarcely practiced for about the first three weeks of June. Last week, in a panic I tried to get in enough practice time so that there would be noticeable improvement in this month’s Ambidextrous Drawing Lesson video. One of my strategies was to draw an X on my left hand in the morning, to serve as a visual reminder to sometimes let my right hand dominate. It really worked, despite the few odd looks I got in public.

This month I made two videos! First, the expected Ambidextrous Drawing Lesson #6, I’ll let you be the judge as to whether or not I have improved. And second, a wee video called Ambidextrous Advancements, compiling the last six drawings so the progress can be seen all in one place.

View all the videos here on vimeo!

Writing Right: Four Months In and Feeling Great

May was an utterly wonderful month in many respects, I was more diligent than usual with my right handed exercises and I’m proud to say that I had a real ambidextrous breakthrough moment. About two weeks ago I sat down to sketch out an idea, I started drawing and after a while thought “why does this sketch look so shitty?” and then realized I was drawing with my right hand! I hadn’t consciously picked up the pencil with my opposite hand but I think it’s a good sign that it felt so natural to do it.

The Ambidextrous Drawing video for June is ready (click on image to link to vimeo). I can tell I have improved a lot but I don’t think the differences between video 4 and 5 are that noticeable, truthfully I think my hands got camera shy when shooting this. Next month I’ll be recording my 6th video and will put together a clip showing the drawing from each month so you can see the progress in one place. Stay tuned!

Writing Right: Three Months In!

Well I can’t believe April is over and I’m one year older. Where has the time gone? Sometimes I feel like I get so caught up in all the tiny things that make life beautiful that I forget about the bigger picture. Apparently I was living inside of a bell jar for the last month because I really can’t fathom that it is May already.

Anyhow, one of the projects that I happily get lost in is my ambidextrous training. Here’s this month’s drawing video. I am definitely improving but still have leaps and bounds to go!

And speaking of beautiful little things, at the end of June I’ll be the contributor at Four For The Day. I mention it now so any readers who haven’t heard of the website can check it out sooner rather than later. The site/project is the creation of Winnipeg artist, S. Arden Hill and put simply, each week a new artist presents four of something for every day of the week for one year. The results are pretty fascinating.

Writing Right: Investigating Genetics

Recently in the mail, I was happy to receive a handwritten letter and mix CD from my brother in Scotland. I don’t think he would be offended by me saying that he has brutal penmanship. When deciphering his thoughtful letter I realized that by now my right hand is probably neater than his right hand (and he is right handed). As a little experiment, I’ve re-written sections of my brother’s letter with my right hand at my quickest and most natural pace. What do you think about the differences?

This has got me thinking about sampling my other family members for their handwriting. My parents, two sisters, two brothers and I all have very different printing but I have a new hypothesis that my right hand printing (with probably another six months practice) will resemble theirs more than my current left hand printing. I’m conjuring up some new experiments to go along with my daily writing lessons and suggestions are welcome!

Writing Right: One Month Mark!

I’ve been practicing writing and drawing with my right hand for one month now! One of the things I’m doing to measure progress is recording a video of myself drawing the Two Hands Two Crowns logo on the first day of the month. The new video is up, check it out! Also here are some lists related to my new pass-time.

AMBIDEXTROUS OBSERVATIONS:

1. It is surprisingly fun, I look forward to my lesson every day!
2. When I practice in a waiting room or on a bus, people can’t help but stare and formulate ideas. I assume they assume I grew up in the wild and just enrolled in elementary school.
3. Cursive is easier than printing because you don’t have to lift the pen, however is doesn’t look as neat.
4. Its very annoying to write while wearing a watch, I’ve started removing it before each lesson.
5. When drawing with both hands, even if my brain can send two messages to my hands, I still only have one set of eyes.
6. I hold pens differently in my left hand than I do in my right, soon as a let my right hand hold a pen the way it wanted to, things got easier.
7. When using both hands simultaneously, drawing is easier if the hands are mirroring each other, however, when writing it is easier if the hands are doing the same action.
8. I’m mildly better at basic mental math, perhaps this is because of my left brain is more simulated.
9. It’s not hard to make your printing look perfect, but very difficult to make it look perfect while writing at a reasonable speed.
10. On February 9th, CBC’s radio program Q featured Gwendolyn Bounds, a specialist who talked about the benefits of handwriting on the brain. This made me feel infinitely superior to the average person.

NEW EXERCISES FOR THIS MONTH:

1. Designating one day every week where I only write with my right hand.
2. More simultaneous exercises, both mirrored and identical motions.
3. Start making the switch from pencil to pen.

The image above is of a simultaneous lettering, when I did it I kept my eyes mostly on the right sheet, trusting my left hand to know what it was doing. Normally (when writing with just one hand at a time) my penmanship is at least twice as good as what you see there. It seems by ordering my brain to do two tasks at once, each task is executed at half its normal quality. Interesting!

Writing Right: Practicing Pangrams

I’ve been having a surprisingly fun time working on my ambidextral skills. I’ve been at it for less than a week but I already see an improvement. For my lesson today I looked up some pangrams, sentences that have every letter of the alphabet. Some of these sentences are just fantastic and I would love to find a way to make them relevant in everyday conversation. Any of your suggestions as how to do so would be appreciated. (To read them click to enlarge the image.)

I think my progress has been good though I currently have the death grip on the pen. So aside from teaching my hand to move smoother and steadier my next goal is relax my hand more. My next lessons will be some drawings of things in nature and hopefully that will get the hand relaxed and flowing.

Writing Right: Lesson #1

A few weeks ago I was sitting in a coffee shop sketching variations of the Two Hands Two Crowns logo. The logo is mostly symmetrical and so I decided to pick-up a pencil with both hands and have at it. I’m left-handed but my right hand has always been useful with a pair of scissors, a computer mouse and a crochet hook. The right half of my drawings looked like they had melted but I felt like a superstar. A really cool ambidextrous superstar.

For years now I’ve dreamt of being ambidextrous and you know what? 2011 is gonna be the year. I searched Halifax high and low for Hilroy Exercise Notebooks (the ones with the dotted lines in the middle) and starting today I practiced my alphabet in uppercase and lowercase letters and in cursive. I will come up with exciting variations of the lesson plan every day. To track the progress of my drawing abilities I’ll also practice the THTC logo and make a video at the first of every month. I’m committing to occasionally posting updates of my progress as an incentive to keep with it.

Here are today’s sheets and here is a link to a video of the first drawing (which I didn’t have time to edit or put music to and is consequently a very dry 4 minutes of footage.)

Also, you may have noticed a new look to the blog. The website is days away from being ready and this is the new look. The Two Hands Two Crowns logo can be found on the ribbon in the header.