Lefty Tina Draws Right

 

3/31/23 Ballard neighborhood (Trees are forgiving, but 
utility poles, not so much. The car's not too bad, though, huh?)

A sketcher friend of mine had surgery on the arm he draws with, which is expected to be out of commission for a while (although knowing him, he’ll be sketching with his other hand soon enough). As an expression of support and solidarity, I made this sketch for him on his surgery day with my right (non-dominant) hand.

The last time I sketched with my right hand for any stretch of time was in 2020 for 63 consecutive days. Most of the practice was with my daily pandemic hand project, but I also did a few urban sketches with my right hand, too, just to see how much harder that might be. It was great practice, and it was also satisfying to see my progress as my right hand’s skills (and mostly strength) visibly improved.

Initially I had thought I might commit to making one sketch a day with my right hand until my friend recovers, but that sounds too open-ended. I’ll leave myself an out by saying I won’t necessarily do it daily, but I’m going to do it for a while – not for my friend, but for myself. (This would have made an ideal 100-Day Project! I wish I had thought of it then.) And because anything worth doing must have a hashtag, I made one: #leftyTinadrawsright