Greetings everyone,

I have been drawing for probably 25 years (I am 34) and have never had any art classes other then mandatory ones in k-12. I am pretty good at drawing anything I can see, although I do have trouble drawing from my mind.

I am Right-Handed and hold the pencil 3 point between thumb, index and middle finger. Noticed that my hand cramps after drawing for a lil while and that I am always holding the pencil very tight and exurting lots of effort for precision, you should see the indent in my middle finger lol. I decided one day to try drawing with my left hand as I am left eye dominant and am a left handed Archer. I tried drawing with 2 pencils at the same time mirroring the other side, and did a very good job left handed. I also noticed that when I draw lefthanded I hold the pencil very lightly and very free moving, feels much more natural, more creative, like when I shoot the bow lefthanded. I think I am gonna start drawing solely lefthanded and see how that works.

Have any of you had an experience like that, or am I just crazy and a nut.

Thanx in advance, Tony

Well Tony,
I really have no clue which is better as I am right handed and never tried anything with my left hand besides trying to write my name a few times with it. I will try it and see what I come up with because I am heavy with my right too and it takes a while before it wants to give out it does adventually cramp up if I draw all day. Good luck and just to let you know we are a little crazy in our own ways thats whats makes everyone unique!!!

I've tried to draw with my left hand (I'm also right-handed) & it was a disaster! I say you're probably not nuts & to do whatever works for you!

J

I think this is a better way to explain -

when I draw right handed it feels as if I am forcing the art out, with the left feels like it flows out.

I would say you're experiencing ambidextrous capabilities. It is commonly believed ambidextrous people are equally skilled in each hand. This is seldom the case, often the hands are different in thier level of control, like biased people (mere left or right handed). Ambidextrous hands are just within the certain threshold of control that is required for doing anything constructive with it. In this case, it sounds like your left hand is the hand just within the threshold of control, giving you a larger degree of freedom of movement while not looking like a child has drawn it. Your right hand, having been the one you have probably always used, is used to constricted, fine movements (ie. writing).

Us mere mortal artists who can only use one hand must learn to impose freedom on our primary hand, which by definition is an oximoron. You, and all other ambidextrous artists are at an advantage, one hand for freely moving, dynamic marks, and the other for the finishing details.