Wednesday, March 16, 2011

A bit gauche but not sinister

Entirely with my non-dominant hand, you say? I've been waiting for this challenge! I've been wanting to try this method, but not quite enough to go ahead unprovoked.

In the end it was great! I noticed a few things:
  1. I turned the tile a lot more than I usually do.
  2. Curved lines are way harder than straight lines. Circles are quite tricky.
  3. I had to move my lamp to the other side of the table, which caused me to twist in my chair.
  4. Filling in black was difficult! I tended to move my whole hand/arm rather than just my fingers. Had to keep a vice-like grip on that pen. :-)
  5. I thought the shading would be harder than it was.
  6. It took me a lot longer.
In my first attempt I used tried-and-true tangles, ones I'm familiar and comfortable with, and also fairly simple. I sometimes like the wobbly line effect in mine and others' tiles. I also like the slightly hairy look it has with the occasional stray lines!



In my second attempt I tried other tangles, a little more complicated. It seems appropriate to display these at a slightly out of control angle. :-)



This challenge gave me the opportunity to empathize with those with MS, Parkinson's Disease, or tremors. It also put me in the mental space of a child learning to wield a pencil or an adult who doesn't do art.


On a tangent:
I find it interesting how some English words have roots on the left side, and they're generally negative. We use gauche (the French word for left) to mean unsophisticated, lacking culture or un-politic. Adroit (from the French, literally "at/to the right") means skillful. We use sinister (Latin for left) to mean nasty or sneaky. We use dextrous (from the Latin 'dexter': right) to mean having fine motor skills.

5 comments:

  1. OMG, someone who was enjoying the language of the left as much as I was!!!!! Your tangent was running through my head the whole time I responded to the challenge! Great minds, etc. (Heheeeee). Your tiles are terrific and I found it interesting that your control seemed to improve by the second tile. Not too shabby, kiddo! Maybe I should make another stab at it....

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  2. you did fantastic....love the comment about the hairy look!!! lol I had a few in mine, aren't they endearing! I've loved the fact that so many people were willing to put themselves out there, out of control a bit, but still 'enthusiastic'.

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  3. Very nice on both of them. And an interesting take on the language usage.

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  4. gorgeous tiles! i'm just as intrigued by etymology as you are! i just never seem to have the time to pursue my interest. i suppose i'm too busy tangling! *L*

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  5. You did so fabulously good! I know what you mean by the vice like grip, I was the same. My goodness, how un-politicly correct those words are for our modern times!

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