Exciting stuff.
After the circle work*. I finally drew a picture. Well, I scrawled a scribble. It wasn't great, but it was certainly my style. Definitely my default. It was a head. A boys face, quite cartoony, grimacing up at me from the page. Interesting I thought. An image, unbidden, and without forethought or planning. I have created this image, I thought. This is not news I countered. However, I replied, this is also how my brain works. I turned around and considered that thought. I drew the picture yes, with my hand yes, and eyes, and my mind yes. Yet an automated part of my brain had played a part too**. It had made me do it with my right hand. I couldn't take all the credit.
I then recalled hearing a story regarding an animator who works, or had worked, for Warner Brothers. He had suffered, rather sadly, a stroke. Which had left his right arm useless, and thus the mode in which he worked, made money, and expressed his art, was gone. A tough thing to have happen. Doubly tough to deal with. I myself certainly couldn't imagine handeling it too well. Yet this animator made the brilliant decision to work though the problem by switching hands. This is a brave decision. He took things as they were, started from scratch, retrained his brain to accept his left hand as the dominant apendage, and over time was back to where he had begun before the incident. He went through the same process of development we have all made as children, yet with the knowledge and drive of an adult. Something I assume few would do.
There is a new word going around. It is neuro-plasticity. The concept simply put, is that through sheer presence of thought, you can retrain, or rather reconnect, parts of your brain to make up for real physical loss or perceived inadequacies in the brain. A work around if you will.
It was with this thought that I decided to retrain my brain. To work with my right and my left hands to become either synchronized, ambidextrous, or at the very least able to copy each others work.
This is not a new idea by any means. There is a very good book called Drawing With The Right Side Of The Brain. Which artists have used for decades now as a way to free up their minds, to access the less literal side of their brains, and unlock a deeper perspective on the works they create. Seeing it from both sides I guess you could call it.
It was with all this in mind (boom boom) that I decided to take up a challenge. An investigation and a fun exercise. I will draw a picture, every day, firstly with my right hand, my automatic default, and then I will switch hands and redraw the image. I will post the images each day, and hopefully over time, I will notice a change in the images I produce.
I am hoping that it will be interesting if not significant.
Let's hope I am able to keep up the momentum. A lot of these kind of things crash and burn after the first month. I mean, where is Obake Dave's weekly web comic huh? :)
- Leigh.
*Did you see what I did there?
**The two things are certainly linked, sure, yet to say that I am completely in control of every function of my brain would be a conceited one. Try telling your brain to stop sending a signal to your lungs, to inhale, allowing oxygen to move around your body. Try telling it to stop your heart from beating. Hell, hold your breath for longer than four minutes.
I'll wait.
So, who is really in control? You, yes, in a way. Not completely though. You're only renting the space. You don't own it.
Now calm down and have a glass of water.
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