Calling all lefties!

[Jean Kelly]

On one of Jeff Fuchs' threads, the subject of left-handed drawing was brought up, and I got curious. Just how many lefties are members of this Forum or famous portrait artists? As a left-handed artist, is there anything you can do that is unusual that you attribute to being left-handed?

I'll start this out: I can write fluently backwards. (You need a mirror to read it.) I don't need to even think about it. But I get lost all the time (even in large hotels!)

Okay lefties, come out of the closet.

Jean

[Julianne Lowman]

You know, as a lefty, I have always been quite creative, but also VERY disorganized! The most interesting trait I have discovered is that I can create an amazing piece of art, then will languish over signing my name. If it's an oil, I have to wait until it has dried, so I can be sure that if I mess up, I can wipe it off, and do it again! Penmanship has always been a curse for me (dang those three ring binders and spiral notebooks).

Also, when I paint multiple subjects in pastel, I complete the subjects on the right first, then work my way to the left, making sure I won't smudge.

[Jean Kelly]

Leonardo Da Vinci
Raphael
Michelangelo
Leroy Neiman
Paul Klee
Hans Escher
Albrecht Durer

We're in good company, come on out!

Julianne, I also procrastinate on signing my work. Is this a left-handed thing?

Jean

[ReNae Stueve]

I'm a lefty. I finally developed readable penmanship, once I stopped trying to write like the school writing guides.

[Enzie Shahmiri]

I am not a "lefty", but can relate to leaving off signatures. I just forget to sign and sometimes wonder if I subconsciously do not consider the work 100% complete.

My husband can use either hand (left or right) with equal ease. I am sure there is a term for this, but I don't know what it is.

[Jim Riley]

Jean,

I don't know whether being right- or left-handed is evidenced in skill, but I remember my left-handed brother complaining about things like tools, gear shifts, and other equipment that seemed to favor righties.

I'm sure you didn't intend to launch a competition but I couldn't resist. I can write backwards, upside down, mirror image, with a right or left slant. I won a drink or two betting that I could do so but otherwise can't think of a way to market this talent. This all started when I called my brother a "Jerk" by writing the message on a foggy window while he was outside

Ambidextrous is the term, Enzie, for the ability to use either hand for tasks. It's a valuable ability in sports and comes in handy when painting window sash.

[Jean Kelly]

I can't write upside down fluently. Humm, maybe if I practice?

I believe lef-anded people develop unusual skills because of all the right-handed tools and irritations that all the right-handed inventors never thought about. Like students' desks, can openers, corkscrews, spiral notebooks (ReNae), scissors, knives with the bevel on the wrong side, carpenters tools (dangerous). I can continue for a long time if anyone's interested.

I'm ambi too: play tennis both, baseball both, draw both when necessary, but this isn't the point of the thread.

Rumor has it that DaVinci was paralyzed in his right hand and arm. Anyone know any more about that? He certainly had an incredible brain.

Kathe Kollwitz and Pablo Picasso were also lefties.

Jean

[Timothy C. Tyler]

If you were to put together a dream team of lefties and then one of right-handers the lefties would win in this field everytime. Many of us that are right-handed rather feel we must lack something. I find some comfort that Sargent was a rightie, but then he could play the piano well too...which I can't.

[Jim Riley]

There must be some reputable scholarship well beyond what will show up in this Forum regarding hand/eye/conceptualizing skills and abilities related to our inherent need to select one side of our body to execute tasks over the other side.

Paint, canvas, and brushes have no prejudice (Hand-held paletts are guilty, however.) and the only time I notice an artist's orientation is the evidence of stroke patterns running in opposite directions between right- and left-handed artists and usually does not impart anything beyond the general ability of the artist.

I have never thought of a need to consider this issue beyond the baseball diamond where the combination of right/left handed batters is matched against right/left handed pitchers to be more competitive.

For no other reason than sheer numbers, righties would be the more competitive group in almost any situation. But why does it matter? I continue to wonder whether lefty masters used a light source from right to left in order to avoid painting in the shadow of their hand in a naturally lit studio.

Why is a spiral notebook or binder a problem? Is there a reason to not write on the even numbered pages?

Some musicians adjust their instruments (usually stringed) but I can't recall seeing bows going in different directions at the concert. I learned to play the accordian when I was young and can't imagine how I would play it if I were a lefty. (The definition of a gentleman: A man who knows how to play the accordian but doesn't.)

[Jean Kelly]

Okay, the problem with spiral notebooks: in the lower grades of school the teacher directs everything you do and students are told to open their notebook and begin on the first page (first is underlined, it must be the first).

If you do that and are left-handed you end up writing with your hand on top of the spiral. (Try it Jim, it hurts.) That is, until you get smart and start at the end of the book. I did that and flunked a number of papers (they were written "backwards"). The note from the teacher said in the future I must not start at the end, it wasn't proper. That's when I discovered I could write backwards, so turned in my next paper written backwards. I flunked that paper, too. English teachers can be anal. After that they moved me to a different class.

I'm not a master, but I always have my light source coming from the right. Used to play guitar, played that right-handed, but had a left-handed bow (used to shoot, target practice, bow and arrow.)

This is long enough for now. Any other leftie stories?

Jean