Those of us who love drawing and especially those who draw a lot have usually toyed with the idea of drawing with their opposite hands. Back in 2002 when I was completing my Masters degree in Visual Art I was questioning everything about drawing – I was looking hard at my classical drawing education and questioning its continuing validity in contemporary art ( it IS still very valid – my conclusion 
) and I was searching for new ways to draw.
One bored night I started drawing with my other hand ( my left) and filled half a sketch book with ‘lefties’.
I was suprised how good it felt and how it seemed to balance my mind. Not so long after I got the notion of trying drawing with two hands at the same time.
I was inspired by the idea of the inkblot or rorshak test pattern and found that I could get my left hand to mimic the movements of the right hand quite easily.
I had in fact been doing something like this for a long time in other spheres- I am a percussionist and for most of my life had been using two hands together. Since 1997 I had been practicing an ambidextrous Chinese martial art called Wing Chun Kung Fu in which we learn to face our imaginary opponent in a symetrical front on stance and use both arms at once.
I started demonstrating my double handed drawing idea ( which I call Ambidexter) to schools and libraries all around Sth East Qld and further afield as part of my manga and concept art character design workshops.
I draw, usually on a whiteboard, and then ask the students to tell me what they see. Then I work into the abstract symetrical shape and ‘nut out’ creatures and things I can see or imagine.
Not that there’s anything wrong with staying abstract and just playing with design. This approach can produce very beautiful patterns and designs.
Not so long ago I had one of those inspired ideas – I was thinking about the two handed drawing idea and suddenly thought -” Why not try drawing with 10 fingers!”
So I bought 10 markers, taped them with masking tape to my fingers and gave it a go.
I will post a lot more about this experimentation here soon. For the moment you can check out these two short clips on youtube of me giving a demo at Newington Grammar, Sydney -http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BrT_2nxykLU
This is my very first video of me drawing with 10 fingers and 10 markers at once
Last year Michelle Walker from Curious Minds invited me to a fantastic group meeting of some of Australia’s top facilitators and graphic recorders to share with them my new drawing ideas and the ambidexter approach was a big hit.
Late last year Michelle and I got together at her beautiful property at Stoney Chute and we collaborated in creating a two person ambidexter work. It was a lot of fun and very inspiring for me to see how a very experienced artist like Michelle ran with this new idea and created a beautiful work quite different to mine. I hope to collaborate with other artists along the way, something I have always wanted to try but haven’t often done.
To see Michelles blog article about our artwork go here-
http://www.curiousmindsco.com/2013/01/04/an-exploration-in-two-handed-drawing/
