[Chapel]

Are you left handed or right handed?

I've always been told that if you are left handed then you are using the right side of your brain which is the creative side. the left side of the brain is the more logical side. Most of the artists that I really admire are left handed. I'm just curious on how true the left brain/right brain thing really is.

By the way.. I'm right handed and I feel I can draw anything I see. I just have a limited imagination when it comes to creating things for me to draw.

[jasonN]

I'm left handed! And it sucks because I smudge everything I draw and write. Dammit. Oh well.
-Jason

[Nightime]

that's really interesting

i'm right handed and I *cannot* draw from my mind (most concepts I conjur up in my imagination are way too vague and blurry).. and my preference is to draw from observation....

hmm =>

JJ

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JJ / Nightime
http://members.home.net/jeremy12/web/

[AliasMoze]

Not sure how true that "right brain" stuff is. Allot of research results have come out in recent years that suggests a much more "whole brain" way that people use.

I'm a righty. But I can eat, write, bat, with my left; don't know why. Can't draw with my left, though.

[Freddio]

im a lefty here

or told by my old woodwork teacher a spastic lefty hah

[psi burn]

im right handed, but i brush my teeth with my left hand :/

i wonder how true the theory is. i have a near-photographic memory, i can accurately remember things i see in my memory. the problems occur when i try to apply them to paper. supposing the theory is correct, im guessing my "logical" side is trying to think of "logical" ways to interpret my memory when im drawing from it. i dont know.
but in contrast to the theory, when im drawing from my own imagination, i have no problem and i can sketch lots of creative things.

another thing is i have a logical opinion on most things, and usually i think before i act, yet my friend (who is left handed) is completely impulsive and just acts on what he compels him.

but heres a question... how do children decide which hand will be the dominating hand for the rest of their life? is this sub-concious decision based on life events, or is it just a natural thing? i cant remember when or why i started writing/drawing with my right hand, i think it just felt natural to me. but, if i were forced by someone to use my left hand, would i be thinking differently now?

pretty confusing matter..

[Fred Flick Stone]

I'm a lefty, but I can draw with my right hand too...I started drawing with my right hand to see if I could. In skateboarding and snowboarding the big thing is to learn each trick in both directions, goofy foot and regular foot. I applied it to my art. I like some of my right handed images better than my left, they have a less cautious edge to them...

[SewerRat]

You know, now that I think about it...my left handed friends are the best drawers...

[Hyperi0n]

hmmmm,I am right handed.
Psi brought up an interesting topic too,how do we decide if we want to draw using left or right.This is my point of view,other people may have different points of view:
Its a little bit sub-concious,and sometimes its also influenced by the people that live around you and/or help you through your childhood.Sometimes they would tell you,no dont use this,use this,dont do it like this etc., and if you have a right handed mom and dad,they are used to being right handed and may try to make you right handed too.
And this is where the sub-concious part comes in,even if some ppl are right handed,and teach you to be that way too,its all up to you,if it feels natural using your right,you'll keep on using it,but if it doesnt,you will try the other hand,even if you're contradicting the people that thaught u to be right handed..
Oh,and psi,I have the same kind of memory like yours,and can remeber anything exactly,but I find it hard to put it on paper.I also have a very strong memory,explaining how I study theory and like travelling and memorizing where i've been.
Please post any other point of views you may have about the "how do we turn up right haded or left handed" stuff

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Hyperi0n

"Look far,dream far,have fun while you're doing it."

[Kenzo Tanaka]

Current research is still up in the air on handedness in relation to right/left brain. It's amazing to think how little we really know about that 3lb hunk of flesh currently residing inside our skulls.

Also, most scientists who study memory believe that eidetic memory (more popularly known as "photographic memory") does not exist. It is commonly attributed to specialized ways of thinking about the information, not to any kind of enhanced visual memory.

There were some cool test done to chess players where they would show them a board of pieces for 15 seconds. When the pieces were layed out as in a chess game they found the chess masters could easily rebuild the entire board they were shown from memory, but novices could not. However, when they were shown boards whose pieces were arranged in ways that would never actually occur in a game of chess, the masters scored as low as the novices. It was concluded that the original, enhanced performance at remembering
chess positions came from the experts' ability to mentally organize the information they had observed, not from any ability to
"photograph" the visual scene.

Could you imagine being able to remember every word of every page of a book you read 4 years ago.... that would be wild!

[This message has been edited by Kenzo Tanaka (edited August 05, 2000).]

[jasonN]

What about genetics? That plays a part in the left hand/right handed thing doesn't it?
My dad is left handed, I'm left handed, my brother is left handed. Coincidence? I think not.
Is this the case for anyone else?
-Jason

[Isric]

the right side left side thing has nothing to do with which hand you use. I think it deals more with just disposition and perception.

[AliasMoze]

Kenzo,
That's true. My dad is a psychologist, and I've always had an interest in the subject.

Research has shown that most kids have eidetic memory up until about six years old. Then they lose it. It suggests that perhaps the education process, or any education process, causes the kids to lose it. Or that a human has to learn how to learn and filter out useless garbage.

I have written an entire class on mnemonics for my dad, because I can remember allot of things this way. I can't remember what I see, or at least not better than an average person. But I can remember the first thousand digits after the decimal point in pi and the birthday of every president. Useless stuff like that. But it's about the relationship of the information. Some people can do the same with baseball stats. Regardless, it's all about association. It's also more teachable than people think.

As far as right or left-handedness, who knows for sure? It'll be interesting to see what the 21st century brings in terms of knowledge of the brain. I think some lefties are lefties simply because they picked up a pencil for the first time with their left hand. And vica-versa.

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AliasMoze
:) :) :) :)
"That activates my hilarity unit."

[dr . bang]

I draw with two hands.

[Sedone]

I'm a lefty.

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sedone's artfolio

[Guy]

wow thats pretty interesting. im a right handed person. ive been feeling rather uncreative the last while.. maybe ill try drawing left handed for a while. nothing to loose

[Shane Caudle]

I'm a lefty!

[Rinaldo]

Lots of leftys which is interesting. I knew a lefty who could draw like the blazes from like when he was 10, he was sooooo good.

Damn I'm a Right hander.. I can't draw with my left for shit.

Maybe its the secret. tie your childs right hand to their body and force them to become a lefty. The road to good drawin
Some people are ambidextrious (spelling) That freaks me out, mt left is next to useless.
Fred- you learnt to use your other hand? wtf!

[DuKEZ]

im right handed.. in elementary and junk i had a friend who was left handled.. we drew lots of pictures together.. but his pictures where generally more cleaner and id say better looking than mine :P

shrug.. weird i guess.. but then again i suck :P

oyeah to fred flicks stones comment.. i am right handed.. but when i skate(board) i do it goofy footed :P when i used to practice with my other (right handed friends) they said i was fucked up :P but to me i cant see how they can skate the so called "normal foot" :P

(i tried and almost lost my nut when the board kicked up :P)

weird.. owell i only learned a few basic tricks.

[This message has been edited by DuKEZ (edited August 06, 2000).]

[CapnPyro]

blech.

[Edit: was trying to add a colored signature, html off = bad]

btw, i draw righty, use the computer lefty, throw a baseball righty, but eat lefty. So uh, ambidextrous I guess.

[This message has been edited by CapnPyro (edited August 06, 2000).]

[Affected]

Righty, though I was diagnozed with epilepsy way back when I was around 7, and the disturbance that causes it is in the left side of my brain. Go figure. Doesn't cause me any trouble, though. Except it might be the reason to my terrible handwriting.

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Affected

Democracy is a lie

http://affected.xs.mw

[Dean Welsh]

I'm Right handed But Hair Brained. Maybe that helps...

[Axl]

I'm left handed or cack-handed as I'm told by right handed people. When I was at school I had an art teacher who always went on about the left and right side of the brain but I've always thought it was rubbish. I do seem to see alot more left handed people who are talented artists, that's not to say that there aren't talented right handed artists.
Here's are challenge:
Take a pen in both hands and write your name with your right hand and mirror write your name with your left hand at the same time.
I've never had a problem with this but I've known right handed people who have trouble with it.

[mantis]

I am right-handed and I have an acute memory kindof like psi-burn. I often have a hard time deciding whether to draw a figure posing to the right or to the left. It is harder for me to draw someone posing to the right. My memory is very sharp for things but the problem is I can't control it. This may sound vague but when I see a good movie that I like alot, I can remember every detail from the movie. However in school, hehe, my memory fails often. Another example would be that I can remember distint details from my childhood, from about the age or 7+. I remember them like they happened yesterday. My parents get freaked when I get nostalgia.

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Arpan . B
[email protected]
www.stikik.com/koma
Halo 9 Studios

[Binke]

I am right-handed. But I can do pretty much everything with my left hand, I hold my hockey-club the left handed way. And I kick my football with my left foot.

I have a really bad memory when it comes to, normal stuff, like homework hehe, uhn everyday things.. but I can remember how objects, humans etc looks like pretty good. I never forget a face once I have seen it. (Not that I am very good in visualising it, ie drawing em)



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http://binke.gamesquad.net

[Chapel]

That is kinda funny about the memory stuff. I never mention it, because most people I've met look at me funny when I say photographic memory. When I was young my father would have me flip through a magazine once and then he would take it and flip to random pages. I could sit there and describe everything on the page. It was like a parlor trick we did. Got $20 bucks from it once. hehe Anyway, as I got older the memory became less photographic. For awhile my dad thought it was because video games were ruining my brain. However, I read an article that said most children who have a photographic memory when they are young will develop tremendous problem solving skills as they grow older. This is sorta supposed to take place of the memory. Which is funny, because the whole reason I started playing video games was that I am really good at solving the puzzles.

Fred - I kinda suspected you were a lefty. I would think that Spooge and Loki are also, but they use the same method with all their paintings. Your style changes.

[Rinaldo]

The memory thing I find interesting. I am badly short sighted. Before I got glasses I couldn't read a book unless in was a few inches from my nose. I viewed everthing differently. Because I could not see faces unless I was at an uncomfortable distance I read other things in people and the world around me. I knew the colour of people's hair and the way thay walked. their particular gestures. It faild me when someone waved from across the street but generaly I was able to get by. My art was very imprsionistic. I had literaly no interest in deatils. There is no way I can draw something from memory. If you asked me what my best friends face looked like I could not tell you. I just had no interest in remembering stuff like that. But I was good at remembering the way I felt at a particular point in time, what the "vibe" was. I can't remember what something looks like but I can draw somewthing that "feels" like it, as far as my perception of it goes anyway. I like spooge's art so much because it is all about the colour and gesture as opposed to the details, which is something that describes my state of mind I suppose. Although I can now see ok because of glasses the short sighted mentality has in no way left me. I don't remember details, becasue I'm so used to not being able to see them. I can look at somethng and then try to draw it but I always forget what actuialy made it up. I have to force myself to look at the specifics of it, and If I want to be able to remember it I have to actuialy draw it.
I left off getting my glasses until Last year. it is said that most short sighted people like things that way. And I would have to agree. Not having to take in all the crap that goes on around me, I have a lot more time to think about stuff. and I take things on face value less.

Anyway I just wanted to add that for anyone who is interested or possibly short sighted. My art has improved a huge amount now that I can see better (duh!)

[Dean Welsh]

I've heard statistics that the Left handed population in the gay community it pretty high as well. Just thought that was interesting and that I'd throw it in here.

[Anthony]

I'm right handed. My left is for steadying paper and jabbing. Let's see...out of my artist friends, I don't think there are any lefties, and we're never short on creativity.

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-Anthony
Carpe Carpem

[Spimm]

I'm left handed, but not too good as an artist... My fathers grandfather was a painter or an artist, anyway, he painted beatiful paintings. Maybe some of those artistic skills come along with genetics (to some persons)...
btw. I'm straight, totally non-gay (hmm, who cares anyway)...