Feb 2nd, 2024

Author: donich_admin

Drawing

While I was partially incapacitated I tried to find a hobby to take up. I looked for things “middle aged people could do with one hand” (no rude remarks here) and decided that “rock painting” was a good one. In fact it was great fun, but with one big disadvantage (which I will come to).

I already had some acrylic paints, brushes and varnish from previous projects, and reading a couple of websites, I bought a kit of acrylic paint pens. These are really good for doing smallish details, although I am sure a purist would use a fine brush. I do all my painting with my good left hand, because at times my right arm has either been in a sling or too painful to prop up on a desk. I started off with some flowers, and progressed quickly to painting the cats and various other animals.

So far, so good, but here comes the problem. Having painted these rocks – what do I do with them. I kept a few myself, a couple went to R, J and my Mum – but they are not really a thing you want a lot of, and I hate clutter. So I got an idea from a website, and decided to leave them in strategic places around the village for people to find and pick up (this is apparently a “thing” in USA called “Friendship Rocks”). No luck with this – either people around here are too honest, or my rocks weren’t worth having, because only one was ever taken.

So I decided to paint/draw onto paper instead as it is easier to store. My my mum has been trying to get me into painting water colours for ages, but it never appealed to me as it is too easy to make unfixable mistakes, and also requires an easel and stretching paper on a board before you get started. I am also not that fond of landscapes and out of focus scenes – I prefer my art to be more detailed, and perhaps a bit fun, so I decided on watercolour pencils – you draw with them like an ordinary pencil and then paint water over them to create a watercolour painting with added detail.

I did this one at Christmas.

This is a cat looking at its own reflection in a mirror (J says it is scrying someone)

This was supposed to be Saphy and Amber but I tried to mix watercolour and acrylics and it did not work very well

Anyway – this has proven a theory I have had for a while, that most “left handedness” or “right handedness” is in general not an absolute, and is often acquired rather than innate. To give this as an example, I still draw with my left hand even though I could now move to my right. But as l learned the skill with my left (not having drawn since I was in school), I am sticking at it, and to do it with my right hand would seem unnatural.