Date: 29 September 2024
This is hilarious to me because you can feel the progression of me losing it slowly but surely... attempting more complex stuff, not caring about my self-imposed rule to do no more than 1-2h a day.......... which I really, really should start following. Haha. ha.... I didn't draw anything today to compensate for yesterday. Ugh. (my back... maybe making Phoenix my icon was bad luck...)
Sept 18
My right hand started to hate me around the week before, but I stopped using it on the 17th - yes I couldn't stand a day without drawing.
...a 5/10-min sketch that discouraged me tremendously ugh.... I feel like hair is the hardest thing left-handed, because it really needs to be flowy, and my hand just says no.
Sept 25
I got the courage to try again and I tried to put more effort in it. Mostly I got fed up being unable to draw for a week.
-roughly 1h
I planned it all out in my head before even starting because if you don't have a somewhat clear idea in your head... well your non-dominant hand isn't going to help you. In fact, it's very much going to fight you.
Also: why choose Maya and Fran as my first real attempts? Well, truth is, female characters are my comfort zone. Before AA, I really didn't draw men much. 
26 Sept
This was a miracle. I don't know if I should be happy or offended that this is probably the prettiest Fran I've ever drawn.
-roughtly 3-4 hrs
Look at the process pics. She wasn't like this. I had to refine her face SO much.
28 Sept
Finally got the guts to draw hands, AND their ridiculous hair!!
I'm not sure how long this took, I think maybe 5-6hrs? I did it in 2 days but I had to lay down so frequently. So I didn't really keep track.
--- notes ---
- If you want to attempt this, please don't overexert your hand!
Consider that even though my left hand 'can' draw, I still need to be very careful because the right side of my body + my back hurts pretty badly so if I use my left arm too much the pain travels. Basically I have a time limit to how much I use it, need to rest often. It will probably be easier if you are only doing it for fun, so I don't think you have to worry a lot about that, but still since your non-dominant hand isn't used to working so much, I do suggest taking frequent breaks anyway. Stretch too, that's important. You can get pretty bad cramps (or worse) if you overexercise any part of your body.
-Keep in mind that other than drawing, I'm also using my left for everyday tasks (do you want to know how many shirts I stained with toothpaste? the answer is: EVERYone of them. well, those I wear around the house anyway). So that's also part of the reason there may be any improvement even from the 18th to the 25th despite me not drawing at all in the interim.
- Not gonna lie I'm pretty proud of myself not really for the result but for even attempting such a thing. I always thought it would be impossible for me to draw if I ever lost use of my right hand but I'm happy I bit the bullet and tried anyway. Until you try, you never know. And that's such a waste. Do you really want to live with such kinds of regrets forever?
- And I think I'm learning new things from this whole ordeal. So I guess that's the silver lining.
Maybe when my wright hand decides to make itself useful again I can switch back and forth. Who knows.
But good news is that I can grip stuff now (a week ago I couldn't even open a lipbalm), I just can't lift things for a long while, especially heavy things. But it'll heal with a little more patience.
Date: 28 September 2024
this is the reference I used (2nd pic): https://pin.it/XqMgun8sz
(yes I know you can barely tell but nowadays I use reference pretty losely)
1. rough sketch - Phoenix's hair is hard ow
(I did a very quick construction underneath but I kinda forgot to save it and deleted it later so. oops. sorry.)
2. laid some colors down and tried to draw folds in the clothing but arghhhh it was a struggle
3. tried to make some parts make more sense - hands are a struggle
4. gotta be fully honest here I couldn't manage to draw Miles' eye so- I just covered it with hair hahahannnghoooooooh!
(but honestly I think his hair looks better this way so)
(also fixed his ear it was weird)
(btw Phoenix's face was a miracle dunno how I drew it - although the eyebrow was. an experience.)
5. final
I distressed some parts to make you focus less on how rough the thing is- you know what? If something looks weird you need to make it look even weirder! so that it looks intentional haha
(also fixed Phoenix's thumb it was weird but not the good kind)
(also yes throughout the whole process I kept trying to make Phoenix's hair look decent but it's so hard to draw confident hair strokes with my left so I dunno if it is indeed decent)
ps. yes I'm recycling my signature because trying to write it once with my left was enough and I only care about learning how to draw so... hopefully I don't need to sign anything in the near future. I only have so much patience.
My theory that if I dangled narumitsu in front of my right hand's faceless face I would make it jealous and thus it would get better faster.... was unfortunately disproven.
To that I can only say....
Objection!
Wright! Stop this ridiculousness at once!
(I like bad puns sorry.)
Date: 26 September 2024
Admittedly I should have taken more in-betweens screenshoots, but there you go:
- This is what it looks like when I start to draw with my left. Yes, it's a mess.
- Flipped the drawing and adjusted head positioning + sculpted the drawing by drawing a bunch of lines and erasing what I didn't need.
- Tried drawing roses ow.... flowers are difficult... why did I think drawing this outfit would be easy...... flowers are already difficult with my right what possessed me...
- added a bit of background to test it out
- adjusted arm positioning because it was static + made the dress look a little bit more like it's fancy fabric (?)
- + background (continued from n.3) also yes I painted the dress semi-transparent so the background shows underneath.
notes:
-If you want to attempt drawing with your non-dominant hand, I advise you start with a messy style like this, because lineart is very difficult. To me, it's currently impossible. My hand trembles too much and won't be precise no matter what.
-Focus more on the movement of your arm than the hand itself.
-Try not to tire yourself out. This took me 3-4hours but I spaced them out across the day. And my back still hurts like a Butz. Ow.
-I clicked the wrong layer or brush more times than I can count!
-I made the program window become smaller more times than I can count! Because instead of clicking the file->save button I double clicked (my hand was trembling) and made the window smaller
-maybe that's funny idk I didn't even realize that's what I was doing... I was just constantly like: 'why the heck is the window smaller all of a sudden what did you do HAND'
-digital makes it easier because I can move things around even if I draw them wrong / misshapen / too far apart
-More often than not, it will look weird. It's normal. Don't give up!