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!

Two Hands Two Crowns Giveaway to Best List!

My new website is up and I feel FANTASTIC. I owe many thanks to talented web designer Scott Borys for putting up with me for a second time (Scott also programed my first website.) Designing it and setting up my Etsy shop occupied so much space in my brain for so long that I feel very exhilarated to move on to new projects. Firstly I’m helping with the new online photobooth art gallery, Fotomaton.org. Secondly, I’m doing the illustrations and cover art for a new book. And thirdly I’m designing the t-shirts, posters and a mural for an improv festival happening this spring. (More on these as they unfold.)

And for the next three months I’m going to do a new weekly series on the blog. Each Sunday I’ll showcase a photobooth strip I’ve found along with a narrative I’ve fabricated. Stay tuned for what I think are riveting photos!

And now the CONTEST DETAILS!

In celebration of my new website and the Two Hands Two Crowns shop on Etsy I’m giving away a Beast Button (of the winner’s choice) to the Best List. The list must be original and related to Art, Design or Craft in some way. Post it below in the comment box. There’s no maximum number of entries per person and the “judging” will close on Wednesday March 2nd at midnight EST time. I’ll be judging the entries with my experience as a self-proclaimed list-connoisseur but there is no rubric. Be creative, have fun and good luck!

Design Philosophy

Recently my cousin asked me to help her design her bedroom. I don’t have any training in interior design but I’ve always made my bedrooms shrines to my interests at the time. It definitely started as a teen when I needed a safe haven to escape my large and loud (and loveable) family. When I was 15 I asked my sister to drive me to the paint store so I could secretly paint my room while my parents were camping with my brothers. Since then I’ve helped friends and siblings out with their rooms and tried to make the most out of less than desirable living situations while I was a student. Here are snapshots of four of my bedrooms over time. The last one is my current room, which is a work in progress.

Here’s the list of things I wrote for my cousin and another list of things that have been occupying my mind as of late.

INTERIOR DESIGN PHILOSOPHY
-Your living space is a reflection of your head space
-Space should be clearly divided into the functions it serves; don’t apply your make up in the same spot you do your homework
-To avoid things getting messy and unorganized, make sure everything has a designated place
-The bed should only serve one (or two) functions; don’t eat in bed, don’t work on your laptop in bed, don’t use your bed as a laundry hamper
-Think in clusters and be mindful of composition
-A good palette should have two or three neutrals to ground things but don’t be afraid to have several catching accent colours
-Search for one of a kind items in junk stores, you will love it more if you restored it or it has a story behind it
-Big box stores are fine for finding your furniture but your decorations should be personal to you
-Hang photographs and fill the room with personal touches, like art work from friends
-Have multiple lighting arrangements so you can change the mood when your room is serving a different function
-You don’t need to invest a lot of money in a nice nest but you will need to invest a lot of time

THINGS I WILL HAVE WHEN I’M A REAL ADULT
-A different pair of prescription glasses for every day of the week
-A library in my house, with a sliding ladder
-Either so many children or so many cats
-Someone to do my taxes for me
-Investment property somewhere far away
-Beautiful tattoos on my arms
-A studio/ office in my home that nobody but I (and maybe my cats) are allowed in
-A photobooth

Stay tuned to the blog, my website will be ready this week and I’ll be announcing a Two Hands Two Crowns product giveaway!

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.

More Lists

Here are two lists I’ve written in the last two days. They aren’t quite complete but I think the general idea gets across. Also, in the comments from the previous post Marco requested I provide photographic evidence of my black, white and red years. I don’t normally post photos of myself on the blog but I will make this exception, here are three photobooth pictures of myself, circa 2003 (there are so many more examples but oh my god, they are embarrassing).

THINGS THAT AREN’T SCARY IN MOVIES BUT ARE TERRIFYING IN REAL LIFE:
-Reality turning from black and white to colour
-If a stranger (no matter how attractive) decides unbeknownst to you that they love you and vigorously romantically pursues you
-The thoughts that all locks could be picked in seconds with a hairpin
-Getting hit with a baseball while watching a major league baseball game
-Someone that decides to disregard all of their professional aspirations and start a longterm relationship with a prostitute they’ve known for a few days
-Finding a snake in your boot
-The casual use of very strong drugs
-Sitting in the passenger seat when the person driving only looks at you instead of the road
-Magic


NAMES I WOULD GIVE MY ENEMIES’ BABIES, IF GIVEN THE RESPONSIBILITY:
-Olga
-Poop
-Quintavius
-Adolf
-Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia
-The Chosen One
-Eggwine
-T.E.R.R.O.R.I.S.T
-Carrot Top

Living List to List

I’ve been chipping away at a mountain of work. And though I’ve been working 14 hour days on various projects I haven't completed much. As of right now, I may not have a lot of finished pieces to show for all these hours but I do have a wastebasket full of checked-off daily to-do lists.

Some people have religion, I have lists. I believe they are the most efficient way to manage daily and long-term goals, nevermind being a fun categorical tool! My personal touch when making To-Do lists is two columns of check boxes. The left column is to be checked off once the item has been started and the right column for when it’s finished, to convey the maximum accuracy of your progress!

Though of course, not all lists have to be To-Do lists. They are, most definitely an unrated creative form. I have a few book projects in the works write now and when I can’t find 30 minutes in a day for creative writing I try to at least write a list to get some ideas out. Here are two pretty standard lists (as far as subject matter goes). I will post more (perhaps crazier ones!) in the upcoming days while I chip away at my mountain.

THINGS I WILL LEARN, EVENTUALLY:
-to be perfectly ambidextrous
-flawless French
-basic carpentry
-the names and appearances of about 50 fonts
-advanced carpentry
-how to swim
-how to service a wet chemical photobooth
-how to play the guitar enough to justify owning a guitar
-how to dance, cool

EMBARRASSING PHASES THAT OCCURRED BETWEEN AGES 12 AND 17:
-When I was a hockey fan and occasionally wore my dad’s oversized Guy Lafleur jersey to school.
-The time I learnt everything I could about all the Canadian Prime Ministers with certainty that the knowledge would come in very handy, all the time.
-When everything I owned had to be Anime, no, really, EVERYTHING.
-When my fashion philosophy only had room for black, white, and red clothing, preferably striped garments featuring diagrams of the human heart
-When I wanted to be a writer and titled my first finished novel “Determined Destiny”
-That time I bought a guitar
-When I used Sailor Moon as inspiration for how to style my bangs


The image of my magnet board features magnets from the Regional Assembly of Text in Vancouver, a very fine store indeed.

Photobooth Project: Tracking Desmond

Quite a few years ago I started tracking photobooths by their model and serial numbers. I then began to volunteer for Photobooth.net by giving them the booth information I had collected. With all the traveling I did in 2009 and 2010 I was able to find and document quite a few booths in Canada, Australia and Europe in the hope that people would find them on the website, use them in person and that the booths would then be less likely to disappear as a result. While tracking for the website I also, sorta accidently started tracking something else too.

In Canada we still have many chemical photobooths because we still have a distributor (whereas in most countries, chemical booths are owned privately and are found in bars or museums instead of in shopping malls and bus stations.) Auto-Photo, the manufacturers in Canada (founded in 1953) have quite a few models in circulation and most Canadian cities have at least one and as many as twenty-five booths. The example photos on the exteriors of the booths are not taken in that specific booth, but, I imagine at the warehouse in Montreal. (Photobooths develop photos without negatives so no strip can ever be authentically reproduced). As a result you can find reoccurring individuals on the sides of the booths, which is interesting because some of the booths are decades old. For whatever reason, this past spring I started photographing one individual that I kept seeing. A few months ago, as I was walking to a new booth I thought in my head “I wonder if I’ll see Desmond?” And sure enough, this fellow, whom I subconsciously named Desmond, was featured on that booth. I assume that he must be an employee of Auto-Photo to have been featured so readily for what appears to be about a decade. There are lots of other fun folks to follow too, the women especially are interesting because you can guess the year pretty well based on their hair styles.

Here’s a melange of some of the photos I’ve snapped of Desmond from booths in nearly every large Canadian city. He seems to like the colour orange.