A right hand/left hand art experiment

Today's blogging prompt was to find a favorite quotation and then to expand on it by giving my take or my thoughts.

The quotation that I chose was "All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist when we grow up" (Pablo Picasso).

In my blog post from Thursday, January 9th, I mentioned that I gave up art when I was fifteen years old. During the previous summer, a kid at camp told me that I couldn't draw. I was already feeling insecure because I could see how other kids' artwork looked much more realistic than mine. So I gave up art.

As an adult art student, I began to understand that I could just explore with pencil, pen, and paintbrush. I began to understand that my pictures were my interpretation of reality, not an exact replica. And so, in my mind, I took myself back in time, to me at about the age of nine, when I thought that I might like to have a career as a cartoonist.

Well, of course, I never did become a cartoonist. In the past few years, however, I have explored the idea of creating a cartoon titled "Cartoonie people for a nuclear free future." It would feature characters, such as these:

And, today, I was thinking about drawing. I was thinking about exploring creativity. I had read that it's a good idea to try to draw with your nondominant hand. Since I usually draw with my right hand, I decided that I would call that my dominant hand. The challenge was draw a human twice, once with my right hand, and once with my left hand. It was a fun experiment. The pictures are blurry but these are what I got: 

left hand

This is the drawing that I made with the hand that I consider to be nondominant. So this is the southpaw version of my artwork.

right hand

This is the person that I drew with my right handed. I usually draw with this hand, so I guess that it is dominant. I would say, that, if there is a southpaw, there has to be a northpaw. So this is my northpaw version.

Apparently, there have been scientific articles that address the issue of using your nondominant hand for such things as brushing teeth, opening jars, and writing. It's probably good for the brain in some way. At worst, it's not going to be harmful. And it's a fun way of reclaiming that artist you used to be as a kid.