Drawing with Your Non-Dominant Hand - Pt 1
Let go of expectation and try drawing with your non-dominant hand; a technique popular with art therapists.
“Basically, you know what you create with your non-dominant hand is going to be a bit crap. And you are going to feel really uncomfortable whilst creating this crapness!
That’s the beauty of it!”
— Wise words of Georgie ;)
🧑🎨 Why This Exercise Is Valuable
In terms of art therapy, by writing or drawing with your non-dominant hand, you let go of the pesky expectations you put on yourself. Especially when it comes to being creative. In terms of mindfulness, we move from doing mode into being mode.
Basically, you know what you create with your non-dominant hand is going to be a bit crap. And you are going to feel really uncomfortable whilst creating this crapness!
That's the beauty of it!
Rather than playing to your strengths or what you're good at (yawn - booorrrrring), you automatically enter an exciting field of play. So, dive into this exercise with an open heart and an inquisitive mind.
This also makes a great warm-up exercise before any writing or drawing practice, as well as a workshop warm-up or recharge activity.
This Creative Prescription will come in 2 parts.
Part 1 today, is made up of four exercises:
Four Square Scribbles
Continuous Line Scribbles
Draw Your Words
Both Hands Come to Play
🗒️ Instructions
Exercise 1: Four Square Scribbles (allow 4 mins)
Draw or cut out of paper 4 boxes approximately 4cm square.
Hold your pencil in your non-dominant hand and in each box draw
a slow scribble,
a fast scribble,
a normal scribble,
a repeating pattern scribble
Exercise 2: Continuous Line Scribbles (allow 4 mins)
Hold your pencil in your non-dominant hand and place it on a sheet of paper or a page in your sketchbook.
Close your eyes
On the paper, draw or scribble with a continuous movement for 3 minutes. Playing some music can really help this become a rather meditative process.
Here’s a track I use in my creative mindfulness sessions:
At the end of the 3 minutes, write down the first 3 words that come spontaneously into your mind.
Exercise 3: Beyond the Scribble - Draw Your Words (allow 4 mins)
Hold your pencil in your non-dominant hand and take a fresh piece of paper or a new page in your sketchbook.
Look at the 3 words from exercise 2 above and represent them as a drawing or scribble.
Exercise 4: Both Hands Come to Play
Hold your pencil in your non-dominant hand and take a fresh piece of paper or a new page in your sketchbook.
Draw a circle, a square and a triangle with your non-dominant hand
Draw a circle, a square, and a triangle with your dominant hand
Next to each set of drawings, write 3 words about your dominant and non-dominant hand drawings i.e. 3 words about the dominant hand drawings and 3 words about the non-dominant hand drawings.
Additional Exercise 5
Draw a portrait or a still life with your non-dominant hand. If you don’t have time today, don't worry, we’ll be exploring this in part 2.
🎓 What You'll Learn from This Exercise
To best explain why this exercise is good for you, I want to share a story about my daughter Daisy - specifically how she learnt to swim…
You see, Daisy just about tolerates her swimming lessons but let's face it, she's not jumping for joy when I drag her away from Roblox to go.
Week in and out, she swims lengths of the pool a gazillion times per session, practising different strokes and dives. I'm very proud to say, she has made fantastic improvements in her technique and confidence but, it's all a bit 'meh' for her. Very routine and regimented.
However, when we take her to the family fun sessions at our local swimming pool, she jumps off the walls with excitement - she can't get there quickly enough!
🧜🏻♀️ During these sessions, her inner mermaid is unleashed. There are floaty things to jump off, giant slides to whizz down, and wave machines to throw her around in abandonment.
There's no pressure, no expectation of being 'good' or 'better' or to 'improve upon'.
It’s just unadulterated fun.
And that's how I want you to approach drawing with your non-dominant hand.
When you are drawing with your non-dominant hand, you accept what you create is not going to be good in the traditional sense. Thus it takes you back to when you were a young child. You simply looked and drew what you felt, saw, or imagined.
I would love to see pictures of your creations. Email your images and thoughts to info@georgiestclair.com or tag me @georgiestclair on Instagram
🎨 Stay Creative!
Part 2 can be found here:
(This post was originally posted on GeorgieStClair.com)