Archive for November 13th, 2006

I had been thinking that I should do some quick sketches with my left hand (non-dominant) to loosen up a bit and as a drawing exercise. I wasn’t going to post the results, but then today, I read an interesting entry by artist, Jafabrit who posted a self portrait that she had drawn while her eyes were closed. I thought, great, why not post my results. So…I started with my dog, Zuzu, a shepard mix who lounges most of the day.

Followed by a self portrait. I didn’t actually do this with my eyes closed, but I stood in front of a mirror and sketched while not looking at the paper or my pen.

Then, I followed up with a longer sketch of myself while looking in the mirror, but, drawing with my left hand and allowing myself to look at my sketch book as I worked.

What I found interesting about the first 2 sketches is that I recognize the first image as a dog and the second as a woman, but not necessarily as my dog or myself. I do, however, recognize myself in the third sketch. It’s not polished or does not even show me in the best light, but that’s what I liked about the exercise. I couldn’t control my hand and mark making like I would have if I had done a sketch with my dominant writing hand, yet, it still is recognizable as me. I should really add a quick sketch done with my right hand to see the difference. I wonder if I would try to capture a better likeness over which I had no control with the other methods.

So here’s a challenge for anyone else who wants to play along…check out Jafabrit’s blog and try it yourself. Also, Sue has some pretty nice figure drawings as well. It’s enlightening! Jessica just joined in too!